Complete Street Project Creating Improved "Main Street" Starts Fall 2022

Newsletter 378 - January - February 2022 

Plans to transform Avondale Estates’ main street into a walkable, safe and attractive corridor are coming to fruition. The project runs along North Avondale/East College from Ashton Place to Sams Crossing and is designed to reconnect the historic neighborhood to downtown and catalyze redevelopment. 

Creating an improved corridor will spur economic opportunities. Research shows complete street projects, like the plans for this corridor, improve economic vitality for local businesses. Replacing vehicle travel lanes with more options to walk, bike or take transit changes the perception from a place that people drive through to one that people drive to. 

Improving safety is one of the most important goals of the project. The current design is unsafe and resulted in 150 crashes between 2013-2019. Additionally, travel speeds have been measured at 10 mph or greater over the posted speed limit. Complete streets have been shown to reduce crashes through comprehensive safety improvements while improving safety for pedestrians and cyclists. 

Maintaining efficiency is also a project objective. Traffic models show that the new street design will result in only an additional 18 seconds of travel time from one end of the project to the other. The implementation team is working with property owners to acquire the necessary right-of-ways to make this project a reality. The project is on schedule to start in the fall of 2022. Construction teams will tackle one block of sidewalk at a time, and it will take about 12 months to complete. During construction, the city staff will provide a weekly progress report to keep everyone informed about what to expect next. 

Complete Street Features 

• 10 feet path for pedestrians and bikes. 
• Landscape strip with trees and decorative pedestrian and vehicle lights. 
• Landscaped median. 
• Five feet sidewalk on the south side. 
• Two 11 feet travel lanes and a center turning lane. 
• Golf cart crossing. 
• Repaved roads and striping. 
• Upgraded traffic signals.