City improves plan to widen Yeager
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 02/11/2010
Tim Luckey | Senior Photographer
Proposed construction for Yeager Road between Sagamore Parkway and Northwestern Avenue will include widening Yeager at its intersection with Anthrop Drive.
sponsored by
West Lafayette city officials and private contractors displayed improvement plans for Yeager Road between Sagamore Parkway and Northwestern Avenue during an open house and public hearing Wednesday.
The plan is to widen the near quarter-mile stretch of road from three to five lanes, add a roundabout at the Northwestern intersection, add a 10-foot multi-use path on the west side of Yeager bordering the golf course and add a 5-foot sidewalk on the east side.
Jeromy Grenard, traffic services manager for American Structurepoint, said the $3.3 million project could begin as soon as 2011, but delays into 2012 are possible. When started, the project should be completed in two construction seasons.
“Right now there’s every utility imaginable and each of those needs to be relocated,” Grenard said.
David Buck, West Lafayette city engineer, said, “There’s a lot underground that you don’t see.”
Relocating the various pipes, lines and sewers is a delicate process, which Buck said could be a source of delay.
Additionally, planning the project in accordance with federal regulations slowed the process. Meeting federal requirements is crucial, as Buck explained federal funds are paying for 80 percent of the total cost.
Part of the federal planning process involved applying early.
Buck said that after the city recognized current congestion and future traffic increases, “we got in line back in 2003 and finally had money available in 2007.”
With the funds to start the project, the city began the next step, which Buck said involved carefully reviewing the impacted area. When checking for historical sites, the city discovered that the lot occupied by the Masonic Lodge just southeast of the intersection of Northwestern and Yeager held the classification. Thus, the site for the roundabout was moved to avoid the area.
Overall, the city will need to acquire 2.85 acres of land for the project, much of which is for the roundabout, Grenard said.
Another major consideration of the project is the impact to traffic flow, something Buck said the city is trying to minimize by waiting for other projects to finish, never fully closing the road and opening all of the lanes during the Purdue football season.
“We’re going to program this as best we can to not make this impossible to get through,” Buck said.
The project, when finished, is meant to not only improve one of what Grenard calls the three north-south arterials in West Lafayette, but also to improve safety.
“Roundabouts have been proven to be safer than a traditional intersection,” Grenard said.
A higher level of safety would be seen, at least partially, by the roundabout slowing traffic on Northwestern.
The public hearing was an opportunity to get the community’s input and improve the plan, Buck said. Details of the project will be posted on the city’s Web site.