New Haven Independent

So voted the City Plan Commission Wednesday night.

Currently the sidewalk in that stretch is so deteriorated that young bicyclists disdain it, although cars frequently drive up and perch on remnants of ye ancient ole sidewalk. As part of Phase II of the River Street Municipal Development Plan, new granite curbs will be installed along the entire south side with an ample five-foot wide sidewalk.

In addition, portions of deteriorated Lloyd, Poplar, and James streets will also be rebuilt. Formal cul-de-sacs will be constructed at the ends of Lloyd and Poplar to facilitate turnarounds and end the vehicular free-for-alls that currently exist.

The plan also includes a slight narrowing of Blatchley Avenue, with bump outs near the corners, including trees and other vegetation.

Paul DeStefano, one of the engineers with the Cheshire-based Milone & MacBroom Company, whom the city has sub-contracted to do the design, said the bump outs will slow traffic slightly through defining the parking. The road won’t be narrowed too much, he added. There are trucks negotiating the area, along with the many vans belonging to Colony Hardware, slated to move into the site at the base of Blatchley and running down to the river. The diagonal parking along Blatchley will be re-striped but essentially remain the same.

Helen Rosenberg, the city’s economic development officer in charge of the River Street MDP, said funding to the tune of about $3 million is already in hand from previously approved bond issues. Work will not be impeded or delayed by the nations current financial turmoil, she said.

Rosenberg said the city expects to spend about $2.75 million of that for the street reconstruction and including the waterfront stabilization. (A Phase III will involve the creation of a walkway between Criscuolo Park and Quinnipiac River Park, but that’s further in the future, and requiring state DEP permits.)

“Not only is the funding in hand for Phase II,” added Gary W. Fontanella, a senior transportation engineer with the firm. “But with construction in general in decline, we should get a great price when we go out to bid.”

However, for increasingly traffic-and-safety conscious New Haveners, perhaps the most compelling feature of Phase II was not yet in the approvals given Wednesday night. DeStefano (no relation to the mayor) said that four speed humps are being proposed for River Street as part of Phase II.

“They would be similar,” said DeStefano, “to the speed hump that works so well on James halfway between Chapel and the river.”

A speed hump is parabolic in shape and is considered one of the most basic traffic calming devices. While speed bumps are more aggressive, that is, raised higher, and are used in parking lots, the speed humps are designed for streets, and, in a series, supposedly slow down cars to about 10 to 20 miles per hour.

Phase I of the River Street MDP was the rebuilding of River Street, but that straightaway has proven an all too attractive destination for illegal drag racers.

Currently, the temporary solution, a choke created by bollards, also called Jersey barriers, in the middle of River, is not doing much to stop the problem, said Rosenberg.

It isn’t in her department’s portfolio to solve the drag racing problem, Rosenberg said in an email message after the meeting. “The speed humps on River Street are not yet approved and there will be discussions with Traffic and Parking over the next week about including them in the side street project.”

However, the city’s reigning traffic-calming leader, Fair Haven Alderwoman Erin Sturgis-Pascale is not a great fan of speed humps. “Frankly, speed humps should be the traffic calming measure of last resort,” she said in an email message. “They’re ugly and don’t work to improve the driving environment, which should be smooth, but slow.”

However, because the city has invested in River Street but constructed it, she added, without any traffic calming in its design, Sturgis-Pascale said she’s not surprised that the drag racing problem has ensued. To solve that, she suggests not humps, but rather “I would encourage city officials to consider building raised intersections with some mid-block chokers or chicanes, if necessary.”

Last night’s approval was the final step before the city goes to bid for the Phase II work. Rosenberg said the side street improvements are expected to start at the beginning of 2009. Requests for the DEP permits for the Phase III will also be submitted next year, with the hope that work can commence on the walkway by the end of next year or in 2010.