Bank Street to be reduced to one lane starting next week
New London — Work to reduce Bank Street to one lane of traffic will start on Wednesday as the city tests the impact of creating a shared lane for both vehicles and bicycles.
Public Works Director Brian Sear said the one lane will start at Tilley Street and there will be signs in place directing traffic as well as a sharrow — a shared lane marked with the image of a bicyclist in the roadway.
The project is aimed at providing a buffer zone for on-street parking and allowing more space for traffic to flow unimpeded down Bank Street. Sear said it will reduce obstacles such as people parallel parking or trucks delivering goods to local businesses. Reducing the street to one lane also will allow for a buffer zone, making it safer for people to get out of their vehicles, he said.
He said he expects the change to stay in place for at least 90 days, maybe indefinitely.
The move is one of the recommendations of a parking and traffic study conducted by the consulting firm Milone and MacBroom, a study commissioned with an eye toward the development of the National Coast Guard Museum in downtown.
The study proposes that Eugene O’Neill Drive from just north of the police station be converted into a two-way street, extending to the point it turns into Green Street and intersects with Tilley Street. Northbound, a turn-off onto Water Street would be constructed behind the police station to allow commuters to access both directions of Interstate 95 and Route 32 north.
The move to a two-way street would give an alternate northbound option to leave the city for commuters from large employers such as Electric Boat and Lawrence + Memorial Hospital and alleviate some traffic on Bank Street. The project is aimed at providing a buffer zone for on-street parking and allowing more space for traffic to flow unimpeded down Bank Street. Sear said traffic is often impeded by people parallel parking, people exiting their vehicles or delivery trucks.
Many local businesses have come out in support of the changes recommended in the study.
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