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STERLING – The City Council on Monday discussed the possibility of changing a stretch of First Avenue from one-way to two-way.
The street is to be rebuilt between Fifth Street and LeFevre this year, which would be an opportune time to reconfigure that stretch of First.
Long-term, the city might change all of its one-way pairs into two-way streets, but some of those routes require state input because they run along state Routes 2 and 40. The city can act on the First Avenue stretch of without disrupting state routes.
The downtown one-ways were established in the 1950s as a way to ease traffic around now-long-closed factories such as National Manufacturing and Lawrence Brothers Hardware.
Alderman John Stauter questioned if this would make for a complicated intersection at First Avenue and Fifth Street, where northbound traffic on Route 40 now has one lane of left-turn only, one lane of left turn or proceeding straight onto First Avenue, and one lane allowing a right turn onto Fifth Street or going straight onto First Avenue; with First Avenue being a two-way, there would be only one northbound lane north of that point.
There would be an island in that intersection, City Manager Scott Shumard replied.
Alderman Retha Elston said some homeowners told her they are concerned about how narrow the street is in places, although that can be addressed as part of the construction project.
Mayor Skip Lee cited studies that indicate two-way traffic can slow drivers, when there is an oncoming car, as opposed to a one-way where everyone is going the same way.
“There’s a tendency to go down First Avenue there like it’s Talladega,” Lee said.
As for any plans to make Fourth Avenue a two-way, that stretch is too narrow in places to have two-way traffic as well as on-street parking, Shumard said.
The proposal merely was up for discussion Monday, but the First Avenue project is going out for bids by the end of the month.
Also Monday, Deputy Fire Chief Mike Dettman reported that all but five members of his department received the COVID-19 vaccine; those five are on vacation and are slated to receive the vaccine when they return.