Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Will the proposed Grant Line Road detour be more or less safe than Baghdad?

Granted, I’m biased. While supportive of the plan to improve Grant Line Road and hurdle the railroad with an overpass, I know that the work is going to be highly disruptive to the businesses in my neighborhood, including my own.

Pay close attention to the proposed detour route described in the article.

New Albany businesses wait for answers on overpass project along Grant Line Road, by Daniel Suddeath (News and Tribune).

... For businesses that will stay open, there is the question of revenue loss during construction. Federal law does not require payment to establishments for business deprivation.

While the city and state ironed out a detour route that still depends on property acquisition, many businesses stand to lose revenue in the project’s wake because of difficult accessibility.

The likely detour will be from University Woods Drive to Plaza Drive to Unruh Court to McDonald Lane, if property can be purchased in order to build an access road connecting Plaza and Unruh.

The city is handling the right-of-way purchases for the access road and detour route.

The state’s official detour route will be to take Interstate 265 to Interstate 64, and then connect back with Ind. 111.

INDOT wants to have the project finished in one construction season, weather permitting.

Not only will the Plaza Drive detour route result in incessant, bumper to bumper traffic on a street unsuited to serve as an artery, and by doing so cut off the area parking for offices and retail establishments like mine, but it’s also slated to run right through an apartment complex. Will there be signals and crosswalks on Plaza Drive to help keep pedestrians from being auto fodder?

I'm not asking for policemen, mind you. Steve Price has already ruled that manpower out.

Noting that the detour route is the city’s call, and not the state’s, can we respectfully ask: How safe is this going to be?

2 comments:

B.W. Smith said...

Can you install a temporary drive-thru at NABC? It would make things more convenient.

The New Albanian said...

Plaza Drive is poorly lit and runs through a busy retail area AND an apartment complex.

With the city, er, chronically lacking funds, can anyone be an optimist about the prospect of diverting a huge volume of traffic through such a bottleneck?