PORTLAND — The City Council has unanimously approved changes to Congress Street that are designed to improve bus and traffic flow downtown.
The plan will remove stoplights at Casco and Brown streets, and consolidate the number of bus stops from 15 to 10 or 11 between State and Franklin streets, said Senior Planner William Needelman.
Additional Photos
New bus shelters may be built at five of those locations, where buses would stop in the traffic lanes.
The city would have to extend the sidewalk to make room for the new shelters. Before moving forward with that part of the project, the city will re-stripe the road to make sure that emergency vehicles can pass safely.
“We’re proceeding cautiously,” said City Councilor David Marshall, who leads the council’s Transportation Committee.
Although five of the stops would require buses to stop in the travel lanes, Marshall said the changes should improve traffic flow along Congress Street because there will be fewer bus stops, traffic signals will be removed and the remaining signals will be better coordinated.
The changes will cost $428,000, with $100,000 coming from the Federal Transit Administration.
The remaining portion would need to be funded in next year’s city budget.
The approved plan is less ambitious than previously envisioned. The original plan would have reversed the flow of some one-way streets, including two one-way sections of Federal Street, and connected Federal Street to Franklin Street.
That plan was criticized last year by business owners who feared it could make downtown difficult to navigate and discourage people from driving to the area.
Needelman said eastbound stops at Longfellow Square, at Oak and Brown streets and Lincoln Park would be eliminated.
A westbound stop across from Lincoln Park at the Top of the Old Port parking lot would be eliminated, while other westbound stops would shift or be reconfigured, he said.
Randy Billings can be contacted at 791-6346 or at:
rbillings@pressherald.com
Twitter: @randybillings
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.