Boone Avenue project tests safer street design

As Stephen Berry explained the pur­pose of the quick-build street project at Boone Avenue and College Street, a big 18-wheel­er blew through the inter­sec­tion and down­shift­ed as it approached Maple Street. 

Moments ear­li­er, three motor­cy­cles had roared past the gath­er­ing, and some big dump trucks had rum­bled along. 

“There’s been a lot of com­plaints about Boone Avenue” from res­i­dents and oth­ers, Berry said. 

Most vehi­cles along that sec­tion of road are going 35 miles per hour, which is the speed lim­it, but 35 seems fast to neigh­bors or those walk­ing along the street, Berry noted. 

“What we decid­ed to do was ‘traf­fic calm­ing’,” he explained. “It’s to slow the traf­fic using phys­i­cal bar­ri­ers or vir­tu­al barriers.” 

Berry, the city and coun­ty geo­graph­ic infor­ma­tion sys­tem coör­di­na­tor, was one of the mem­bers of Smart Growth America’s Complete Streets Leadership Academy for Winchester that chose the tem­po­rary street safe­ty project. 

It is fund­ed by a $20,000 grant from the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. 

Among the oth­ers involved were Brandi Peacher, Brian Sewell of Winchester Public Works, Casey Smith of the Transportation Cabinet’s District 7 office, Alyshia Martin, Rob Jeffries of the Planning Commission, and Kayla Walton. 

The project was com­plet­ed last Thursday, June 18, when white mark­ers were placed in the inter­sec­tion. The project also includes paint­ed cross­walks with hand­i­cap ramps, bicy­cle lanes, and mark­ings that nar­row the turns. 

“A quick-build project means that it’s not per­ma­nent. It’s a demon­stra­tion project so that we can study the way that peo­ple behave going through this project area,” Berry explained. Berry said the group would like some of the project to become per­ma­nent, such as the cross­walks, but the white col­lapsi­ble posts will be temporary. 

The encroach­ment per­mit is for 90 days, so the project will be up after school starts back in late summer. 

“We’re inter­est­ed in what will hap­pen when school starts, and the bus­es start going through here,” Berry said. 

“It’s a com­mu­ni­ty project to see and learn and under­stand how this impacts safe­ty,” he explained. 

He men­tioned that some of what is learned could be used for per­ma­nent projects on city-owned streets. Boone Avenue, or Ky. 627, is a state high­way that receives fed­er­al funding. 

Smart Growth America fund­ed three projects in Kentucky this year. The oth­er two are in Bowling Green and Morehead. 

Cindy Banks, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Winchester-Clark County Chamber of Commerce, and oth­er mem­bers held a rib­bon-cut­ting cer­e­mo­ny Monday morn­ing at the inter­sec­tion to ded­i­cate the project.