College Avenue sticking to its ‘diet’

The work converting a roughly 11/2-mile section of College Avenue to a traffic-calming device called a “road diet” is nearing the halfway point and should be completed within a month.

College from Needham Street to Briggsmore Avenue is going on the diet. It consists of changing the lane markings, converting College from four lanes to one lane in each direction and a center lane for left turns. The extra space from reducing the number of lanes creates more room for cars parked along the street, a bike lane on each side of the street and a buffer between the bike lanes and traffic.

The diet includes features to help traffic move, including right-hand turn lanes at major intersections.

Mike Sacuskie, an associate engineer with the city, said work started about three weeks ago with crews putting a slurry seal on the road to extend its life. He said work on changing the lane markings began last week and should be finished by the middle of next week. He said crews also need to complete other work to finish the project, such as putting in concrete islands for pedestrians and infrared cameras that let traffic signals know when cars and bicyclists are at the intersection.

City officials have said road diets are used in many communities and make the streets safer, but this project has faced consistent concerns from some residents who fear it will lead to traffic congestion on College and that some drivers will flood nearby streets to avoid the road diet.

VSS International of West Sacramento is doing the work as part of a $1.49 million contract with the city. The contract includes putting a slurry seal on Ninth Street between Carpenter to Tully Road and add a bike path along that section of Ninth to connect Modesto Junior College’s east and west campuses.

This story was originally published September 8, 2015 at 4:06 PM with the headline "College Avenue sticking to its ‘diet’."