CITY SEEKS SOLUTIONS TO WEST END'S TRAFFIC WOES

As the city's west end has expanded with new businesses and buildings during the past year, traffic also has increased. City planners have worked out a solution to the traffic congestion with the extension of Sprigg Street and Lexington Avenue.

Both extensions are 44-foot-wide arterial roads that will help connect the city at a cost of $1.78 million. The extensions are about a mile each and will eventually intersect.

Both projects will benefit residential areas, not the city's business district.

However, no one will notice the difference overnight, said City Engineer Mark Lester.

But Lester will notice the difference. He began working for the city at about the same time the Lexington Avenue project began in 1989. It should be completed by the summer.

"The biggest impact won't be too noticeable but the traffic patterns will change," Lester said.

With the Lexington Avenue extension, motorists who travel in the west sector of the city, will see an improvement in traffic. The extension should link Kingshighway with Highway 177, near downtown.

Now motorists won't have to travel down Kingshighway to Broadway but can use Lexington Avenue to reach their destination.

About 25 percent of the extension from Lexington Avenue to Sprigg Street and Big Bend Road is complete, Lester said, but added that no complete sections of the road are finished.

Most of the grading and asphalting can't be completed until the weather permits, which means early spring before work can begin, he said.

The North Sprigg Street extension is about half finished. Right of ways are still being purchased and asphalting must be done as well.

There are pluses and minuses to both projects, Lester said. "This is no harder than the beginning of the project."

As the streets are completed, new developments should also move into the area. But most will be new homes, said city zoning staff.

The property along both streets is zoned as residential. No new businesses are expected unless zoning variances are granted by the city council.