ONE-WAY BROADWAY DOMINATES MEETING; OPEN HOUSE HELD TO EXPLAIN PLANS

At Thursday's open house on proposed Broadway improvements, the message came through time and time again: Make it a one-way street.

About 40 people attended the event, conducted at the A.C. Brase Arena. The public was invited to look at and comment on plans for Broadway.

City Engineer Mark Lester said the plans, designed by engineers at Black & Veach in St. Louis, would improve stormwater drainage immensely. They also would widen and improvement pavement from Clark Avenue to Perry Avenue, hopefully reducing accidents.

Another part of the project, signal system upgrades, would synchronize traffic lights on Broadway, improving traffic flow and allowing drivers more opportunities to pull onto the road.

That part impressed Frank Ward, a landlord with business and residential property along Broadway. He said synchronizing the lights would be the best way to help traffic flow, particularly through Broadway's intersections with Sprigg and Pacific.

But another Broadway property owner, Dr. David Crowe, wasn't impressed with plans. He said they would make it easier to get in and out of his office at 1736 Broadway and to get to Southeast Missouri Hospital, but they don't address the overall problems.

"A lot of very bright people have studied this and come up with these plans," Crowe said. "But I don't know how they will really work. I've heard some people say it will make Broadway into a speedway."

Crowe, like several others at the meeting, said he believes the best solution is to make Broadway a one-way street from Kingshighway to Main Street.

"I think the city ultimately will find that one-way signs are cheaper than widening a street," he said.

Mayor Al Spradling III said those he spoke with expressed similar sentiments. Even though widening the street may prove a temporary cure, he said, the city eventually will have to face the prospect of making Broadway one way.

That was tried before, and the experiment was ended in the mid-1980s. Only a relatively small portion of Broadway was made into a one-way street. Under a plan proposed by some at the meeting, Broadway would be one-way going east and Independence would be one-way going west.

However, this plan wasn't mentioned at Transportation Trust Fund meetings, Spradling said. Those meetings, conducted before passage of the transportation sales tax in August 1995, were for people to come and express their opinion on how sales-tax money should be spent. Those who attended said Broadway should be widened.

The improvements aren't a done deal, Spradling said. Comments obtained Thursday will be analyzed in relation to the plans. Once the plans are finalized, they will be put out for bids, a process expected to begin in the spring.

It hasn't been decided whether all Broadway improvements will be done with transportation sales-tax money or if property owners will have a special assessment.

Total cost of the Broadway improvements is estimated at $577,200. Signal upgrades are estimated to cost $250,000.