SHELTON — Out-of-commission traffic signals at 4th Street and Railroad Avenue will be removed from Friday through next week, which is expected to result in some traffic closures, a city official said.
“They will be starting with the signals on the sides streets of Railroad (Avenue), and then they will be transitioning with the actual Railroad intersection east-west,” City of Shelton Public Works Director Craig Gregory said.
After the signals are removed, the mast arms will come down, he said.
Gregory said city notifications will be released to apprise motorists of the intersection closures.
The work is part of the city’s Railroad Avenue “Road Diet” project, a yearlong experiment that is planned to improve pedestrian and business access on Railroad from 1st to 7th streets.
The Shelton City Commissioners voted 2-1 on Monday to make changes that include painting crosswalks red on the side streets at Railroad. Diagonal back-in parking, which a survey revealed was unpopular, will be removed and replaced with parallel parking.
City commissioners Tracy Moore and Cathy McDowell voted for the changes, while Mayor Gary Cronce was opposed to crosswalks painting at an additional cost of up to $8,000.
Gregory said the project was $5,000 over budget.
The traffic sign was failing and a traffic engineer was called in to assess the need for a replacement that would be costly to replace and maintain, Gregory said. The traffic engineer proposed removal of the signals.
Gregory said it would cost $60,000 to repair the traffic light system and up to $300,000 a year to maintain it.
The commissioners’ action also removes curb bulbout painting and and adds left-turn lanes.
During the latter half of May, the city is expected restripe remove paint along Railroad Avenue and restripe it, adding the center turn lanes and removing back-in angle parking. After the restriping, crosswalks will be painted red in between white lines, according to Gregory.
The project is the brainchild of the city’s Downtown Visioning Committee.
