10-07-2011 Western Avenue and Walnut Intersection now open

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Office of the Mayor MEDIA RELEASE Friday, October 07, 2011 10:30 am Contact: Mikki Dobski, Director of Communications&Special Projects, 574-235-5855 or 876-1564 Carl Littrell, City Engineer, 574-235-9251 Western Avenue and Walnut Intersection now open South Bend, IN: City officials and community representatives joined together to celebrate the re-opening of the Walnut and Western intersection today. "The intersection improvements were designed to improve the safety for travelers along Western Avenue and under the railroad viaduct at Walnut St," said Mayor Luecke. Ninety percent of the cost of this work is being paid by the Federal Highway Administration through the Highway Safety Improvement Program ( ISIP). These funds are used to reduce occurrence of crashes and resultant injuries and property damage. Historically, Western and Walnut has been in the "top five" of intersections in South Bend when rating crash severity and frequency. This project will improve upon that record. According to Carl Littrell, City Engineer, "the two major features of the improvements are "jug handle" turns for movements from Western Avenue to Walnut Street and single through lanes carrying Western Avenue through the viaduct." The jug handles are new ramps taking vehicles, traveling either eastward or westward, off Western toward the right carrying them to new intersections with Walnut Street where they will have a traffic signal to carry them right or left on Walnut according to their destinations. "This eliminates left turns under the viaduct bridge where pillars limit visibility of oncoming traffic. Similarly moving the right turns to the jug handles eliminates delays to through traffic that had been due to slow right turn maneuvers in the cramped space under the bridge," said Littrell. These improvements are served by three new coordinated sets of traffic signals to replace the split-delayed timing that had been in place for the intersection. "With the improvements in place,paired with the recently improved intersection at Chapin and Western, as well as, the completion of the computerized traffic signal interconnection system on Western from Scott to Mayflower, great strides have been taken to improve safety and reduce congestion," said Mayor Luecke. "Safety, as always, is dependent upon adherence to the "rules of the road" and observance of regulations in place." Western Avenue will now be a two-lane roadway, one lane in each direction,between Chapin Street and Walnut Street. No turns will be permitted from Western Avenue while under the viaduct. Drivers wishing to go north or south on Walnut from Western must use the jug handle ramp to reach their destination.