WILLIAMS, CA (MPG) – The Williams City Council may have to weigh safety against functionality before they approve the design for the $20 million E Street improvement project.
The project will include various roadway and pedestrian safety improvements along the main route through town, from Sunset Street, west of the Sacramento Valley Museum, all the way to Husted Road. The most significant changes to the road will be on the west side of Williams to allow safer access and movement to the downtown and elementary school, officials said.
The massive project will be constructed with a $10.6 million grant from the state’s Active Transportation Program and city reserves.
Public Works Director Colt Esenwein said the city’s contractor, Bennett Engineering, has been working on a design for the City Council to approve that will provide safety and connectivity for senior citizens and youth. The improvements include widening the street to allow for a raised landscape median, a center turn lane, curbs, gutters, and sidewalks, bike lanes, drainage improvements, and a roundabout at the intersection of E and 11th Street.
“We’ve been working on this project for a long time,” Esenwein said.
The City Council, at its March 19 meeting, reviewed Bennett Engineering’s first geometric design draft, presented by Project Manager Keith Rhodes, who said there would be multiple stages of design put to the City Council and public before the council approves a concept that meets the project’s safety goals.
The ATP program requires the city to encourage walking and biking, increase mobility for motorized and non-motorized devices (wheelchairs), advance efforts to achieve greenhouse gas reduction goals, and enhance public health, officials said. t
With safety as a priority, Rhodes said the E Street route would eliminate 9th Street entirely on the south side, have motorists traveling through a roundabout at 10th Street, and come to an intersection at the elementary school with a high-intensity activated crosswalk beacon that will allow pedestrians to cross safely by stopping road traffic.
While E Street will be wider to allow for bike lanes, sidewalks, turning lanes, and raised landscape mediums, Rhodes said the width of the driving lanes would be reduced from the standard 12 feet to a lane width of 10 feet, which should cause motorists to instinctually slow down.
“We are trying to create a project that is trying to create traffic calming measures along this
stretch,” Rhodes said. “We are trying to promote the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians. There are a number of ways to do this. One of those ways is reducing lane width within this roadway.”
Rhodes said concrete and landscape mediums will also help reduce speeds and provide aesthetics to the area. Bike lanes, parking, and sidewalks on both the north and south side of the road, along with 3-foot concrete mediums in the center of each intersection are also proposed for pedestrian safety and comfort.
While the City Council hopes to finalize the design so the environmental process can begin this summer, city officials were not keen on the engineer’s suggestion to close 9th Street north of E Street and allow only a right turn in or right turn out for 9th Street on the south side of E Street.
City officials said such a proposal could reduce access to neighborhoods and direct more traffic to 8th Street, which historically has had more accidents, due to antiquated vertical parking and heavy foot traffic to the flea market.
“All things have unintended consequences,” said City Administrator Frank Kennedy.
Although the proposed closure of 9th Street on the northside of E, and the one-way entrance and exit to 9th Street on the south, would provide greater safety to pedestrians and bicyclists at that intersection, Mayor Don Parsons asked Rhodes to bring back another possibility for the city to consider.
“It’s going to cause significant issues,” Parsons said.
The project also calls for more measures at 8th Street to calm traffic for the sake of pedestrians.
“We should see some significant improvements in terms of safety even if we don’t do any closures of 9th Street,” Rhodes said.
Additionally, Rhodes said all proposed intersections should allow for larger vehicles, including those with utility/travel trailers, to navigate, but that discussion, too, should come back to the City Council if not possible.
The City Council is hoping to get the project into construction by the fall of 2025, officials said.