NORMAL, Ill. (WMBD) — The town of Normal has officially completed all of its “quick build” projects and is welcoming feedback from the community about how they are working.
The quick-build projects are part of their Pedestrian & Roadway Campus Safety Initiative, which was started at the beginning of September. Many of the projects include shortening crosswalks or closing roads to increase pedestrian safety.
“One of the more significant installations is at the intersection of College, School and Mulberry, where we have closed off the section of School Street between College and Mulberry that allows for safer pedestrian crossings,” said Ryan Otto, director of engineering and public works for the town of Normal.
“We have eliminated roughly 50% of the pedestrian crossing distance. We’ve got a lot of positive feedback about that one from pedestrians.”
Feedback on all projects came back very positive, but one project received a slightly lower rating than the rest.
“Seen some negative feedback on the closure of School Street. Just some drivers may be a little frustrated because it’s not the normal way that they either get to work or school,” he said.
These projects will be there until December, and until then, the town will collect feedback from the community to decide which projects will stay and which will go.
“We’ll be evaluating those by observation, by getting some hard data in terms of driver compliance with turning movements. Then we’ll put all that into a report that will really inform future planning and capital improvements, whether that’s hard infrastructure, putting new curbs in to reduce crossing lengths, things like that,” he said.
Feedback is still being accepted on the town of Normal’s website.
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