“The goal of the project is to add a center turn lane that will allow people to safely exit the flow of traffic to side streets and driveways,” said Nick Dill, Fairfield’s city engineer.
“This is a safety improvement that will result in fewer crashes and injuries.”
In a three-year period, there were more than 60 accidents on that stretch of South Gilmore Road. That compares to two or three on South Gilmore between Resor and Mack roads, Dill said.
The cause of most of those accidents, Dill said, was people either waiting to turn — or trying to turn — onto side streets or driveways along that stretch of the road.
To accommodate the center turn lane, curb cuts and lanes are being narrowed and the road is being widened by between three and five feet. Then it will be repaved and striped.
During construction, a lane of traffic will be open in both directions, but delays are possible. As part of the project, sidewalks are being added on the west side of the road.
“This completes the network of sidewalks near the schools. We’ll have a continuous sidewalk from the high school to Mack Road,” Dill said.
The sidewalk additions will be helpful for some juniors and seniors in particular who don’t receive bus transportation or drive to school, said Gina Gentry Fletcher, school spokeswoman.
“For those who do have to walk to school, it would provide safety access to the school,’’ Gentry Fletcher said.
“We’re excited about it. Not only is it great for our students, but for the community,’' said Lance Perry, the school district’s director of business operations.
“We’re always happy to collaborate with the city.”
Perry said the schools and city have partnered in the past to obtain safe routes to school grants for other sidewalk projects.
Last year South Gilmore was widened between Mack and Resor roads. It added an additional southbound through lane between Resor and Mack roads, a raised center median, and sidewalks on the west side of the road between Mack and Planet Drive.
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