COLUMBUS, Ind. — The barricades and fences erected for the renovation of the Cummins Corporate Office building in downtown Columbus will come down in about a month.
But as the two-year, $50 million rejuvenation of the corporation’s flagship office winds down, Cummins Inc. and the city of Columbus are turning their attention toward making significant changes to Jackson Street.
The Columbus Board of Public Works on Tuesday unanimously approved several changes to Jackson Street, between Fifth and Eighth streets, on the east side of the three-block long Cummins building.
Collectively, all changes are being made for the safety of pedestrians, said Dave Hayward, executive director of public works and city engineer.
The first change will be the elimination of all parking spaces on the west side of Jackson, next to the corporate office building. Those spaces were always meant to be temporary while a parking garage for Cummins was under construction, but they have not been removed since the garage project was completed, Hayward said.
The second change will be to reduce the pavement and lane widths of Jackson with the use of striping, he said. Several decades ago, Jackson Street was part of a state highway that carried four lanes of vehicular traffic at a time when neither Brown nor Lindsey streets existed, Hayward said.
“Now, Jackson carries more pedestrian traffic at times than vehicular traffic,” the city engineer said.
The next step is to install a mid-block crosswalk that extends from the Cummins Irwin Office Building at 525 Jackson Street to the newly renovated corporate offices.
At first, this new crosswalk will simply be striped, but eventually it will be raised to the same height as the nearby sidewalks, Hayward said.
Upgrades will continue next year when the parking lot outside the Irwin Office Building is reconfigured, he said. At the same time, curbing and parking changes will be made in 2021 along Sixth Street, between Jackson and Washington streets, he said.
By narrowing Jackson and making it more pedestrian-friendly, Cummins and the city are following the same precedent established in 2016 on the other side of the same building. That was the year when approval was given to reduce Brown Street from three to two lanes, as well as lower speed limits, install state-of-the-art traffic signals, and put down a new mid-block crosswalk.
What was approved Tuesday has been in development since at least 2014, Hayward said.
