The city is moving ahead with plans to add parallel parking and traffic calming measures along Second Street.
The Columbus Redevelopment Commission approved a contract with Aztec Engineering Group, Inc. for design and engineering work on what officials are calling the “Second Street Thoroughfare Project.” The contract has a not-to-exceed amount of $197,000; this includes a lump sum of $171,000 for the base design contract and additional allowances of up to $26,000 that may be approved by city staff.
Redevelopment Director Heather Pope said that the city is looking at narrowing the lanes along Second Street, creating on-street parking, installing curb bump outs, shortening pedestrian crossings, adding landscaping and generally trying to slow the speed of traffic along this corridor. According to Aztec’s contract, the new on-street parallel parking is expected to be in place from Jackson Street to Sycamore Street.
As stated in the commission’s resolution to approve the contract, current and future development in downtown Columbus is “driving increased demand for public parking and pedestrian access to downtown destinations.”
“This is a project that we’ve been talking about for quite a while,” said Pope. “And it really came up as we started to review the Taylor and started looking at their needs along the Second Street corridor. And then from there, it grew as we started considering what is in the Envision Columbus document and providing safe, pedestrian connection from town to down along the river just kind of south of Second Street.”
City engineer Andrew Beckort said that Aztec’s contract includes a topographic survey along the corridor, planning for changes to the road and drainage, seeking a permit from the state, and making a final set of plans.
“Their timeline is June of 2023, have those (final plans) complete and in our hands, and potentially ready for construction towards the final half of the year,” he said.
Pope added they hope to bid the project in July and have work begin in the third or fourth quarter of 2023.
