With work started on the new Lincoln Elementary School, parking will become limited on Colfax Street between Clark and Center streets to provide construction equipment space to get on and off the site.
The Traffic Safety Commission Wednesday approved a motion to forward a resolution to Board of Public Works and Safety at its meeting Friday prohibiting parking on the “east and west sides of the 200 and 300 blocks of North Colfax” and on the “west side of the 100 block of North Colfax.”
During Wednesday’s Commission meeting, Traffic Safety Commissioner and Warsaw Police Department Lt. Kip Shuter said he was told by the City Planning Department that the construction phase of Lincoln School will be using Colfax as the main “in and out.”
“They’re going to need additional width just to be able to pull things in and out of there and their trucks,” Shuter stated.
To accommodate the construction, he said the Traffic Commission will need to take a temporary “no parking” resolution to the BOW to request that no parking be allowed for the location beginning March 1 through Dec. 31. The BOW meets at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
City Engineer James Emans said the “no parking” could happen now. Driving to Wednesday’s meeting, Emans said he saw a “traffic snarl” on Colfax which almost led to a traffic accident. Earth work is being done at the school, though “real building” may not happen until March 1.
“I think that intersection could support ‘no parking,’ at least in that first block, today,” Emans said.
Shuter said he initially was going to request the no parking start March 1 because City Planner Jeremy Skinner contacted the construction company last week and that’s what they told him.
Emans guessed that Skinner was given that date because that’s probably when concrete will be poured but “they’re moving dirt now, they’re pulling trucks. Construction has begun. I would say the sooner it can happen, the better.”
Shuter said the “no parking” resolution should then go into effect as soon as the BOW can approve it, which would be Friday.
He said they probably should go ahead and restrict both sides of Colfax between Main and Clark streets “just to be on the safe side.” Between Center and Main, no parking will be allowed on the west side of Colfax.
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