The project also will install traffic islands, bump-outs and high-visibility pavement markings on the busy corridor, which handles about 18,500 vehicles every single day. Bike lanes are going in on a small section of the roadway in Harrison Twp.
“The overall objective of the project is to slow the traffic and improve the safety of the vehicular and pedestrian users of the corridor,” said Joe Weinel, Dayton’s chief engineer.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
The project is expected to begin in July or August and last through the summer of 2025. The road work will result in lane restrictions, though no detours are planned.
Big changes
Dayton City Commission recently approved a $6.2 million contract with John R. Jurgensen Co. for the project.
North Main now mainly has four traffic lanes, though some intersections have a fifth lane for turning left.
An 8-foot-wide parking lane will be installed on parts of the roadway between Great Miami Boulevard and Norman Avenue. Norman Avenue is near Dayton fire station 14. Jurgensen also will construct enhanced curb lawns, marked shoulders and parking lanes.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
New curb extensions at multiple intersections will reduce the pedestrian crosswalk distance, Weinel said.
Three new mid-block crossings will offer raised pedestrian medians, rapid flashing beacons and enhanced lighting.
A sharp curve at the Santa Clara Avenue intersection will be softened. Some community members call that part of North Main “dead man’s curve.”
“It’s an opportunity to really increase the safety for pedestrians, to make it easier for pedestrians to cross,” said Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein. “It’ll be a great improvement to that area.”
New bike lanes are planned for a quarter mile section of North Main between Forest Park Drive and Castlewood Avenue in Harrison Twp., according to information shared by the Ohio Department of Transportation.
Some people who live near North Main have long complained about motorist and pedestrian safety on the corridor. Speeding and reckless driving are common.
ODOT says the North Main Street corridor is heavily used by pedestrians, which is a safety concern. The agency says that studies have found that road diets can reduce vehicular crashes by 19% to 47%.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
Road’s history
Weinel said North Main Street has not undergone any major reconstruction since the 1970s.
North Main Street used to have only two lanes of traffic, with parking on both sides of the street, but the parking was removed in the 1990s to create four lanes of traffic, Weinel said.
Several intersections on the roadway were widened to five lanes in the early 2000s to create left turn lanes, he said.
Weinel said the city has evaluated this section of North Main since 2017, and a safety study was completed in 2020.
He said the study found that crashes along North Main increased every year between 2011 and 2017.
There were about 900 crashes between 2015 and 2017, including seven that were fatal. Five pedestrians were killed in that time frame.
A few community have said they worry that putting North Main Street on a road diet will lead to more congestion.
ODOT says some of the traffic on North Main may move over to Riverside Drive, which has greater traffic capacity and fewer intersections that can contribute to traffic snarls.
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