About 40 property-damage traffic accidents — including at the Fairborn Veterans Memorial — have been recorded since 2019 in the area proposed for changes, City Engineer Lee Harris said.
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
“What we’re looking at is a really good solution to try to help make the intersection safer, as well as utilizing all of the existing improvements that we have made,” Harris said.
The city has talked about rebuilding or moving the military memorial from the center of downtown, where it has been since being dedicated in the 1980s.
A memo from Public Works Director Terry Adkins states “over the last year the downtown area has experienced high volumes of traffic accidents. Many of these are at or near the Main St. traffic circle.”
The proposed changes would include traffic in the Main/Central corridor to merge from two lanes to one “starting at Dayton Drive and Xenia Drive, as well as Pleasant Avenue and Grand Avenue,” according to Adkins.
The proposal calls for changing all parking spots to angled, a move that would add seven spaces, city records show. The area now has a mix of angled and parallel parking, Harris said.
The redesign was set to be discussed at a Fairborn City Council work session Monday night. If council is receptive to the plan, the body would formally act on it later.
Fairborn has earmarked $250,000 of the city’s $6.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to improve the Main/Central intersection.
Preliminary estimates indicate a cost of at least $1.2 million, with most of it going to resurface Main and Central in the area proposed for changes, Harris said. A timeframe for the plan hasn’t been established, he added.
Fairborn is investigating what grant funding may be available through the state or other sources, especially involving safety upgrades, Harris said.
The current configuration of the Main/Central intersection has elements similar to a roundabout, which would help “avoid redesigning aspects we’ve already got in place,” Harris said.
The proposed changes will help “improve the flow of traffic and make the safety better, and hopefully minimize costs to the greatest extent possible,” he said.
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