Check it out!

From Greg Farley via the Extreme Decatur Makeover website.

From the City’s Extreme Makeover website…

Bright, unique, decorative designs will be installed on the City’s new downtown crosswalks (see them mapped here) starting Thursday, January 12. The work will start at the new raised crosswalk in the 200 block of East Ponce de Leon Avenue and will proceed to the west, with the new speed table at Ponce de Leon and Clairemont Avenue being done last. One additional crosswalk will be located in the 100 block of East Trinity Place.

The site goes on to say that the project will take 7-10 days, weather permitting.  “Limited two-way traffic will be maintained at each installation site through the use of flaggers, but drivers should expect delays during the work.”

Prepare accordingly.

Over on the Extreme Makeover: Downtown Decatur Edition website, Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon writes…

As part of the city crosswalk replacement program, new concrete crosswalks are being built at two locations in downtown Decatur. A new raised mid-block crosswalk will be built in the 200 block on East Ponce de Leon Avenue near North Candler Street and a raised speed table will be installed over the entire intersection at Clairemont and Ponce de Leon Avenues.

Vehicles will have to detour around these intersections from Thursday, Nov. 17, through Wednesday, Nov. 23, weather permitting, to allow the concrete to be placed and harden. The map below shows the detours. The 100 block of Clairemont Avenue and Ponce de Leon Avenue between its two intersections with Commerce Drive will be limited to local traffic only during this period. Detour routes will be marked to guide residents and visitors around downtown Decatur using Commerce Drive, but East Court Square and on-street parking will remain open during construction.

All sidewalks will remain open during the duration of construction. We encourage visitors to park and walk to their favorite restaurants and retail establishments.

Decatur is in the process of installing 6 new artful crosswalks downtown, which will replace the faux-brick crosswalks that have let most everyone down since they were installed in 2009.

Impromptu crosswalk festival downtown anyone?

Robert wrote in asking “Why were all the crosswalks removed from Ponce de Leon Ave in downtown?”

We checked in with the city and Asst. City Manager David Junger told us that “There is a lead time on producing the decorative thermoplastic.” and that he’s hoping that the new crosswalks will be installed downtown by early December.

To see the new design and location of all the new crosswalks, see this previous post.

For those of you who have followed this site for a while, you know my weird interest in non-standard crosswalks.  Back in January, I suggested some polka-dots for Decatur’s streets, after Austin, TX dotted one of its intersections.

Decatur has been open talking about replacing the faux-brick crumbling crosswalks downtown with something a bit more lively since 2014, but this past Monday, June 6th, the City Commission approved designs for 7 new, colorful, “decorative preformed thermoplastic” crosswalks downtown.  A note from Asst. City Manager David Junger describes the project thusly….

The Downtown Decatur Crosswalk portion of this project includes the replacement of 7 crosswalks at intersections and mid-block locations along East and West Ponce de Leon Avenue, a new raised intersection and crosswalk at Ponce de Leon Avenue and Clairemont Avenue, a new mid-block crosswalk on East Trinity Place and a new mid-block crosswalk in the 300 block of West Ponce de Leon Avenue. The existing crossings are to be removed and replaced with a decorative preformed thermoplastic product along with pavement replacement or repair as necessary. The base bid includes 4 existing crosswalks. The additive alternate includes the raised crosswalk at Ponce and Clairemont and new mid-block crosswalks on West Ponce de Leon and East Trinity Place.

So of course I’m going to show them to you now.  See all after the jump!  But also note that the agenda item also approved funding for the Olympic Trail between Olympic Place and Mead Road and also a sidewalk on Harold Byrd Drive.  That’s a lot of good walking infrastructure funding!

Read the rest of this entry »

Gwyneth sends along this pic and notes…

I’ve noticed some of our pedestrian signal buttons have been moved a bit towards being more accessible … A good first step….

Another interesting mention from the end of last night’s Decatur City Commission meeting.

The City of Decatur is currently putting together a bid document to replace the many faux-brick crosswalks installed downtown five years ago, with new, more durable concrete ones.

This in and of itself is good news, since those crosswalks have not stood up well to the multitudes of cars passing over them everyday and have needed continuous repair and patching since they were first installed back in 2009.

But beyond just a more resilient replacement, Asst. City Manager David Junger also mentioned that the city is doing a “tandem art project” that would make the crosswalks more visible with “creative, colorful” designs.  Mr. Junger referenced a Fort Lauderdale crosswalk (see photo to the right) from the traffic calming work session presentation earlier in the evening.