Hoping to improve traffic flow and safety at a busy U.S. 72 intersection, city officials are proposing stand-up concrete islands, a grass median with trees and other other amenities.

City Planner Mac Martin unveiled the proposed improvements for Athens-Limestone Boulevard at 72 during the City Council work session Monday. There are several popular stops on Athens-Limestone Boulevard, including Hardee’s, Best Western Athens Inn, Applebee’s, Ruby Tuesday, IHOP, Holiday Inn Express and Logan’s Roadhouse.

Council members took no action on the matter but seemed to welcome the proposed improvements.

“For the last several years we have been brainstorming how we can improve this intersection,” Martin told council members. “It is not uncommon to go by in the evening to see two, three or four cars in that median crossing in the middle of Highway 72 trying to either turn left into the development (along Athens-Limestone Boulevard) if traveling on Highway 72 eastbound or, if you are in the development, trying to get out and turn left onto Highway 72 toward the interstate.”

Martin said there was never any kind of deceleration lane or left turn lane installed on 72 heading east to the entrance to Athens-Limestone Boulevard.

“If you are traveling east on 72 and want to turn left into this intersection, there is inadequate stacking space, and you end up with a situation where you have multiple cars in the median crossing. Visibility is very limited; there is a lot of confusion; and we’ve had a number of accidents here as well,” Martin said.

He said when the council approved the city’s paving projects for 2017, Athens-Limestone Boulevard was on the list because the condition of the street is poor.

“The amount of traffic has caused the street to deteriorate considerably; it has what we call alligator cracking,” he said, “So while we are repaving this street, we thought now was as good a time as any to try to address some of the issues we have with the traffic.”

Athens-Limestone Boulevard

He said Athens-Limestone Boulevard is currently a four lane, undivided road that traffic counts do not support having that amount of traffic space.

He said 72 does not have a lot of space dedicated to making a left turn into Athens-Limestone Boulevard.

“So, we tried to think of a way to improve safety and the aesthetics of the intersection, and we came up with a plan to deal with it,” Martin said.

One proposed improvement includes removing the ability to turn left from Athens-Limestone Boulevard onto 72 by adding a concrete island. Drivers exiting the commercial area would need to proceed around the development to the traffic signal at Chick-fil-A to turn left onto eastbound 72.

He said the city did not want to restrict eastbound 72 traffic from entering the development via a left turn because Athens-Limestone Boulevard is one of the city’s “hot spots for development.”

“We have a good number of businesses already (on Athens-Limestone Boulevard) and you are also looking at quite a bit of developable land to the north.”

With that in mind, the city is proposing building three concrete stand-up medians on 72 to try to keep traffic separated and safe at the intersection.

The proposal includes creating short left turn lanes on both the east and westbound sides of 72, which would be separated by standup islands at the center of the median. This move would eliminate a motorist’s ability to drive south from Athens-Limestone Boulevard into the median and then try to make a left onto 72.

Dedicated right

The proposed work to be done on 72 proper will be done by the Alabama Department of Transportation. All of the proposed work north of the travel lanes of 72 will be done by the city of Athens, including taking the shoulder on the north side of 72 and making it a dedicated right turn lane onto Athens-Limestone Boulevard.

Anyone turning right (onto Athens-Limestone Boulevard would have to yield to any traffic turning left into the development from 72.

“If this was in place we would no longer be looking for traffic to turn left (off Athens-Limestone Boulevard) and compete with traffic in the median to turn on 72,” Martin said. “Anybody looking to turn west on 72 would have to travel to the traffic light at the bottom of the hill where there is a Chick-fil-A. We will have appropriate signage there to guide people in that direction.”

He said the improvements are designed to “bring a little more uniformity to the intersection; make it safer; and improve the aesthetics” because the area is a focal point of development and a principal gateway into the city.

Later on down the road, Martin said, the city will work with ALDOT to restructure the median.