Major Construction Initiative Launches on Lincoln Avenue in...

URBANA, Ill. — As spring ushers in the construction season, Urbana has commenced the Lincoln Avenue Complete Streets Demonstration Project. This initiative kicked off on Monday morning, focusing on North Lincoln Avenue, stretching from Killarney Street to Fairview Avenue. City officials emphasize that the project’s primary goal is enhancing public safety.

“It’s more about finding out what happens to the transportation network around it,” remarked Justin Swinford, Urbana’s Interim City Engineer.

This $200,000 undertaking involves reconfiguring the road by updating and replacing the painted pavement markings. Swinford described the project as a trial run to assess its impact on the surrounding transportation network.

The project is a $200,000 road configuration, removing and replacing painted pavement markings. Swinford called it a trial run.

“How side streets might be impacted or, the upstream and downstream traffic on either end of this section of the corridor,” said Swinford.

The city said the change from four lanes to three is to improve roadway safety. And they’re doing that by adding protected crosswalks and signal improvements. The lane reduction will be a temporary two-month window.

“This allows us the opportunity to try to make those existing paths safer, but also just draw attention to all those different roadway users,” said Swinford.

Swinford said your opinion on the three-lane road can alter what the city decides to do. So, they’ve sent out a survey for people living in town.

“Once the the striping is complete, people will have the opportunity to try it out and provide feedback. We’re going to leave that in place for two months,” said Swinford.

He said the road will eventually go back to four lanes, but believes the three-lane road is the answer to safer streets.

“We will get to learn through this whether people like using the on-street bike lanes. Or, if we get a lot of feedback that there’s more interest in a shared-use path,” said Swinford.

Swinford said those two alternatives are options the city will consider, and he has a message for community members as construction starts.

“Be aware of the construction process. We always ask for people’s patience with the construction projects or, you know, especially here, where this will be changing some traffic,” said Swinford.

The city said depending on the weather, the new markings will be down this week or next week. The final phase of the project is scheduled to start in 2028.

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Major Construction Initiative Launches on Lincoln Avenue in Urbana

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