HELENA — The City of Helena hosted a public forum on Thursday, March 21, 2024, to hear public comments on the two new proposed pedestrian crosswalks.
The city contracted with Robert Peccia and Associates to develop two pedestrian crossing improvements.
These improvements were recommended as a result of the 2021 Five-Point Intersections and Corridor Connections Multimodal Traffic Study.
“The study noted these locations are very challenging for pedestrians to cross and very challenging for multimodal use,” said project manager Scott Randall.
The two proposed crossing improvements are along Lyndale Avenue and Montana Avenue.
On Lyndale Avenue, there is a current crossing at Warren Street.
“We heard complaints and experienced it first-hand. It’s pretty challenging to get vehicles to notice you if you’re at that crossing and to stop for you,” Randall said.
The proposal is to move the crossing a block east to the Rodney and Ewing Street intersection.
The city says this would provide a better connection point to Centennial Trail and Helena Middle School.
For this crossing, they provided three different options, including an enhanced crossing, bulbouts, and a center island crossing.
“Under this option maintain our existing curbs and roadway sections, so we don’t have to go rebuild a bunch of roadways,” said Randall. “Instead of waiting for vehicles to stop in all four directions. They would stop just in one direction and you cross two lanes and then you wait and they’d stop in the other direction and you cross the other two lanes. So, it what we call a two-phase crossing."
On Montana Avenue, there is a current crossing at the five-point intersection.
They propose to add one to Bozeman Street.
The city says the vision is to connect Centennial Trail at some point and provide access to the 6th Ward.
“We’d have to build some curb and gutter. Build some new sidewalk and leave the access into the business here alone,” Randall said.
You can see the proposals and leave comments on the Be Heard Helena website.
