PHILADELPHIA - Philadelphia on Monday said it will move forward with a repaving project that will make one of the city's most dangerous thoroughfares safer by reconfiguring lanes to allow for better traffic flow.According to a release from the city, Washington Avenue will change its five-lane layout to a mixed lane format between 4th Street to Grays Ferry Avenue.
The project is set to begin later this year. Washington Avenue has more crashes than the average Philadelphia street and has not been repaved since 2003, according to the city.
Officials claim the repaving project is "an efficient use of city funding" and an "opportunity to improve safety and function.""We're not trying to mislead people when we say that there are 170 some odd crashes over a 5-year period," Deputy Managing Director for Transportation Mike Carrol said.
Some highlights of the Washington Avenue repaving project focus specifically on pedestrian safety, including pedestrian head start timing and bus boarding islands.