Tuesday, May 25, 1999
Traffic in Newport prompts complaints
2nd, Park residents say development will make it worse
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NEWPORT — Residents of the north end of Park Avenue gave city commissioners a clear picture of their displeasure with a study of traffic and street improvements for the Third Street Development area.
“We've become the driveway for the development,” William Dickson, of East Second Street, said during the city commission meeting Monday night. “There needs to be more attention given to the traffic coming off I-471 onto Park Avenue.”
The plans for the Third Street improvements — which coincide with construction of the Newport On The Levee entertainment complex — and changes in traffic flow were presented to commissioners by a group of architects and traffic planners.
The plans call for widening the portion of Dave Cowens Drive between Park andWashington Avenue; building a five-lane access road to the 2,000-car parking garage that will be completed next year; and widening Saratoga Street to three lanes from the parking garage road to Third Street.
The plan, which would see construction begin in July or early August and be completed by November, also calls for repairs and an overlay of Park Avenue from the Interstate 471 exit ramp to Cowens Drive. That's where the residents of Park and Second Street began to voice some strong opinions.
“What we have is an interstate highway exiting onto a residential street, bringing speeding traffic right into our neighborhood,” said Corey Siddall, who also lives on East Second Street near Park. “Traffic flies through there. You can't cross the intersection of Second and Park safely. And we're seeing more semi-trucks.”
Other residents of the Park and Second Street area complained of congestion, speeding cars and children at risk because of the traffic — which they say has increased with the opening a week ago of the Oceanic Adventures Newport Aquarium.
Mary Curtis, a Park Avenue resident who owns The Thing Shop on Monmouth Street, pointed out that downtown business owners have repeatedly called for signs on I-471 that would direct some of the traffic headed for the aquarium and the development district to exit at 10th Street and then travel north on Monmouth.
Mansion Hill neighborhood resident Bill Jones said, “It just makes more sense to direct traffic to the 10th Street exit. That street is designed to carry more traffic. I've heard comments from the city manager that there are concerns about traffic coming from the 10th Street exit into the residential areas. But isn't Park Avenue off I-471 a residential area?”
Traffic engineer Tom Young of the firm Pflum, Klausmeier & Gehrum, said a traffic study done my his company two years ago “recommended using other exit points off I-471, rather than just the Park Avenue ramp. That definitely included 10th Street.”
The city has installed some aquarium direction signs on 10th Street, but there are no signs on I-471 directing motorists to exit at 10th Street. Those signs must be approved by the state, and city officials have indicated there are no immediate plans for signs on I-471 other that the Park Avenue ramp.
City Manager Phil Ciafardini told the gathering that he realized the Park Avenue/Second Street traffic situation had been ignored and that he would make no excuses.
“That's in the past,” he said. “We've heard a lot of good ideas tonight. Now we must do what we can to improve the situation in that area. We have a number of things to take to the state. You may not agree with what we do, but we will work with you and try to make things better.”
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