City may add turning lane on Foley Street

The city is moving forward with plans to widen Center Street near the downtown firehouse to cope with increased traffic caused by the reconfiguration of the post office parking lot.
Assistant City Engineer Ray Rogozinski said that plans call for adding another lane between Foley and North Main streets so there could be a dedicated right turn lane.
He said a slight change would also be made to the Fire Department’s parking lot so that people couldn’t use it to cut through any more.
Jonathan Rosenthal, the city’s economic development director, said the Bristol Development Authority has long thought of addressing the issue at some point so it was included in a list of possible downtown changes.
Though the price tag isn’t yet known, it appears there will be enough money in the BDA budget to cover the tab for the project.
Rogozinski said that public works officials are convinced there’s a need.
The project would not include extra space for trucks to turn around to access the loading dock on the northern side of the road, which is an occasional problem for traffic in that area.
The city pushed the post office in 2004 to change the traffic pattern in its parking lot so that cars would enter from North Main Street and exit onto Foley Street, a project that was completed a couple of years ago.
The problem with the current traffic pattern is that cars seeking to turn right onto North Main from Foley often get stuck behind other vehicles trying to turn left. That can, at times, leave drivers sitting through a cycle or two of the traffic signals.
The addition of a right turn lane should resolve most of the problem, officials said.
It is not clear how quickly the project might be done.

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