The often slippery winter traveling conditions along the Onondaga Lake Parkway and high volume of traffic leading to cross-over accidents is having the State Department of Transportation looking at room for improvement. A public meeting will discuss some of the possibilities.
Onon Lake Parkway meeting Tuesday Jul 12, 5:00 to 7:30 @ Town of Salina
Syracuse Public Information Officer Gene Cilento says one option might be to downsize.
“By looking at reducing the number of lanes to one lane in each direction and reducing the speed limit on that section, we get into more traffic calling and making it more conducive into a parkway type of road, where there is access to the park on either side. Yes, it would reduce capacity, and we think some of the traffic would divert to other routes. Specifically, Old Liverpool Road.”
The D-O-T is studying the entire parkway to make improvements. Certain areas, especially during the winter, have suffered accidents with vehicles crossing over the center line and into oncoming traffic. One of the suggestions was to install rumble strips down the median to alert motorists, which was short-lived.
“But a lot of people objected to the noise it would create for the residential areas off of the lakeside. That noise would have been there constantly had people been running over it.”
That is where Cilento feels public opinion really matters.
Low Bridge Only One of Parkway's Problems
Another ongoing problem on the parkway is the low-clearance railroad bridge, the site of numerous accidents. The installation of an over-height detection system to warn drivers of the low-clearance parkway bridge has reduced the number of collisions.
“There may be some other minor corrections that can be made or minor enhancements that can be made, additional brush cutting.”
In the Village of Liverpool, there could be some reconfiguration of Heid’s Corners. However, work wouldn’t begin until 2018.
The Lake Parkway public meeting will take place from 5:00 to 7:30 at the Town of Salina Offices on School Road. Preliminary designs will be released. Before and after the meeting, representatives will be available to answer questions about the project.
