BUFFALO, N.Y. — Drivers in the City of Buffalo have been asking us questions about a few different construction projects lately.
One of them is the major project on a busy stretch of Delaware Avenue and the other concerns some questionable yellow lines painted on Forest Avenue.
2 On Your Side asked the city's public works commissioner and GObike Buffalo about them.
If you drive along the heavily traveled main artery of Delaware Avenue you'll see that the road has been now been repaved as part of a spring-summer reconfiguration project between North and Forest avenues. There will eventually be one lane north and south-bound with a center turn lane for left hand turns.
It's part of an overall road calming plan for slower speeds and enhanced safety, according to Public Works Commissioner Mike Finn.
But you may also notice drivers used to two lanes each way are sort of weaving around without any lane markers or striping at this point.
2 On Your Side asked: "Is the city aware that there is some erratic driving there in that area - is there anything BPD can do or anything?"
Finn responded, "Anytime that you have a road that's in a situation where the striping is not defined well - there's the potential for people to kinda make up their own rules about how the road should be. That's why striping was invented. So like I mentioned - we're continuing to push the contractor to get that striping down."
The city says they're pressing them.
"There's a time that we like to see between paving and striping. We like to see them follow up right on top of each other. We're getting to the point where it's starting to get to - this should have been done. Where are ya?" Finn said.
The project general contractor Occhino Corp. says they are waiting for their striping sub-contractor Accent, which is busy. But they expect preliminary layout work will begin Saturday with a striping crew on site on that stretch of Delaware the week of August 15.
Now on Forest Avenue people noticed crooked road lines and that also prompted questions. The city says GObike is responsible as part of a pilot project permitted by the city.
"Go Bike got a grant to do a pilot project and install a cycle track. So a cycle track is a completely separate bike lane," Finn said.
GObike spokesman Kevin Heffernan says they're working with the neighborhood despite some opposition with some posted signs raising on-street parking concerns.
"Our main point of going out there is to narrow the lanes and slow traffic to increase safety. We hope that the neighbors keep that in mind that while this project is still in its construction phase, we hope to have those yellow lines completed, weather pending, by next week. We just kinda needed to get something out there to help people know the new traffic pattern while we were completing the bike lane itself," Heffernan said.