Light pole updates to continue Grand Avenue streetscape work
Ponca City Now - June 16, 2015 8:30 pm
By Beverly Bryant/News Director
Ponca City’s Board of Commissioners heard a proposal to update traffic signals in the Central Business District Monday.
The changes will take place from Pine Street to Seventh Street and from Central Avenue to Cleveland Avenue, Traffic Engineering Director Mike Lane told the board.
One of the changes is designed to decrease waiting time at intersections for drivers on Central and Cleveland Avenues, he said.
"Traffic patterns have changed downtown and the volume of traffic downtown has dropped," Lane said . "This plan includes taking out traffic signals on Central and Cleveland at Second, Third and Fourth Streets."
Those light signals will be replace by stop signs which will stop east-west traffic at each of those six intersections, he said. Changing to stop signs will decrease the amount of time drivers have to wait, even if there is no cross traffic.
No lights will be removed from Grand Avenue.
The poles used for those signal lights at the six intersections on Central and on Cleveland will be used to further improvements in the streetscape on Grand Avenue, Lane said. They will be taken and powder-coated as the first supply of signal light poles to improve the appearance of lighting on Grand Avenue.
"Ponca City has $845,000 invested in the sidewalks downtown," he said. Along with ADA-approved audible pedestrian crossing signals and other ADA improvements, designers want to continue improvements with period lighting and a uniform appearance in traffic lights, he said.
As each intersection is done on Grand, the current poles will be recycled, refinished and reused, Lane said.
The changes will include new street name signs and period lighting showing the area’s status as a historic downtown district.
Once the process begins, Lane said, the whole project is expected to be completed within s ix months, using city crews.
Current attachments to the poles — including brackets and speakers – will be returned to the poles as the work is done, he said.
