Major repairs on Washington Avenue will be reduced The most dangerous South Philadelphia highway from five lanes to three lanes should have started this summer. Instead, federally funded projects have encountered a speed bump.

A city government spokesperson told the Voice of Philadelphia on Monday that the renovation of Washington Avenue was postponed until at least 2022 due to “the funding and schedule impact of COVID-19.”

Mike Carroll, deputy general manager of the Department of Transportation, said that this work is secondary to more “ready” projects, such as the resurfacing of Martin Luther King Avenue and Spruce Street through West Philadelphia. And part of Manain Street. Inquirer.

Washington Avenue Philadelphia’s High Damage Network There are currently 5 lanes, 2 parking lanes and 2 bicycle lanes on the roads that need intervention. The Philadelphia Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability found that between 2012 and 2018, there were 254 crashes on this road, many of which involved pedestrians and cyclists.

After months of soliciting feedback on the proposal to redesign the corridor, the city chose a layout in 2020 that includes three lanes, two parking lanes, and two parking-protected bike lanes.

“We now fully expect paving (Washington Avenue) to take place in 2022,” the city spokesperson said. “In order to take advantage of this time, the government continues to engage with community stakeholders and elected officials to collect more feedback from neighbors while we improve the concept of traffic safety.”

Approximately 71% of the 5,400 residents, businesses, and community organizations involved in the renovation of Washington Avenue support Approved plan,As shown below.

Source/Philadelphia

After construction is completed, there will be 3 lanes on Washington Avenue, from Grace Ferry Avenue to 16th Street, and from 12th Street to Fifth Street, as shown in green. Due to heavy vehicular traffic around Broad Street, the section from 15th Street to 13th Street (yellow) will remain the same. The four-lane transition section (blue) will connect the three-lane and five-lane sections. The area east of Fourth Street to Columbus Avenue will be covered by another streetscape improvement project led by Delaware River Waterfront.

As part of the project, traffic signals along Washington Avenue will be reprogrammed to optimize vehicle flow in areas with fewer lanes. The SEPTA 64 bus will also be equipped with a “floating island” to make it safer for passengers to enter and exit the vehicle and reduce interaction with cyclists.

But it will take another year for residents to see the long-awaited changes become reality.

“Every year we don’t fix it is another failure,” Twitter Dana Driscoll, A mother and a member of the urban activist group 5th Square. “Someone is going to be killed.”

Another Twitter user, Aaron Bowman, Replied to Driscoll’s tweet Has a link to A GoogleDrive It contains an introduction to improving Washington Avenue dating back to October 2013.