Municipal officials last week approved funds for the creation of four more “bumpouts” on Elm Street—a project that will see the town regain five parking spaces.
It isn’t clear just when the work will begin at the intersections of Elm Street and South Avenue (bumpouts are planned for the southeast southwest corners of the intersection) and Elm Street at the Bank of America (bumpouts are planned for each side of the crosswalk there—the Playhouse side is already done).
There south side of the Playhouse crosswalk is getting a bumpout, in front of the Bank of America building. Credit: Michael Dinan
Though Public Works Director Tiger Mann planned to get the project done over approximately three weeks in April-May, working on one bumpout at a time, First Selectman Dionna Carlson called for more information before committing to a start date. Specifically, Carlson said she “would like to have the least disruption to the downtown merchants” and asked if it would be better to do it in August.
“Because that’s going to disrupt that [south] side of the street for three weeks at least,” Carlson said during a regular Board of Selectmen meeting, held March 25 at Town Hall and via videoconference. “And if it’s raining, it’s going to be more than three weeks because you’re going to have to extend the project… I want to approve this project, but let’s talk about what’s the best timing for this? Because it is going to be disruptive to the merchants.”
Carlson and Selectmen Steve Karl and Amy Murphy Carroll voted 3-0 in favor of a $138,525 contract with New Canaan-based Peter Lanni Inc. for the work.
Currently, Elm Street’s sidewalk is “bumped out” with a wider pedestrian walkway on the northern side from Ralph Lauren to The Playhouse. The new bumpouts would be placed outside the Dunkin and the corner near Manfredi Jewels, and then up the street in front of Bank of America and Dolce (on both sides of that crosswalk).
Mann noted that Lanni is experienced in working around pedestrian traffic downtown, and said that the contractor can do some work—granite, catch basin—even in the rain. Mann said his plan had been to pave the road and do the crosswalks right after the sidewalk sale, so pushing the bumpout work to the summer would then delay that work.
“Our feeling was to get in and get out, and then leave the rest of the summer for them, but we can look,” Mann said.
The question of timing was left open.
The selectmen asked Mann how long the project would take (three to four weeks, most likely), when Lanni could start (he has two weeks left for a Millport Avenue job then he’s free), whether there are additional disabled spaces built into the gain in parking (yes) and whether trucks will be able to safely turn onto Elm from South and vice versa even with the shortened crosswalks (yes, it’s all been tested).
Regarding the number of parking spaces on Elm Street, Mann noted that the shorter crosswalks will free up the town from a state law that requires no parking within 25 feet of a crosswalk because the sight lines for pedestrians will be improved.
Karl said, “Safety-wise it should be much better.”
In all, New Canaan will gain five spaces on the south side of Elm with the new bumpouts, Mann said. With that gain, the town will get to a “net zero” change in the number of parking spaces on Elm Street since 2019, he said.