A main artery for east and west-bound traffic around Notre Dame’s campus, Angela Boulevard will be reduced from four to two lanes next year as part of South Bend's continued goal of reducing speeds and making safer pedestrian spaces in the city.
The goal of the project is to reduce the number of lanes by painting over the outside lanes, while also adding better bike lanes. There will be larger bump outs for pedestrians at intersections and a traffic light will go in at Joyce Drive.
“If you’re at Eddy Commons or Twyckenham and you're trying to cross the road, you’re going over a 100 feet to cross it and across six lanes,” said South Bend public works director Eric Horvath. “We’re just trying to make it more pedestrian friendly, more bike friendly.”
City data suggests more than 14,000 cars use that stretch of road each day, but Horvath said the street can handle the volume of cars with just one lane. He added the new road will still have left-hand turn lanes and said Angela will go back to four lanes for Notre Dame game days.
"The current road is over-designed. If we were designing this as a new road today, we'd design it as a two-lane road and that would be more than adequate for the amount of traffic we have," Horvath said.
The project will cost an estimated $3.5 million, which includes a multi-purpose path alongside Angela to connect with the city’s Coal Line Trail.
Horvath said construction will start in the spring and finish before the 2024 Notre Dame school year. Bids for the project will be accepted later this month. Overall, the project is one of many currently ongoing in South Bend seeking to slow cars down.
"As we're designing these things we're thinking about cars and making sure they can move efficiently through the city, and safely. But also about pedestrians and bicyclists," Horvath said.
