The changes on the drawing board for the Lititz Pike bridge won't stop at the end of the bridge.

Included in PennDOT plans for a new $19 million bridge are the realignment of North Duke Street to the end of the bridge and the conversion of adjacent streets from one-way to two-way traffic.

Also being recommended are changes that would make the area around the Lancaster Amtrak station easier for pedestrians to get around.

Lancaster County Planners recently released a transportation study of the train station area, the Gateways Circulation Improvement Study, that calls for:

• Conversion of McGovern Avenue from one-way traffic to two-way.

• Conversion of all of Liberty Street to two-way traffic.

• Conversion of North Duke Street to two-way traffic between McGovern and Liberty streets.

In coordination with the study, state Department of Transportation engineers are incorporating those ideas into plans for the bridge replacement project.

Work on a new bridge, to be built near the existing structure, is expected to begin in early 2012, said PennDOT Project Manager Mark Malhenzie.

Meanwhile, improved pedestrian access to the train station is included in the $12 million renovation plan for the station. Work on that project is due to begin next month.

And further pedestrian improvements are recommended in the study, including a raised traffic table, that would elevate the roadway at McGovern and North Queen Street and sidewalk bulb-outs to narrow the roadway and slow traffic at Prince Street's intersections with Clay, New and Frederick streets.

Part of the challenge of planning is trying to make conditions better for both motorists using the arterial roads and non-motorists trying to walk or ride bicycles in the train station area, said Mary Gattis-Schell, the county's senior environmental planner who headed the study.

"People need to be able to move though the area, but they also have to be able to move efficiently within the area," she said.

Charlotte Katzenmoyer, Lancaster City Public Works director, said the initiatives to make the city more walkable are part of the city's strategic plan.

"Anything that adds to pedestrian safety is on the city radar screen, but, as always, funding is an issue," Katzenmoyer said.

She said the city likely will seek county transportation grants to fund the pedestrian improvements.

The transportation study is the latest in a series of studies of the 600-acre area roughly incorporating the Lancaster Stockyards site to the east, the former Armstrong World Industries floor plant site to the west, Clipper Magazine Stadium to the south and Keller Avenue to the north.

Study of the area began in 2002, as planners sought to coordinate the various projects being done within the area, including the $12 million renovation of the passenger rail station, redevelopment of the 47-acre former Armstrong plant site, redevelopment of the stockyards and the replacement of the bridge.

The study also considered the connections of new roads through the redeveloped projects.

On the Armstrong site, the Economic Development Co. of Lancaster County, which is redeveloping the site for Franklin & Marshall College and Lancaster General Hospital, plans to construct new roads and extend the city's existing road grid to "reknit" severed streets, said David Royer, Lancaster County's chief transportation planner.

The study committee recommended extending Liberty Street to the west and connecting it at a four-way intersection with Harrisburg and College avenues.

Also recommended was the extension on Clay Street, from North Prince Street, to connect it at an intersection with Harrisburg Avenue and North Charlotte Street.

The study also looked at the extension of North Plum Street through the redeveloped Stockyards site to connect it with Marshall Avenue, and the extension of Garfield Avenue to Dillerville Road in the Wolfe tract, at Dillerville and Manheim Pikes, where a Sheetz store has been proposed.

Royer said the roadways and pedestrian improvements will be done in conjunction with those redevelopment plans.

"As we look at other, related improvements, we will look to implement these pedestrian improvements," he said.

To ensure the improvements called for in the study are eventually acted upon, the study committee recommended that Lancaster City and Manheim Township change their official map and update their zoning ordinances to reflect the changes.

The $100,000 Gateways study was funded by the U.S. Transportation Department and matching funds by the county, city and township.

Paula Jackson, the city's senior planner, said she hopes the study will be the basis for another $100,000 study of the area. The Transit Improvement District study, funded largely through a state Community & Economic Development Department grant, will soon be undertaken cooperatively by the city and township. It is expected to be completed by summer.


Staff writer Bernard Harris can be reached at bharris@LNPnews.com or 481-6022.