By Greg Halbleib
BLOOMINGTON – A busy western Bloomington intersection with an odd alignment could be getting a make-over.
Bloomington Public Works Director Jim Karch said Washington Street where Euclid and Brown streets intersect has needed a change for quite a while.
“There’s about a 100-foot offset with Brown Street,” Karch told WJBC’s Terry James, referring to the distance from the Washington-Euclid intersection. “Euclid and Brown are major collectors. Everybody on the west side uses them.”
Karch said the area has been a known trouble spot for years.
“When I started back in 2000, it was an old intersection that everybody knew needed to have some work done on it,” Karch chuckled. “Sixteen years later, there haven’t been any improvements or changes. We were actually able to get a feasibility study underway so we can look at how we can change the intersection so it’s safer and easier to navigate.”
Residents attending an open house this week about the intersection favored realigning Washington Street with an S-curve to allow Euclid and Brown to intersect at the same location.
Karch estimates the project would cost $1 million, but there’s no funding currently in the city’s five-year capital improvement plan.
Greg Halbleib can be reached at [email protected].
