Bloomington park commissioners give initial OK to issue $5.8M in bonds for transportation projects

At a special meeting on Wednesday, Bloomington’s board of park commissioners kicked off a process to issue $5.8 million worth of bonds to fund several projects.

map of the city of Bloomington with green highlights showing proposed bond projects — The dotted line for the Dunn Street project indicates the portion of the proposed path that has challenging terrain. The rest is relatively flat.

Most of them are non-motorized transportation projects. The one clear exception is a $25,000 project to replace gasoline-powered with electric-powered equipment.

At Wednesday’s meeting, director of park operations Tim Street gave some examples of the type of hand-held equipment that could be replaced: weed eaters; mowers; backpack blowers; hedge trimmers; and chainsaws.

Street also said the department is looking to buy some battery-powered riding lawn mowers and to test them out by giving them heavy use.

The parks bonds are half of a general obligation bond package that Bloomington mayor John Hamilton unveiled two weeks ago, along with $17 million worth of projects that could be funded with a local income tax increase.

The resolution adopted by the park commissioners includes the projects in Exhibit A. About those projects, the resolution states: “The Board preliminarily finds that it is necessary for the public health and welfare and will be of public utility and benefit to proceed with the Projects.”

Final approval by the board of park commissioners is expected on April 26. That’s when Wednesday’s resolution says a public hearing will take place.

Between now and April 26, the parks bonds are supposed to be introduced at the city council’s April 6 meeting, discussed at the city council’s April 13 committee meeting and voted up or down on April 20. Continue reading “Bloomington park commissioners give initial OK to issue $5.8M in bonds for transportation projects” →

Trees, warning surface among final details of Bloomington’s 7-Line bicycle lane

Red oak sapling in the median of the 7-Line near Morton Street.

Detectable warning surface installed at the interface between the B-Line and the 7-Line.

At Tuesday’s meeting of Bloomington’s board of public works, three change orders were approved for the 7-Line project.

The increases in the approved expenditures, which totaled around $30,000, signaled that the final touches are being put on the $2.6 million protected bicycle lane for 7th Street.

The work has included the installation of replacements for two of three accessible on-street parking spaces, which were eliminated due to the construction of the project.

The 7-Line runs about three-quarters of a mile along 7th Street, from the B-Line Trail to the Indiana University campus. An official opening ceremony was held last week.

Continue reading “Trees, warning surface among final details of Bloomington’s 7-Line bicycle lane” →

Photos: 7-Line official opening (Nov. 17, 2021)

View looking west from the top of the parking structure at 7th & Walnut.

View looking west at the intersection of 7th & Walnut.

View looking west from the top of the parking structure at 7th & Walnut.

View looking south from the top of the parking garage at 7th & Walnut.

Late Wednesday morning, a ribbon-cutting was held for Bloomington’s new 7-Line, which is a separated two-way bicycle lane that runs along the south side of 7th Street.

The new path runs three-quarters of a mile—eastward from the north-south B-Line Trail around Morton Street, to the Indiana University campus.

The ribbon cutting ceremony was held at the western end of the new bicycle lane.

According to the city’s news release, remarks were to be delivered by Bloomington mayor John Hamilton. Also scheduled to give remarks were: Siân Mooney, who is the dean of the Indiana University O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs; Jeanne Smith, who is owner of Bikesmiths: and Beth Rosenbarger, Bloomington’s planning services manager.

Around a dozen cyclists took a post-ribbon-cutting ride eastward along the 7-Line. That ride was documented by The B Square from the top of the parking garage at Walnut and 7th Street. Continue reading “Photos: 7-Line official opening (Nov. 17, 2021)” →

Bloomington acts on plan to nix 7th Street stop signs to aid traffic flow for bicycle lane

Washington Street looking south at 7th Street. (Dave Askins/B Square 2021-10-09)

Purple: B-Line. Red: 7-Line

A bicyclist heads east on 7th from Indiana Avenue. (Dave Askins/B Square 2021-10-10)

In a news release issued on Friday (Oct. 8), the city of Bloomington publicized its removal of stop signs along 7th Street at cross streets between Walnut Street and Indiana Avenue.

The removal of the stop signs is intended to help the traffic flow on 7th Street.

The east-west street will eventually see the completion of the 7-Line, a separated bicycle lane, which is under construction on the south side of the roadway. The two-way bicycle lane on 7th Street will stretch from the B-Line on the west, to Woodlawn Avenue on the east.

In transportation engineering terms, what the city is implementing is a new “traffic pattern.”

As a practical matter, the removal of stop signs on 7th Street means that motorists and other users of the cross streets will have to be alert. The traffic on 7th Street no longer has to stop at four intersections.

Vehicles on Washington, Lincoln, Grant, and Dunn streets will continue to see a stop sign when they reach the 7th Street intersection.

To help get drivers and other users of the roadway accustomed to the new traffic pattern, yellow “Cross Traffic Does Not Stop” signage has been attached to the stop signs for cross streets. Electronic signs that flash a warning about the new traffic pattern have also been placed at some of the intersections.

The removal of the 7th Street stop signs was approved by Bloomington’s city council over a year ago, on Aug. 12, 2020. Continue reading “Bloomington acts on plan to nix 7th Street stop signs to aid traffic flow for bicycle lane” →

Advisory groups give green light to city council on 7th Street: Remove parking for protected bicycle lane

College to Walnut Screen unimproved 7-Line aerial 10.33.35 PM — Segment of 7th Street between College Avenue and Walnut Street in downtown Bloomington.

College to Walnut Screen 7-Line aerial 10.33.35 PM — The images shows the segment of 7th Street between College Avenue and Walnut Street. The top image shows current parking and lane conditions. The lower image is a rendering of the 7-Line protected bicycle lane project. Both images link to an animated .gif of them alternating.

On Thursday, at its first regular meeting since the end of January, Bloomington’s parking commission reviewed the protected bicycle lane project that’s going to be built on 7th Street sometime in 2021.

It was in front of the commission because the 7-Line, to be built as a two-way bicycle path on the south side of the roadway, will require the removal of 113 on-street metered parking spaces. It’s the loss of parking spaces that has generated some concern among property owners along the corridor, among them the Monroe County government.

Parking commissioners gave a unanimous recommendation in support of the planning and transportation staff’s finding—that the three-quarter-mile bicycle lane from the B-Line Trail to the Indiana University campus at Woodlawn supports several goals of the city’s comprehensive plan and squares up with the city’s transportation plan.

As Beth Rosenbarger, Bloomington’s planning services manager, pointed out to parking commissioners, the city’s transportation plan calls for a protected bicycle lane along 7th Street. Continue reading “Advisory groups give green light to city council on 7th Street: Remove parking for protected bicycle lane” →