Driven by complaints, the city of Bowling Green plans to bring relief from the heavy traffic flow on Wooster Street by making a series of improvements set to begin this summer.

“The need for change came about by numerous complaints that the traffic could not get down Wooster Street, especially on Friday afternoons,” Bill Blair, director of public works, said. “(Wooster Street) is a big bottleneck.”

According to Rich Hertzfeld, a civil engineer with The Poggemeyer Design Group, the $6.5 million project is designed to not only satisfy current needs, but to look toward the future as well.

The project, known as a Transportation Improvement Project (TIP), will include the reconstruction of several major intersections along Wooster Street and will address the need for more lanes at the especially congested area by the I-75 overpass.

According to Blair, after an intersection expansion at Mercer Road and Wooster Street, five lanes of traffic will exist from Mercer to the overpass of I-75.

The intersection at Thurstin Avenue and Manville Avenue will also be increased to five lanes.

Work is also planned for the North College Drive intersection and a new storm sewer will be installed running from South College Drive to Mercer and Poe Roads.

The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) is leading the search for contractors and plans to choose one in late July.

“Depending on who the successful contractor is, it will be up to them to decide when they wish to start,” Blair said. “Hopefully, they’ll start right away in August, but we don’t know.”

The storm sewer work as well as underground wiring for the intersections will be the first phases to be completed.

In any construction project, underground installations are always finished first to avoid disrupting the construction taking place above ground and to provide better drainage for the construction site.

Like any major construction project, the current plans for Wooster Street have changed since the city initially proposed the project.

“Ideally, we would have liked to have gone to four lanes with a median,” Blair said. “But this would have required taking most of the land from the University.”

Unwilling to skimp on safety, the University expressed concern about Wooster Street becoming too close to campus buildings. Though the University will not be loosing any large amounts of land, it has offered small portions around intersections to aid in the project.

“We’ve been working very closely with the city to accommodate their requests,” said Robert Waddle, assistant vice president for capital planning. “We’ve come up with what I feel is a very good compromise all the way around.”

According to Blair, it is likely that only one road will be under construction at a time. The entire project is expected to take at least a year.

Though Wooster Street will remain open during the project, construction will hinder traffic. An alternative route using Clough Street, the first main street south of Wooster, is planned to aid in maintaining the traffic flow.

“Traffic will be maintained on Wooster, but it will be funneled down to, at best, one lane around the construction area,” Blair said. “Wooster will not be an ideal road to travel.”