A project to connect Third Avenue between Hester Street and Washington Street will make it easier for students to access the Strip as well as create more parking.
Stillwater is making it easier for students to access the Strip.
A proposed project will connect Third Avenue between Hester Street and Washington Street. Drivers will no longer have to cut over to Fourth Avenue after the new road is built.
The $1.2 million project is expected to begin in the spring and take about seven months to complete, said Ralph Kinder, public works director.
The final plans must be approved and bids submitted and approved before the project can begin.
The project will not only create a “punch through,” but will also create more parking along Third Street, Kinder said.
Construction will not begin until construction on University Avenue is completed.
The city must also wait for AT&T to relocate phone lines farther underground. Moving the 8,000 phone lines is expected to take up to six months, according to a city construction update document.
Stillwater city manager Dan Galloway said multiple reasons exist for connecting the two sections of Third Street.
The first reason is that the improvement will help businesses on Washington and on Knoblock, Galloway said.
“[The intersection at Knoblock Street and Third Avenue] and the Strip are both very important business areas but not having them linked together with Third Street, we think, hurts both areas,” he said.
Another improvement will be the addition of parking along Third, as well as another east-west route.
“Through the central part of the city, there is no good east-west connection,” Galloway said. “From a traffic and citizen standpoint, that’s the No. 1 reason.”
It will also help the traffic flow along University Avenue.
Besides having to wait on the construction of University Avenue and the relocation of the phone lines, the city must also wait for paperwork to be completed on acquisition of a house, an apartment building parking lot and part of a church.
The owner of the house at 302 S. Ramsey has agreed to sell the house to the city, Kinder said. The city is waiting on the contract, which would take 30 days to close.
The city also hopes to acquire a parking lot from the Eagles Nest apartment complex and part of the Mosaic Church building.
The Mosaic Church has reached an agreement with the city and a sales contract is pending, Kinder said.
The city is still negotiating with the Eagle’s Nest apartments, Kinder said.
Kinder said the street extension will eliminate about 20 parking spaces on the north side of the complex.
Galloway said the negotiations will be resolved soon.
“I’m optimistic that we should have all of the right-of-way and be able to start the project in the next several months,” Galloway said.
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