Lydia Glenn

News Editor

lmg5921@psu.edu

The city of Erie is about to start its $3 million-plus makeover of a portion of West Eighth Street.

Jason Sayers, an Assistant City Engineer, stated that work is tentatively scheduled to begin on April 4. The improvements will start at Greengarden Road and extend to the city-Millcreek Township line at Pittsburgh Avenue. 

According to city officials, there will be new pavement and sidewalks, landscaping, curb ramps, additional trees, LED lighting and a new traffic signal at the Lincoln Avenue intersection. 

The Lincoln intersection improvements will also include a new left turn lane for both eastbound and westbound traffic. 

The new improvements, fueled by a $2.55 million grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, could be finished by mid-October, according to Sayers. 

Kathy Wyrosdick, the city’s Director of Planning and Neighborhood resources, said that the work will improve the area for pedestrians. She also stated that the project “is designed to complement what Millcreek is doing” and that it meshes with recommendations included in Erie Refocused, the city’s multi-year comprehensive development plan. 

Erie Refocused suggests the city find ways to develop additional pedestrian-friendly pathways. “It’s important that we move forward with implementing projects like this, which are based on specific recommendations in our comprehensive plan,” Wyrosdick stated. “The city is committed to improving these corridors for pedestrians and we want to be consistent with Millcreek’s project.”

While the two municipalities are developing separate plans for West Eighth Street improvements, the goal is for those two plans to work harmoniously. 

According to Millcreek officials, the township plans to bury utility lines along the street in addition to all of the aforementioned improvements like the new sidewalks. 

In 2021, Millcreek applied for a $6.3 million grant from the State’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program for the West Eighth Street improvements, but there has been no word as of yet. 

Millcreek township also plans to provide bikeways along West Sixth Street to connect with city-planned bike paths. 

Melissa Roberts, a co-owner of Allburn Florist located on 1620 West Eighth Street said, “New sidewalks and traffic lights and better street lights, these are all wins for this area.” Roberts’s business has been operating in this area for over six decades and she is happy to see that improvements are finally going to happen. 

Roberts said that the streetscape along West Eighth Street is really important because “this is a very walkable area” that includes shops, restaurants, Harding Elementary School and Frontier Park. 

The city’s grant was announced by Governor Tom Wolf’s administration back in 2018. Unfortunately, COVID-19 slowed the project, but it is back on track. 

The money for the project comes from PennDOT’s multimodal transportation fund, which provides an annual multimillion-dollar stream of state funding for ports, rail freight, aviation projects and bicycle and pedestrian improvements. 

Sayers explained to The Erie Times that $2.15 million in state grant money is being used for construction and the other $400,000 is marked for construction inspection costs. 

The city of Erie itself is contributing around $925,000 to the West Eighth Street improvements which was approved by the Erie City Council. 

Erie’s much needed updates are finally coming.