Posted By Elaine Weinreb on Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 10:58 AM click to enlarge Caltrans Broadway has long been an integral yet neglected part of Eureka. As a road that serves both as a state highway and as a city “Main Street,” it fills neither role satisfactorily. Half of all automobile accidents in Eureka happen on Broadway. This 3-mile stretch of road, which serves 35,000 vehicles daily, has been the site of regular fatal collisions, including three this year. Local residents complain the road is ugly, difficult and dangerous to cross, and gives an unpleasant first impression to visitors coming into Eureka from the south. Motorists complain of long delays at traffic lights, left turns that are difficult and dangerous, and pedestrians dodging traffic as they jaywalk in the long lon
Proposed “Double Couplet” from Broadway Multimodal Corridor Plan
For over 10 years, the Humboldt County Association of Governments, the City of Eureka and Caltrans have been looking at ways to improve the Broadway corridor to make it prettier, less congested, and most importantly, safer. And, once again, the public will have a chance to comment on the latest proposed Broadway Multimodal Corridor Plan during HCAOG’s board meeting on Thursday.
Planners have looked at many different approaches to addressing Broadway’s safety and traffic issues and have identified the controversial Double Couplet Option which proposes building two new segments of one-way road to the west of Broadway as the preferred plan. One of the couplets would run between Fourth Street and Koster Avenue, passing through the area known as the Balloon Track, and the other would run between Hawthorne Street and the Bayshore Mall.