Back in the 1990s, when it appeared likely that the stretch of East Broad Street from the East River Street to state Route 57 would be widened, residents made it clear that they in no way wanted to see the project go through.

Their vocal opposition worked — the road remains two lanes in that area, albeit two oftentimes crowded lanes.

  But city officials are again dusting off the plans debating whether to take a $700,000 loan to pay for the preliminary engineering to get the widening going again. The project is expected to cost about

 $5 million.

But chats with some residents who live along the road show that their opinion hasn’t changed from more than a decade ago — they don’t want to see a wider road, one that arguably would cut far into the front yards of some of the homes.

“They’ve been talking about this for years and it went nowhere,” said Verna Wysocki, who resides on the 600 block of East Broad. “After two to three years, they ended up with nothing.

“It’s fine the way it is now,’’ Wysocki said. “The only time of day that traffic gets heavy is 4 p.m. when some of the shops let out.”

A few blocks away, a young mother who declined to be named said she feared the widening project would aggravate longstanding problems of standing water on sidewalks, tree lawns and front yards, which stretch less than 30 feet from the road in many spots.

“There’s nowhere for the water to go now,” she said. “If they did this, you’d see a lot of homes up for sale.”

The project is coming up again because of word that the badly deteriorated state Route 57 finally will get a makeover beginning in June.

That work is to last until October 2009, and Mayor Bill Grace said it would make sense to widen East Broad Street when the Route 57 work concludes.

First proposed in the mid-1990s, the East Broad Street project stirred heated debate among city officials and residents. The whole thing stalled after City Council failed to reach a consensus on how the widening project should proceed. The north side of East Broad Street, which has long been a mix of small businesses, insurance offices, bank branches, and doctors’ offices, has significantly fewer houses than the south side.

While some say widening the street is a necessary step to increasing business, Wysocki spoke with affection for maintaining the status quo.

 “This is an old town with old homes and streets, and that’s OK,” she said. “Why do we need this?”

Grace, however, told the City Council on Monday that the widening would be beneficial to EMH Regional Medical Center, which sits at the corner of East River and East Broad streets.

Denis Wright, the hospital’s director of facilities, met with city engineering officials a few weeks ago for initial discussion about the widening, according to hospital spokeswoman Kristen Davis.

“The city assured us at that time that any changes due to the widening would be beneficial to the hospital,’’ she said. “We’re confident it will produce a positive impact on the hospital.”

Details of the project, including whether the widening would impact the south side of East Broad where the hospital sits, were not discussed, Davis said.

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.

 

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