DANVILLE — A second open-house public meeting comes about a month-and-a-half before an improved traffic-flow study is expected to be completed.

The purpose of the meeting is to present refined information and receive public input on proposed improvements to Voorhees, Fairchild, Williams and Seminary streets and Bowman Avenue.

The project consists of identifying and recommending street and rail crossing improvements that will ensure uninterrupted traffic flow between critical origins and destinations for police, fire, medical and other emergency response vehicles as well as the motoring public.

Representatives from the city and the consulting firm URS Corp. will be present to answer questions and to take written or oral statements regarding the project.

URS senior project manager Jim Marty said the study is expected to be completed by the end of June.

Tuesday’s public information meeting is similar to last year’s meeting at Fire Station No. 3 on Griffin Street, but more details will be presented.

“We will present a preferred alternative and cost comparisons,” Marty said.

He wouldn’t say which corridor is the best for uninterrupted east/west traffic.

City engineer David Schnelle said the meeting will be the first time he hears details of the alternatives.

Among the details, he expects to hear about the costs and pros and cons of Fairchild Street going over the railroad tracks.

URS officials will further review public comments that result from this meeting. It then will submit a completed report to city officials next month.

Schnelle has said proposed Voorhees Street bridge improvements could be identified in the study as the “preferred corridor.”

Aldermen earlier this year authorized the petition of the Illinois Commerce Commission to replace the Voorhees Street bridge over the exempt Norfolk Southern Railroad line west of Bowman Avenue.

The city wants to replace the bridge with a roadway on fill with appropriate drainage structures.

Cost of replacing the roadway and fill with a new grade separation structure would be the city’s responsibility.

Construction could start next year.

This corridor study is a spin-off of the Fairchild Subway structure study. It is evaluating Fairchild as a corridor and comparing it to other alternatives.

The city hired consulting firm URS of Decatur to perform an initial structural assessment for $59,000 and then a second phase of evaluation, recommendations and a corridor study for $67,136.

A structural assessment of the Fairchild Subway shows further wall displacement, in addition to its continuing deterioration.

URS representatives have said the city must look at options to replace the retaining walls.

The study’s corridor alternatives follow the general existing alignments of Voorhees, Fairchild, Williams and Seminary streets and Bowman Avenue.

Four new bridges carrying Logan, Voorhees and Williams streets over railroad tracks and an extension of Seminary Street to Logan over a new alignment were depicted on maps as alternatives last year.

Schnelle said the city is considering all routes for the best ways to travel east and west. This can include continuing to use Fairchild Street and rehabilitating the subway.

The corridor study is funded through the Danville Area Transportation Study. The city would seek state funding to help on a selected project.

FYI

An open-house public information meeting will be from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Robert E. Jones Municipal Building’s community room, 17 W. Main St.