NDOT Reconstruction of 23rd Street in Columbus

The Nebraska Department of Transportation is working in collaboration with the City of Columbus to reconstruct 2.69 miles of 23rd Street (U.S. Highway 30) located in the city of Columbus. The project is located along a busy commercial corridor that experiences heavy traffic. This project would consolidate access, add pedestrian facilities, and update lighting and traffic signals.

During the early stages of the project, the City was evaluating streetscaping options for this portion of US-30, so NDOT took a proactive approach to this project by meeting with City community members prior to beginning design. NDOT held several stakeholder and public meetings involving the community as much as possible through the early stages of planning. One of the most concerning issues for the community was access to residential driveways and loss of parking. Public Involvement Manager Sarah Soula said, “We wanted residents and business owners to have safe, uninterrupted access to their homes and businesses. To accomplish this we plan to reconstruct curb inlets and storm sewers, consolidate and modify access drives, update roadway lighting and traffic signals to improve vehicle access, traffic flow, parking needs, and pedestrian access.”

Improved safety and connectivity were vital factors in the reconstruction design so medians were incorporated to reduce the number of available turning movements which typically improves both safety and efficiency of traffic. NDOT worked with the community on a plan to maintain existing traffic patterns and flow by replicating the various existing median styles to which the city and traveling public have been accustomed.

As currently planned, a public pre-construction meeting will occur in fall 2021 to present construction phasing plans and allow the public to interact with the contractor. Construction is tentatively scheduled for spring 2022 and should take two years.

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