Published October 15 2015
In advance of the holiday shopping season, the city Thursday opened a four-block extension of Northeast Fourth Street, which extends the Wilburton arterial from 116th Avenue Northeast to 120th Avenue Northeast.
Similar to several other priority road projects under construction or in the planning stage, the long-awaited extension is designed to address existing and anticipated growth in downtown and the BelRed corridor.
The extension will provide an alternate east-west route, reduce travel times for drivers, freight haulers, transit riders, pedestrians and bicyclists and improve local access and circulation and reduce congestion on Northeast Eighth Street.
The Fourth Street extension was a two-phase project. The first phase was from 116th Avenue to the Eastside Rail Corridor. The second phase completed the extension to 120th Avenue.
Now that Northeast Fourth is open, drivers will find changes to the lanes heading north from the Interstate 405 interchange to the 116th Avenue intersection. There will be only one left-turn lane heading north, as opposed to two, and a new through lane heading east. To help drivers, signing will identify lane direction and a police officer will be on site for the first couple of days.
Roadway users will see a five-lane arterial with two travel lanes in each direction, a center-turn lane, with bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides. A new traffic signal at the intersection of Northeast Fourth Street and 120th Avenue Northeast, and modifications to the intersection at 116th Avenue Northeast, are expected to improve traffic flow.