Safety Enhancements to LaSalle Square, Fountain Street Crossing Completed

New traffic flow improves pedestrian safety in Downtown Providence.

The City of Providence today completed safety enhancements to LaSalle Square at the intersection of Fountain and Empire Streets. The new traffic flow will improve pedestrian safety in Downtown Providence.

Motor vehicle traffic proceeding from Empire Street will be required to use the traffic signal to take a left turn onto Fountain Street, eliminating the rolling left turn from Empire Street on to Fountain Street. The change will increase motorists' visibility of the Fountain Street crosswalk, improving pedestrian safety in the area. Other changes include additional pavement striping, signage, safety barrels and traffic signal timing revisions.

The road improvement work is one of the efforts to prepare for the third and final stage of the Downtown Circulator project, a multi-year, multi-phase project that is improving traffic flow in the City and making streets easier to navigate for all modes of transportation - including walking, bicycling, public transit and motor vehicle traffic.

Phase 3 of the Downtown Circulator project is scheduled to continue through 2015. Plans for the rest of Phase 3 are still being finalized. The project vision and draft plans were presented to the community last week at an informational meeting attended by dozens of community members.

See a map of the changes here.