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Inner Loop Detours To Start Next Month

Rochester wants to fill in this section of the moat-like Inner Loop. The mayor thinks a final design will up the odds of landing federal funding
Friscocali / via Flickr
Rochester wants to fill in this section of the moat-like Inner Loop. The mayor thinks a final design will up the odds of landing federal funding

If you take a portion of the Inner Loop in Rochester you may be facing some changes in your morning or afternoon commute starting next month.

As the project to fill in part of the Inner Loop gets in gear, city officials plan to meet Tuesday with the contractor to set a date for the first detour to be put in place.

City Engineer Jim McIntosh expects some of those detours to start around November first.  He says a portion of the Inner Loop will be closed between Monroe Avenue and Main Street.

"And that would be the first time that construction is starting and at that point traffic would be diverted up to the parallel surface roads, Pitkin (Street) and North Union (Street) up above."

McIntosh does not expect a big impact on downtown traffic at that point. He says about six thousand cars a day use that portion of the Inner Loop.

"And if you want to compare that to other two lane roads in the city, by comparison, Monroe Avenue gets about 14,000 cars a day, East Avenue about 11,000 so moving that six thousand up to essentially two lanes in each direction on Pitkin and Union really should not be an impact to those streets."

McIntosh says other detours, such as the temporary closing of some bridges that cross the Inner Loop downtown would happen next year.

There will be a meeting open to the public on Thursday evening to go over the construction schedule. It starts at 6pm Thursday at the Bausch and Lomb, Kate Gleason Library.

The $23 million is funded by a combination of federal and state funds. It’s expected to be completed sometime in 2017.

The project is an effort to improve the economic viability of the area as well as help neighborhoods be better connected.

The project is an effort to improve the economic viability of the area as well as help neighborhoods be better connected.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.