City moving ahead with La Quinta Village roadway project

People who travel will see changes in the La Quinta Village as the city is set to begin a road improvement project.

There won’t be too many four-way stops in the La Quinta village, as the city prepares to make significant changes. Instead of stopping at a traffic light, drivers will navigate roundabouts.

“They reduce traffic speeds and if you do get accidents, what you get is a sideswipe type accident rather than a head-on collision which can a lot more damaging,” Bryan McKinney, Engineer for the city of La Quinta, said.

It’s all part of the La Quinta Village Complete Streets Project, meant to encourage more pedestrian and bike traffic. The $13.5 million project is funded through a state grant and city funds. A total of five roundabouts will be placed in the area, along with expanded bike lanes by reducing traffic lanes. It’s all meant to attract more foot traffic to the village.

“It really helps creates a destination in the village and draws in not only tourists visitors and new businesses to the area,” McKinney said.

Not only will there be crosswalks at the roundabouts in the intersections but also in strategic places in between intersections like across Calle Tampico right by Franklin Elementary School.

Some living nearby in the La Quinta Cove were open to the project.

“There’s not a lot of traffic on Tampico, so reducing the lane will probably just fine,” Dick Storbo, a La Quinta Cove resident, said.

Others believed construction would snarl traffic.

“It definitely slows down everything and it just causes more pandemonium between the bikers and the pedestrians and the drivers. More people, it’s changing. People don’t know what’s going on,” Justin Jones, a La Quinta Cove resident, said.

The city says the project will be done in phases to address any concerns.

“We always wanted to leave some paths open, so while we’re on Tampico, we’re leaving Eisenhower and 52 open,” McKinney said.

The project is scheduled to begin in June and should be finished by October of 2020.

The city also says they plan on doing public outreach to let people know businesses in the area are open during construction.

More information on the project can be found here.