robert.samuels@roanoke.com 981-3340

Traffic-calming efforts along Bullitt Avenue Southeast are making Robert Parsley furious.

Parsley, 44, said he has lived in Southeast Roanoke all of his life and has witnessed many changes. But this current construction project, Parsley said, "is the dumbest thing the city has ever done."

Complaints from both residents and drivers about traffic on Bullitt Avenue from Sixth to Ninth streets have been "numerous," said Mark Jamison, the city's traffic engineer. In an effort to slow traffic in the Bullitt-Jamison Avenue corridors, construction workers placed chicanes - sidewalk extensions that shift traffic lines - and chokers, which are curb extensions at intersections, along one of the busiest thoroughfares for traffic entering and leaving Roanoke from the east.

The additional curves provide more obstacles for those speeding through the residential neighborhood, forcing them to obey the 30 mph speed limit, Jamison said. The city is also using traffic-calming measures on Grandin Road and Williamson Road.

Bullitt-Jamison's construction project is in its first of four phases and is projected to end in November, Jamison said. Eventually the construction will extend westbound to 13th Street and Bullitt and then back east from 13th to Sixth Street on Jamison, the traffic engineer said. The project is a part of Southeast by Design, a city plan to stabilize and improve the neighborhood.

During a rush hour traffic jam, Parsley pointed to the bright orange cones on the road and the excavated ground it surrounded. He pointed to the dirt-filled, U-shaped obstacles - the chicanes and chokers.

"They call this beautifying?" he said. "Look at it."

Cars crammed the road beyond its traffic light post at Bullitt and Ninth. Those waiting to join the line on Bullitt stopped at a sign on Eighth Street. When the light at Bullitt and Ninth was red, driver Andy Lambert waited at the Eighth Street stop sign for more than a minute.

"If I told you what I really thought about this traffic, you wouldn't be able to print it," said Lambert, 47.

When the light turned green, cars on the road moved steadily. Some drivers tightened their shoulders and focused their eyes on the new traffic pattern, trying to master the swerving path.

Others talked on their cellphones, quickly swaying their steering wheels to avoid the chokers, the white islands already blackened from tire marks.

Mellisa Williamson, who lives on Bullitt, said she's seen many accidents on the road even before the new construction and now she has a new concern. Jackhammers sound off each morning, she said, raising concerns for her unborn child.

"I'm seven months pregnant," said Williamson. "I don't want the noise hurting my baby."

Although Williamson said the "traffic calming" has slowed traffic, she added that the narrow road made the area more congested.

She also said she was worried that large vehicles couldn't drive safely on Bullitt, because the street is limited to one lane during the construction process.

The city put large yellow posts called lineators to help drivers navigate the area, especially at night, said Jamison, the traffic engineer. And although streets aren't as wide as they used to be, Jamison said, they should still be broad enough for larger vehicles, such as ambulances and school buses.

Jamison said he remained confident in the construction project despite the complaints. When the trees are planted on the curb extensions and traffic is slower, he said he thinks the calls from Southeast residents will be different.

"It's difficult for people to visualize what it will look like at the end," Jamison said. "I just ask for their patience during the process. They'll find after the project that they'll be happy and we'll be successful."