By Alex Ginsberg
A series of roadway improvements at the intersection of Springfield Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue set to begin next month will enhance safety and reduce traffic accidents at the beleaguered intersection, public officials and community activists believe.
Richard Hellenbrecht, chairman of Community Board 13, said all four approaches to the intersection would receive left-turn signals and left-turn lanes. In addition, bollards – or short posts – will be constructed to protect sidewalks along the southeast corner of the intersection, which is home to the Queens Village Day School.
According to Hellenbrecht, three left-turn lanes were already planned for the intersection as part of a larger plan to improve Springfield Boulevard south of Jamaica Avenue, but the fourth lane and the bollards were added to the plan after the school wrote public officials urging more protection for the southeast corner.
“It's a very busy intersection,” said state Assemblywoman Barbara Clark (D-Queens Village), whose district office is just steps from Queens Village Day School. “Extra care is needed to protect a place that houses over 150 children.”
Villa Brown, the school's director of special projects and development, said Clark was instrumental in procuring the measures.
Brown said there had been several accidents at the intersection recently, including one in which an out-of-control van careened up onto the sidewalk in front of the school.
“We wrote to everyone in politics in this area,” Brown said of the school's campaign to have the safety measures installed. She said letters were sent to state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans), Community Board 13 and Borough President Helen Marshall.
A spokesman for the city's Department of Design and Construction, Stuart Wershub, said work would begin within the next two months and was expected to last between three and four months.
Wershub added that the entire Springfield Boulevard reconstruction program – which includes upgrades of sewers, pipes, sidewalks, curbs and road surfaces and expansion to two lanes of traffic in each direction – would take about 1 1/2 years.
Reach reporter Alex Ginsberg by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.
