Fargo has a good plan to fix aging downtown thoroughfares. The multi-million-dollar, multi-year project would not only reconstruct and redesign street surfaces but also replace the 100-year-old infrastructure beneath the streets. Additionally, the projects would present a timely opportunity to eliminate one-way traffic on Main and NP avenues in favor of a two-way pattern that would have two lanes one way and one lane the other.
In addition to the one-way conversion and redesign, the city is looking at improvements from Main Avenue to Fifth Avenue North and from University Drive to the Red River.
The projects also could incorporate pedestrian-friendly walks and accommodate better access to businesses, planners say.
While the cost is high, the funds could come from extending a half-cent city sales tax, the proceeds of which have been used for street projects and interim flood work. In other words, the city could complete a major downtown street makeover - one that is needed - without raising the sales tax already on the books.
One way or another, several downtown streets are in need of resurfacing. It makes sense to do comprehensive projects that address not only the pavement but also modern redesign of traffic lanes and sidewalks and the aging pipes and other utilities beneath the streets. The targeted areas are extensions of modernization projects already done downtown on Broadway. Extending the benefits of the improvements on Broadway is one goal of the projects in the planning stages.
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Fargo engineers and planners are looking ahead a generation or more. Their work is the kind of visionary planning that has helped Fargo address traffic and road needs before they become intractable problems.
Forum editorials represent the opinion of Forum management and the newspaper's Editorial Board.
