LTU Postpones Portion Of North 48th Street Project

(KFOR Lincoln November 4, 2023)

Lincoln Transportation and Utilities (LTU) Friday announced it will postpone the arterial improvement project on North 48th Street from Leighton to Madison avenues. That portion of North 48th Street will open to traffic the week of Thanksgiving and remain open until spring 2024.

“The City’s commitment to its business community and our effort to maintain the City’s infrastructure continues to be top priorities for our team,” said Liz Elliott, LTU Director. “Postponing this segment of the arterial mill and overlay project will open up the street several weeks sooner than planned. This will allow for easy entrance into businesses in this area just in time for Black Friday and also mitigate any risk of construction delays or future maintenance issues due to weather unconducive to construction operations or any unforeseen circumstances.”

To prepare the area for traffic, crews are filling holes, completing work on a pedestrian signal at Huntington Avenue, cleaning the site, and applying temporary pavement markings. The Leighton to Madison avenues portion of the project was originally expected to be completed in winter 2023/2024. The remaining work on the project is expected to take up to eight weeks to complete.

“We are listening to our community,” said Kris Humphrey, LTU Project Delivery Manager. “The water main project, which was one of the primary reasons for the full closure to this section of North 48th Street, will be complete the week of Thanksgiving and the road opened to traffic. We will return to this area in the spring and construct a new smooth street in weather conditions more conducive to the construction activities remaining. We plan to keep one lane of street open in each direction during the remaining construction activities in 2024.”

LTU planned construction on three improvement projects in the area simultaneously to decrease construction inconveniences by more than a year:

• The University Place Neighborhood Street Improvement Project is expected to be completed in mid-November.
• The North 48th Street Water Main Replacement Project from Leighton Avenue to Gladstone Street is scheduled to be completed the week of Thanksgiving.
• The North 48th Street Improvement Project north of Madison Avenue has been completed.

The North 48th Street project was divided into four phases of construction to ease traffic inconveniences:

• Cornhusker Highway to Superior Street reopened on June 23.
• Fremont Street to Cornhusker Highway reopened on July 17.
• Adams to Fremont streets reopened on September 8.
• North 48th Street from Leighton Avenue to Madison Avenue will open Thanksgiving week.