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A preliminary plan for improvements to Dart Drive has been put on hold by Village of Lansing officials.  Proposed improvements would have cost $1.5 million, but Mayor Donald Hartill says that is too much, especially in light of future plans for eliminating the intersection of Dart and Warren Road.  "That is a bit on the pricey side," he says.  "I would be very reluctant to invest that kind of money if it will be a cul de sac."

Hartill says the Village hopes to reduce traffic and speeding on Dart Drive, which he says is overused by drivers taking a short cut from Triphammer Road along Graham and through Dart Drive to Warren Road.  He says busses regularly use the route even though the roads were not built for that kind of weight and traffic.


"A lot of people use it, including T-CAT," Hartill says.  "It's one of the more affordable residential districts in the Village.  Affordable usually means young children, so it's a fairly dangerous situation."

Another problem is the intersection between Dart and Warren Road.  Dart is too close to Route 13, making the turnoff dangerous as vehicles approach the Route 13 intersection.  Tompkins County plans to rebuild Warren Road, though the project has seen significant delays.  When that is done the Dart Drive intersection will stay as it is until the Village decides to close it off.  They also plan a traffic light at the Post Office entry, which faces Bomax Road, with the County and Village sharing the cost.


But closing off the intersection must wait until an alternative outlet is available further north.  Hartill says the eventual plan is for the owners of the Northwood Apartments to give the private Northwood Road to the Village, and then to make the Northwood/Warren intersection the main entry onto Warren Road from the neighborhoods to the west.  That would allow the municipality to make Northwood into an extension of Woodthrush Hollow Road that would go all the way to Warren.

The combined roadway would be renamed, and connect with existing roads at some point west of Warren, including Dart Drive and Bomax Road.  This would create an interconnected labyrinth that would allow residents to get where they want to go, while making the route unattractive as a short cut.


But that can only be accomplished if Northwood becomes a public road.  Hartill says that the national financial collapse has complicated the transfer, because the new owners' financiers are reluctant to make any changes to the scope of the property.  Hartill argues that it takes the developers out from under liability and maintenance if the Village owns the road.  "It's a win-win from any point of view," he says. 

For now the intent is to reduce speeding at a reasonable cost to the Village.  Hartill says he is continuing to work with village Engineer Dave Putnam to come up with a solution.  "A fairly attractive possibility is to beef up the shoulders and to extend the pavement as far as we can," Hartill says.  "We would then stripe bike lanes on both sides to make it look narrow, and install a speed hump half way down.  That will be much more affordable and should solve the problem."

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