Navicent officials propose traffic changes around Medical Center

Since major changes with new lofts and a new pediatric care facility are underway, Navicent Health presented Macon-Bibb County officials with ideas Tuesday for improving access to the medical campus.

Navicent continues moving ahead with plans for a new pediatric center, and construction is expected to be finished this summer on the Lofts at Navicent — a 60-apartment unit and retail space on Spring Street.

And tying into those improvements, Navicent’s proposed traffic improvements include a potential roundabout and partial road closure, which drew concern from at least one Macon-Bibb official.

Navicent officials said the ideas are in the preliminary stages and that they plan to meet with residents in the neighborhood that would be affected by the traffic changes. Macon-Bibb commissioners would have to approve any of the road projects.

“Our goal here broadly is to create a sense of destination that you’ve arrived in a medical district,” Navicent official Timothy Slocum said.

The four proposed changes include:

▪  A roundabout at Spring and Pine streets;

▪  Closing a portion of Spring Street and Columbus Street for an outdoor plaza and green space;

“The county owns a park, and we own the adjacent parcel,” Slocum said. “We propose creating a green space … that serves as a buffer between us and the neighborhood.”

▪  Improvements at Hemlock Street and New Street, including islands, landscaping and removal of on-street parking.

▪  Traffic intersection reconfiguration (possible roundabout) at New Street, Forsyth Street and D.T. Walton Way.

“It’s a funny five-way intersection that creates some questions about pedestrian safety and how best to navigate that,” Slocum said.

The idea of shutting down part of Spring Street is not appealing to the neighborhood’s residents, Commissioner Larry Schlesinger said.

“What I fear and what the neighborhood fears is traffic will be routed into the neighborhood itself by closing off Spring Street,” he said. “I really think that if you’re going to sell this, you’ve got to go to neighbors and talk about it. The way it looks now, I think you’ll have to be willing to compromise.”

This story was originally published April 25, 2017 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Navicent officials propose traffic changes around Medical Center."