The City of Philadelphia announced that changes are coming to Castor Avenue.
“We want the street to be designed in a way that it’s beautiful and accessible,” said Andrew Simpson, Complete Streets District Manager for the City of Philadelphia.
Officials plan on reconstructing the avenue because they said it’s to improve the safety along the 1.7-mile stretch on Castor Avenue from North to Oxford Circle to Cottman Avenue, as part of the city’s Vision Zero Action Plan.
“From 2018 to 2022, Castor Avenue has experienced over 197 total crashes that includes five fatalities,” said PennDOT Civil Engineer Manager Ashwin Patel.
The project includes reducing Castor Avenue to one driving lane with a center turn lane, a new raised curb extension, boarding lanes for SEPTA, and bike lanes on the side walks.
“We have a lot of folks who live in the corridor. They need access to these businesses, and they need to do so safely. The safety track record speaks for itself,” added Simpson.
However, some members of the community oppose the changes.
“Does it look like it’s broken? Cars are functioning fine, I mean they talk about safety statistics, if they say five deaths in five years, let’s look at what happens on the boulevard in 5 minutes,” said Robert Rudnitsky.
Rudnitsky is with the civic group Take Back Your Neighborhood and told NBC10 he’s spoken to numerous neighbors and business owners along the corridor who say they are against the project.
“If this community is getting larger because we are growing, why would we make the roads smaller?” said Rudnitsky.
“It’s going to decrease traffic to the store,” said Tim Monahan of the Castor Pharmacy and Surgical Supplies store.
In an already struggling economy, business owners in the area say they fear it will hurt profits.
“Doesn’t help when you have a big project like that, and it will reduce the traffic down Castor Avenue,” Monahan added.
According to city officials, the construction for this project will take at least two years and will cost around $25 million.
Neighbors who want to voice their opinions are welcome to a meeting at Northeast High School at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14.
