FORGING THE CONCRETE RIVER. The city has planned input meetings throughout the summer where locals can shape the Hastings Way redesign slated for later this year.

    Known for being populated by young families and progressives, Eau Claire’s Eastside Hill Neighborhood is often bustling with people biking on the trails or walking to the park. And whether going for a bite to eat or heading to work, many of them have at some point biked or walked the few blocks from their home to downtown. But ask someone who lives there if they’ve ever traveled a similar distance to eat at Blue Moon or Cancun, shop at Mega East, or pick up a flick from Blockbuster. They don’t.

The reason for this breakdown is the design of Hastings Way (Business 53). Placing importance on the tens of thousands of vehicles that fly through there every day, engineers years ago threw down more than six lanes of concrete and a few lighted intersections for a fast, efficient trip to the north. Quite simply, it created a disjointed mental block or schism that makes the people living nearby feel unwelcome unless they’re in a car.

Today, it’s a different situation in terms of the roadway’s users, as out-of-town travelers now have the 53 Bypass. And with the city planning public input meetings throughout summer, locals have an amazing opportunity to shape the major redesign slated for later this year.

“We’re trying to understand that roadway from the eyes of the people living, working, and breathing around it every day,” said Brian Amundson, the city’s public works director.

Hastings Way serves a far more local role than it once did, but Amundson said the challenge of the redesign will be to continue accommodating the more than 20,000 cars that take the route every day, plus maintain access to businesses. “The challenge is blending that with the multimodal needs of bicycles and pedestrians,” he added, “and that’s something we’ll have to work through in the next six to eight months.”

The city council recently awarded the Hastings Way contract to the Chippewa Falls firm Short Elliott Hendrickson (SEH). Though the council is obligated to take charge of the design, planning, and construction administration of the project, before any of that can happen the city wants to hear our two cents.

This isn’t a mere legal formality, where the city has to hear us out. They literally have no plans of any kind. Or, in Amundson’s words, “the canvas is blank.”

That said, certain things like right of ways and the amount of space to work with will stay roughly the same. But new items like bike lanes, overpasses, underpasses, and roundabouts have already been tossed into the suggestion box and there’s no telling what else will come out of the meetings and eventually become part of the plan.

If for whatever reason your evenings are packed or you’re not comfortable with the public meeting forum, the city is making the intelligent move of preparing alternative conversation streams online. “In today’s world, meetings aren’t the only avenue for public input,” Amundson said.  A whole bunch of web info on the project is up now at EauClaireWI.gov.

To prepare yourself for the discussion, refer to the newsletter the city recently mailed out or to the public works portion of the website.

    The Hastings Way Public Input meetings will take place throughout summer. The first is May 27 at Regis High School, from 5-7pm.