The city of Medford recently narrowed a portion of the busy street down to one lane in each direction.
Just over a week ago, the city finished new striping on McAndrews road between Crater Lake Avenue and Springbrook road.
But that portion of McAndrews looks much different now.
In September, the road was re-paved as part of Medford’s pavement overlay program.
Previously that section of McAndrews had four total lanes but it’s been reduced down to one lane each direction.
To make use of the extra space a bike lane and a left-turn lane median were added.
The city said it wanted to make the area safer when making left turns.
“McAndrews has been an issue for quite some time and we’ve received plenty of comments, primarily from the left turns,” Medford public works director John Vial said. “Now with the center turn lane, people can make that movement from the two-way turn lane and outside of traffic and it’s much safer.”
According to the city, there have been numerous rear-end and left-turn accidents on that portion of McAndrews.
Vial said plans to make the street safer have been in the works for years, the re-paving gave them an opportunity to make these changes.
The city said this is one of many pavement projects they are working on, which means other streets could see new striping as well.
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