OMAHA, Neb.(KMTV) — Gerald Johnson has lived near Harrison Street for about 26 years and since he moved to the neighborhood there's been talk of widening Harrison.
As that goal looks closer to reality, he was one of the dozens that came out to hear about the next steps and voice some concerns.
"Well I'd like to see the traffic flow smoothly. I'd like to see a lot of the stop and go traffic stop, and safety is my biggest thing," says Gerald Johnson, who lives nearby.
Once the weather turns around in April, phase two of the project will begin. That'll widen Harrison from 150th to around 153rd, where phase one stopped.
Then sometime around July, they'll be onto phase three, widening the road east to around 146th street to complete the project.
"A lot of the benefits that we're seeing from the construction overall, are already starting to take place and now we're going to work our way back east and connect the dots between 144th and Harrison and 156th and Harrison," says project principal at Olsson Associates, Michael Piernicky.
Many in attendance seemed pleased with the plans to continue to widen the road but Ron Suchy is worried about eliminating a left turn on 154th and Harrison. He says residents will now have to go around Neihardt Elementary when they want to get east to the interstate.
"They may have solved the problem of alleviating the traffic on Harrison Street but there is a bigger problem of the safety of the kids, there's nothing but traffic going in and out of there right around the school zone,” says Ron Suchy, who lives in the area.
But project principal Michael Piernicky says if there is issues with the school, they can make changes after construction.
"They'll work with Millard Public Schools, if things aren't working quite correctly, they'll coordinate with each other, and try to make stuff work to the best of their ability after the construction is done,” says Piernicky.
