Lehighton has temporarily hit the pause button on the next phase of safety improvements for its waterfront area.

A motion to approve an option associated with the plan was stymied at a special meeting held by borough council last week.

Earlier, council heard a presentation from Bryan Smith, of Barry Isett & Associates, who discussed two options with council.

Concept A includes thermoplastic pavement marking materials for crosswalks, for which the life span of the product is about five years. It also includes rumble strips, the pedestrian beacon lights, speed indicators and additional trees for landscaping. Rumble strips would be proposed along the length of the bypass.

Concept B includes a decorative brick paver for the crosswalks, along with the road surface to designate turning lanes, for which the life span of the product can be expected to last between 10-20 years.

“This application is more costly, so we would not be able to complete the entire length of the left lane,” borough Manager Nicole Beckett said after the meeting. Paint would be used at the southern end. This concept includes the pedestrian beacon lights, speed indicators and additional trees.

Both concepts include the bituminous materials for the walking path along Lehigh Drive, Beckett said after the meeting.

Beckett asked Smith if the borough should look at redoing the speed limit down there, as the speed limit is 40 mph there, and if the striping should be changed.

Smith said council should absolutely look at redoing the speed limit, and added the striping would be yellow.

Beckett also discussed the potential removal of the directional sign.

“We received a report that the signs are deteriorating,” Beckett said. “They need to be removed.”

Councilman Joe Flickinger said he believed council should get input from all of its members before any vote be taken.

At that, Councilwoman Autumn Abelovsky made a motion to go with Option 2, which died due to the lack of a second.

Councilmen Donnie Rehrig and Darryl Arner, along with Councilwoman Lisa Perry were absent.

In October, council on a 6-0 vote agreed to proceed with the updated concept plan for the Multimodal Transportation fund grant for Sgt. Stanley Hoffman Boulevard.

Ashley Eichlin, of Barry Isett & Associates, reviewed the alternative concept design with council, which she said would result in traffic calming measures.

Eichlin said at that time they decided to keep the ADA ramps and crosswalks, and added there would be a speed indicator posted on Stanley Hoffman Boulevard.

The new plan includes a walking path along Lehigh Drive; pedestrian beacon lights; instead of bump-outs, there would be a textured surface in the turning lane similar to a rumble strip; decorative crosswalks; and solar power speed monitors to tell motorists their actual speed.

Beckett recommended to council at that time that it make a motion to approve the concept plans with all the other details to come once they go out to final design.

In September, Smith reviewed the conceptual plan with council, which he said would make things safer for pedestrians, and also help the borough’s MS4 program.

The bump-outs would serve dual purposes in that they would slow traffic and help with the borough’s stormwater management.

Borough engineer Bruce Steigerwalt said at that time that based on what he observed from having worked down on Stanley Hoffman Boulevard, slowing the traffic down could prove a real task.

Afterward, council at that meeting deadlocked on a 3-3 vote to proceed with the bump-outs. With Councilman Donnie Rehrig absent, Mayor Clark Ritter, in his capacity, opted against the measure and cast the deciding vote in opposition.

Essentially, council asked Smith to come back with a revised plan without the bump-outs, but rather with lines being painted on the road to show how they would conceptually address speeding without using bump-outs, and agreed to proceed with the concept plan for the Multimodal Transportation fund grant for Sgt. Stanley Hoffman Boulevard.

Previously, council agreed to have the first phase of the safety improvements in Lehighton’s Waterfront area to be designed and bid, and proceed with the engineering proposal of $48,000.

Beckett noted that the borough has received a total of $480,000; $250,000 through the Multimodal Transportation Fund Program that was received last month, and $230,000 from Local Share funds that were awarded in 2020.

The work along Sgt. Stanley Hoffman Boulevard and Lehigh Drive would include a 6-foot-wide walkway, crosswalks, curb extensions, ADA ramps and signs.

In addition, the continuous left-turn lane along the boulevard would be removed.

That project stems from a waterfront traffic study that was completed last year at the recommendation of council for the existing conditions, and to prepare for future growth.