Council clears engineering agreement to expand West Loveland right-turn lane

The Loveland City Council voted unanimously to authorize the city manager to contract with TEC Engineering for design, bidding and construction supervision for the West Loveland Avenue/Fern Lane project, a traffic improvement intended to reduce peak-hour vehicle stacking on the right turn onto Loveland-Madeira Road.

City staff said the existing right-turn lane currently holds roughly three vehicles and that peak-period stacking forces drivers into the through lane. Staff presented three design options and recommended doubling the turn-lane capacity and synchronizing a right-turn arrow, which they said is less impactful to adjacent businesses than larger alternatives. TEC Engineering is the city’s selected traffic engineering consultant and previously designed a turn lane near a former mobile station and other corridor improvements.

Council members asked whether the city owned the necessary right-of-way (staff said yes), whether a roadside tree could be preserved or would need removal (staff said it could likely be avoided but removal might be safer and would comply with the city’s tree ordinance if removed before March 31), and whether sidewalks needed replacement (staff said sidewalk alignment would remain but this was a good time to replace the panels for continuity and that replacement cost was included in the CIP). Staff requested authority to proceed to engineering and bidding so the city can bid for 2025 construction season.