How difficult is the puzzle of how best to improve traffic flow and accommodate growth along Bowling Green’s Fairview Avenue corridor?

At Tuesday evening’s public forum at Eastwood Baptist Church, local resident Thomas Donnelly may have summed it up best when he said: “You picked a great spot to have this meeting because I think we all need to pray for this road.”

Donnelly was one of about 60 residents who turned out to give their input and hear a presentation from consultant Chad Bourke of Louisville’s Strand Associates, the design firm hired by the Bowling Green-Warren County Metropolitan Planning Organization.

Bourke presented a corridor safety and capacity analysis that showed that the stretch of Fairview Avenue from U.S. 31-W By-Pass to Hayes Lane has some issues.

A Strand analysis showed that the corridor has a crash rate of 741 crashes per million vehicle miles, much higher than the state average of 480.

Individual stretches of the corridor were graded poorly in the Strand study as well. The U.S. 31-W By-Pass and Fairview intersection, for example, showed an average intersection delay of 43.3 seconds and received a grade of D. The intersection at Fairview and Greenlawn Avenue received a grade of F during the afternoon peak driving time.

Bourke chalked up the high crash rate to the absence of left-turn lanes along the road, and he presented three possible improvements that could help address that and other issues.

The first alternative proposes taking the road from four lanes to three, with a middle turn lane and bicycle lanes on each side. It would be an inexpensive solution, but Bourke pointed out that it would reduce capacity and create longer delays.

A second alternative would widen the road to five lanes, with a turn lane in the middle. Bourke said this proposal would improve safety and increase capacity but would come at a much greater cost because of utility relocation and numerous grave relocations from Fairview Cemetery.

The third alternative, called a barbell roundabout, would include a raised median separator to prevent left turns while including roundabouts at the U.S. 31-W By-Pass and Kereiakes Park intersections. Motorists would make “indirect left turns” in which they make U-turns in one of the roundabouts.

Bourke said the three-lane option is “not feasible” and indicated that the five-lane option may not be possible because of the cemetery. As for the roundabout option, he said: “The safety improvements would be significant, but the big drawback is the inconvenience.”

The consultant fielded many questions from residents during the 75-minute meeting, many of them related to the roundabouts and their ability to handle large vehicles such as firetrucks and tractor-trailers.

“Roundabouts can accommodate a lot of cars,” Bourke said, “and modern roundabouts are designed to accommodate tractor-trailers.”

Some residents, including Charlotte Smith of Meadowlawn Avenue, aren’t sure any of the three options will work.

“To be honest, the roundabout thing freaks me out,” she said. “I’ll never be able to turn left off my street.”

As for the five-lane option, Smith said: “Disturbing the graves would be a tragedy.”

Another resident, Terry Simon, favors the five-lane option with a twist.

“I think they should make it five lanes from Hayes Lane to the bypass but take it back down to four lanes at the cemetery,” he said.

Bourke emphasized that this was only a preliminary public meeting. He said Strand will make projections of future traffic volumes, based on a 2.3 percent annual growth rate, and it will consider public comments from Tuesday’s meeting and results of a survey before holding another meeting in February. Bourke hopes to complete the study and present recommendations in March.

Metropolitan Planning Organization Coordinator Karissa Lemon said Tuesday’s meeting was a good first step.

“This was definitely worthwhile,” she said. “I would have liked a better turnout, but the discussion was quite helpful as we move forward and evaluate the alternatives.”

The survey that was made available at Tuesday’s meeting will be posted on the MPO website (http://warrenpc.org/mpo/index.php), and Bourke indicated that his presentation will be posted on that website as well.

– Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.