City of Massillon Lincoln Way Streetscape
Award-Winning, Renovated Streetscape Calms Traffic, Increases Pedestrian Safety and Enhances City’s Public Realm
In 2016, the City of Massillon partnered with OHM Advisors to create a Downtown Vision and Capital Improvement Plan that evaluated the desires and needs of downtown businesses and residents, identified target improvement areas, and developed a strategy to enhance the streetscape for the purpose of promoting renewal and growth within the City.
To do this, the team utilized a community-based design process, working with the City, residents and area merchants and performing extensive research to strategically engage the community and stakeholders and discover people’s vision for the downtown area. As a result of this deep engagement with the community, it was decided that the Lincoln Way Streetscape, located on the historic Lincoln Highway in Downtown Massillon, should be the first capital improvement project resulting from the Vision Plan because of longstanding issues with vehicular speeds and pedestrian safety, and a deteriorating public realm in the downtown area.
Our team’s award-winning design for streetscape includes traffic calming and pedestrian safety elements such as decorative crosswalks to provide contrast from the roadway pavement as a visual cue for drivers; curb bumpouts to define on-street parking areas and shorten the pedestrian crossing distance; landscape buffers to provide more space between the roadway and sidewalks, creating a comfortable pedestrian zone; and a tabled mid-block crosswalk to slow vehicles and add a pedestrian crossing.
Primarily funded by the U.S. DOT’s Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP)—which provides federal funding for planning, design, and construction of infrastructure related projects that enhance pedestrian and vehicular safety—the project focused on revitalizing the streetscape in the downtown commercial district. The project goal was to create a safer, pedestrian-friendly place that blends with the local history of the 200-year-old city, drives people to engage with each other in the heart of their community, and boosts the economic competitiveness of the area.
Project highlights: transportation engineering, planning, landscape architecture, urban design, streetscape design, community engagement
