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DOT to Add Speed Bumps, Convert Part of 5th Street to One-Way

 The Department of Transportation is exploring a plan that would convert 5th Street in Long Island City to a one-way between 46th Road and 50th Avenue.
The Department of Transportation is exploring a plan that would convert 5th Street in Long Island City to a one-way between 46th Road and 50th Avenue.
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DNAinfo.com/Jeanmarie Evelly

HUNTERS POINT — The city is moving forward with a plan to convert a portion of 5th Street into a one-way road, following calls for traffic improvements.

The plan, which has been under discussion since last year, will begin the week of July 7, as first reported by the LIC Post. It will turn the stretch of 5th Street between 50th Avenue and 46th Road into a one-way southbound street, and will add two speed bumps along the same strip, officials said.

"This is long overdue," said Community Board 2 Chair Joe Conley, who said ongoing construction projects along 5th Street had delayed implementation of the project.

Conley said that the roadway is narrow — just 30 feet wide, officials said previously — making it difficult to accomodate two lanes of traffic, especially when people double-park or delivery trucks stop on the street.

"Cars were dodging each other because there wasn’t enough roadway for the cars to travel both ways at one time," he said.

In addition to the traffic change, the Department of Transportation will install speed bumps on 5th Street, one between 48th and 49th Avenues and another between 49th and 50th Avenues.

Local leaders and elected officials have previously called for traffic safety improvements on the roadway, which they said was prone to speeding, erecting a homemade cardboard stop sign at the corner of 5th Street and 47th Avenue in 2012.

The DOT installed a real stop sign at that same intersection a few months later.

"5th Street in Long Island City has been plagued with reckless driving and speeding for far too long," City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said in a statement.

"The one-way conversion and addition of speed humps along 5th Street will make this residential strip safer for all local residents, families and children who live in Long Island City."