Depending upon how you count, as many as five streets intersect just east of Lake Como, between Como Park Elementary School and Como Park Senior High School.

The meeting point of Victoria Street, Wheelock Parkway, Maryland Avenue, East Como Boulevard and its offshoot onto Como Lake Drive is by no means the busiest around, but it’s become just complicated enough to warrant redoing pedestrian traffic islands just a few weeks after they were installed.

Hand-in-hand with a project to install St. Paul Grand Round bicycle paths around the city, St. Paul Public Works last year reconstructed Wheelock Parkway, leaving plastic bollards and a painted pedestrian island at the end of Wheelock to better assess traffic impacts.

A new concrete median separating eastbound and westbound traffic heading onto and off of Wheelock was installed a few weeks ago.

From mid-March to late April, contractors working for St. Paul’s sewer utility also replaced storm sewer on the southeast side of Lake Como.

The median work was once expected to take less than a week and wrap up in early May, but contractors were still out there this week, almost a month later, correcting the pedestrian island.

Among the concerns reported by some nearby residents, the configuration forced drivers heading northbound along Como Boulevard to crane their necks over their left shoulder at an awkward angle to spot oncoming traffic as they turned eastbound onto Wheelock Parkway.

Maryland Avenue at Como and Wheelock Parkway is a tricky intersection that got trickier last year after “improvements.” They’re now improving upon the improvements with a new pedestrian island: pic.twitter.com/EppwCQOxw1 — FredMelo, Reporter (@FrederickMelo) May 30, 2018

Work crews this week have been shaving off some of the existing median between Wheelock Parkway and Maryland Avenue to improve the turning radius.

“It is our understanding that this most recent construction was necessary in order to avoid drivers being confused about how to properly navigate the newly-redesigned intersection,” said Ryan Flynn, chairman of the District 10 Como Community Council, in an email. “District Ten … is aware of multiple complaints expressed on local community web pages about the confusing nature of the redesigned intersection and resulting concerns about safety.”

The District 10 Como Community Council posted a May 3 announcement about the work under “Neighborhood News” at District10ComoPark.org.

Among the changes, a Wheelock Parkway crosswalk that formed a bit of a zigzag with its partner on Maryland Avenue has now been corralled and brought under control.

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St. Paul schools superintendent gets high marks, but board wants progress on equity, enrollment, student achievement “As much as possible, this median also will discourage drivers on Maryland from using the dedicated right turn lane to swerve across Wheelock and head northbound on Victoria,” reads the announcement. “One crosswalk (and connecting ramps) on Wheelock will vanish. A replacement crosswalk will be installed farther west, which will be in line with the existing pedestrian crosswalk across Maryland. All crosswalks and stop bars at the intersection will be restriped.”

The intersection is controlled by stop signs.