Dan Reiner

dreiner@lohud.com

NEW ROCHELLE - An upcoming change to an access road in one of the city's busiest areas could have a major impact on downtown drivers.

Station Plaza North — the street that runs through the New Rochelle Transit Center complex adjacent to I-95 — will become a one-way road in an effort to improve traffic circulation. It's currently a two-way street with access at either Division Street or North Avenue.

The new version of the road will run eastbound, with entrance to the Metro-North station and the parking garage at Division Street. The change starts Aug. 22.

The city will post signs on North Avenue and Memorial Highway starting next week to alert drivers of the upcoming alterations. As needed, New Rochelle police officers will control and monitor traffic at busy intersections.

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The change to Station Plaza North comes in preparation for next year's state-planned reconstruction of the North Avenue Bridge, which spans I-95.

"We’ll see how things go," Mayor Noam Bramson said in a post on his website. "If it works, the new pattern will be here to stay. If not, we can shift back to a two-way pattern when the bridge project wraps up."

Business owners near the Transit Center had mixed reactions to the upcoming changes.

“I hope it doesn’t affect us,” said Jose Flores, owner of nearby Chili Dog Restaurant on North Avenue. “We are a really small business. We depend on the people ­— the cars going back and forth on this road … New Rochelle needs to do upgrades. If it doesn’t affect my business, I don’t oppose this kind of development in the city.”

Michael Johnson, the owner of neighboring One Love Barbershop, believes the congestion at the busy North Avenue intersection will only increase with the redirection.

“The traffic is bad as it is and I think it’s going to be worse,” he said. “It’s going to be chaos.”

Here will be the new ways to get into the Transit Center, starting Aug. 22:

From the north: From North Avenue, take Lincoln, Lockwood, or Burling Lane to Memorial Highway and enter Station Plaza North by making a left just after the I-95 overpass.

From the south: Take Main Street to Memorial Highway and make the first left to loop around to enter Station Plaza North by making a left just after the I-95 overpass.

For more information on New Rochelle's construction projects, check the city's roadway alerts page.