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Garfield extension includes bike lanes For the past five years, there has been talk of widening Garfield Street and connecting it with Highland Avenue in south Medford. Do the plans include bike lanes, since the proposed traffic route will pass next to the Jefferson Elementary School grounds? -- Tom F., Medford There has been talk of connecting Garfield across Interstate 5 to Highland, Tom, but so far no decision has been made to do that. The city of Medford is, however, planning to extend Garfield from its eastern end at South Holly Street to Highway 99, connecting to Belknap Road, said Jerry Barnes of the city Public Works Department. That project is expected to go to bid early next year and ground is expected to be broken in April or May. The new road will be five lanes, with two lanes running in each direction and a center turn lane with tree islands, Barnes said. It will have bike lanes on both sides of the street and sidewalks on the north side and on part of the south side. (It won't have a sidewalk from Myers Lane west, because the land bumps right against the city limits and the city's urban growth boundary.) The bike lanes will end at South Holly Street, where the two-lane portion of Garfield now ends. Barnes said the only way to build bike lanes from Holly Street west on Garfield would be to eliminate on-street parking. "It's an idea that's come up, but I don't think that it's gotten very far," Barnes said. ( Send your questions to "Since You Asked," Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; or by fax to (541) 776-4376; or by e-mail to: [email protected] Please include your name, address and phone number for verification.) Today's News Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA