LEWISTON — Plans to rework Lewiston’s Main Street north of Russell Street will get a public review Thursday.

State crews are reviewing plans to widen the road, turning the three-lane stretch north of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge into a four-lane road — one lane southbound, two lanes northbound and a dedicated turn lane for Strawberry Avenue.

The state also plans to install a traffic signal at the Strawberry Avenue intersection.

The public review is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 19, in Callahan Hall, the third floor meeting space of the Lewiston Public Library.

Deputy Lewiston City Administrator Phil Nadeau said Thursday’s meeting will explain why the changes are needed.

“This stretch of road sees extremely heavy traffic — an average of 24,000 car trips per day,” Nadeau said. The road currently has one southbound lane, one northbound lane and a dedicated lane for northbound cars hoping to turn into Strawberry Avenue.

“What we hope these changes will do is keep the people making left-hand turns from just getting stuck there,” Nadeau said.

The Maine Department of Transportation is funding the work, which was requested by the city and the Androscoggin Transportion Resource Center.

 Nadeau said MDOT officials presented early drafts of the plan at a June meeting, but only notified those with Main Street addresses.

“That’s completely in keeping with MDOT policies,” Nadeau said. “For this meeting, we’ve notified many, many more. We’ve sent notices to people that live in the neighborhoods bordering Main Street because this is going to impact them.”

Nadeau said he expects as many as 200 to attend the meeting.

  staylor@sunjournal.com