AUBURN – Work designed to slow down Court Street traffic in front of Auburn Middle School would cost $108,975, according to city staffers.

That would pay for two raised traffic tables, a new sidewalk along Court Street and Falcon Drive, relocated warning lights and better lighting. Community Services Director Eric Labelle said the work could begin as soon as the money to pay for it becomes available.

“There could be state grants available to pay for this work, but first we’d have to present the plan to city councilors and gauge the public’s support,” Labelle said.

Labelle, police and public works staff are scheduled to present a design plan to city councilors at the Sept. 2 meeting.

The design calls for putting in two speed bump-like tables along Court Street on either side of Falcon Drive, the entrance to the school. The city would move a crosswalk on the north side of Court Street to the south side. A yellow flashing light over the northern crosswalk would move to the southern side as well, and the city would install a new warning signal on the southeastern side of Court Street, opposite Falcon Drive.

The plan also calls for building a new sidewalk on the western side of Court Street, continuing up along Falcon Drive. That would include new street lights along Falcon Drive.

It’s designed to make the intersection safer for student pedestrians and others using the road. A group of parents began passing a petition this spring seeking to make the intersection safer, preferably with a traffic signal and stop light. Parents blamed the intersection’s poor design for a Sept. 26 accident. A student was hit by a bus while bicycling to school that morning.

State officials last week said a signal wasn’t warranted and would not help.

“But that doesn’t mean a traffic signal there is completely out of the question,” police Chief Phil Crowell said. “If we do what we can now, we’ll try to make the road safer. If it doesn’t work, we’ll continue pursing a signal at that intersection.”

Labelle also prepared a rough design of a roundabout at the intersection, but said it would take up too much of a neighbors’ property. A roundabout there would be the same size as one north of Mount Auburn Avenue on Turner Street, opposite the Lamey-Wellehan store.

“Still, I think it’s good that we got to see what a roundabout would look like there,” Crowell said. “If we hadn’t looked at it, there would have been questions why. At least we know it wouldn’t work.”