“Two busy downtown Tacoma streets that have been one-way for decades are scheduled to be turned into two-way streets by the Tacoma Public Works Department.The department has scheduled re-striping for 11th Street, from A Street to Tacoma Ave.; and 13th Street, from Pacific Avenue to Tacoma Avenue, to improve downtown traffic circulation and business access. The department is looking at eventually taking the two-way for both streets to Yakima and farther to Sprague, said Chris Larson, of the department’s Engineering Division. They have estimates for those sections. The cost for labor and materials for the changes to 11th Street and 13th Street will be $100,000.The revisions include installing additional traffic signal heads and revising signing and lane lines. A consultant was hired through the planning department and these changes were one thing they came up with to improve traffic circulation and access to businesses, Larson said. Carolyn Littles, owner with her two sons of Bob’s Bar-B-Q at 911 S. 11th Street, is looking forward to the street revision.I remember when it was two-way before, she said. I’ve been here for ten years and I’m thinking it might be better for our business. I’m hoping it will be. It would give us more access to business. We’d have people coming up the hill and down.At the Littles’ restaurant, where Carolyn’s son, Michael, is the chef and her son, Jonathan, is the manager, customers are offered a full range of barbecued meats, as well as from barbecued beans and potato salad to corn bread and sweet potato pie.They also smoke holiday turkeys and hams by the pound that customers bring in. We’ve got 22 of them going for Thanksgiving right now, she said. The revised South 11th Street will provide two travel lanes for westbound traffic, one for eastbound, and a continuous two-way left-turn lane. The existing curb parking will remain.The revised South 13th Street will provide two travel lanes for eastbound traffic, one for westbound, and a continuous two-way left-turn lane. The existing curb parking will remain. Implementation of these traffic revisions involves installing additional traffic signal heads and revising signing and lane lines. The traffic revisions are scheduled for completion prior to the relocation of Pierce Transit’s Commerce Street Transit Center to Market Street during the Link light rail construction.Transit wants to improve their bus circulation to do two-way on 13th, Larson added.The Transit Center will relocate to Market Street from May 2001 through September 2001.The department’s goal is to complete the 11th and 13th Street traffic revisions in February 2001, however final completion may be delayed by inclement winter weather. “