If you give people nothing, they will go into the street.

Here's a sketch solution that gives the citizens of Louisville the same protection we give our road workers. This doesn't have to be the solution, but it seems workable based on my four visits to the site:

• 24-hour wheelchair-friendly pedestrian access using existing curb cuts
• Remaining unpartitioned sliver of lane serves as ad-hoc bike lane
• Vehicular access to the alley, east Edgeland, and the construction site by strategic gaps in cones
• TARC bus stop (#1523) at Edgeland would have to close. Note that a stop at Cherokee Parkway is 625 feet north, and a stop at Barringer is 350 feet south. Close enough for government work.
• If the big electric arrow is too difficult to power, it could be replaced with a big orange sign instead - just make it visible to all drivers over the tops of carooming SUVs.
• During afternoon rush hour a northbound motorist may seek to turn left (west) onto Edgeland.  If space is not immediately available, then the motorist will stop. This could potentially back up and lock Eastern Parkway. The queue length on Bardstown Road would have to be >800 feet to cause a problem. A complete two-minute light cycle at Eastern Parkway generates about 20 cars (600 feet worth?). This only is a problem if (1) the lead northbound car turns onto Edgeland (2) southbound lanes are blocking the left turn and (3) there are abnormally large numbers of northbound vehicles. If it turns out to be a problem, the width of the "sidewalk" could be easily changed or gaps created to allow opportunistic motorists to pass on the right - essentially a "Shared Space" (wikipedia) to allow most vehicles to filter past. The point is not to stop traffic in this lane altogether - after all, the sidewalk was already permeable to turning vehicles; the point is to change the motoring mentality from "I own this lane" to "I'm borrowing this lane; I'm getting away with something naughty". The difference is one of speed; 25-35mph can kill a person on foot, 3-7mph is not deadly.

What is the effect of closing one lane on rush hour traffic? As usual, scofflaw motorists can be counted on to provide a test case!:

There would not be any congestion. Bardstown Road has the capacity to deal with the northbound traffic with only half a travel lane.