|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Broadview meeting slated for Monday
This Monday, April 14, the Business Transportation Sub-Committee (BTSC) and an HNTB Corp. consultant hired by VDOT will meet with Broadview Avenue property and business owners to review the results of a recent Broadview Avenue Corridor traffic study.The BTSC wants to involve the owners and operators along Broadview early in the review process so that it can incorporate their concerns and recommendations into a summary document that will be incorporated into the transportation section of the revised Comprehensive Plan for Warrenton.
HNTB Corp. previously devised five preliminary alternatives, which were discussed with the BTSC in February. The alternatives are: Alternative 1: Do nothing; Alternative 2: Widen the road to six lanes and add a median; Alternative 3: Maintain four lanes and add a median; Alternative 4: Maintain four lanes, add a median, and consolidate driveways; Alternative 5: Maintain four lanes, add a median, consolidate driveways, and build service roads.
The consultant has since plugged each preliminary alternative into a computerized modeling system to calculate a numeric value for each of the factors assessed, including traffic flow, safety, and business access. The consultant will use a visual simulation to demonstrates how traffic moves through the corridor in each alternative.
A proposed connector between U.S. 211 and U.S. 17, originally suggested in Warrenton's 2002 Comprehensive Plan, was used as a variable, since it would enable some of the traffic to go around Broadview.
The consultant found that a proposed connector would help keep traffic on Broadview at manageable levels, diverting as much as 30 percent of through traffic during the peak hour between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.
However, the connector alone does not solve safety issues. On a scale of one to five, one performing the best and five performing the worst, the consultant evaluated each alternative's performance with regard to traffic operations, impacts to business, safety, cost, and bicycle/pedestrian accommodation.
Alternative 4 performed the best, with the average of its individual scores at 2.2. Comparatively, alternative 5 performed the worst, with a score of 3.6.
Based on the study results, the consultant recommended implementing the connector as well as Alternative 4. Alternative 4 entails four lanes with a 32-foot-wide raised median that breaks for left turns in five places. It also includes driveway consolidations, and dual left-turn lanes at a pair of intersections.
“The advantages are two-fold,” Chris Mothersead explained. “Alternative 4 reduces cross-traffic and allows breaks in the traffic flow, and it is an aesthetic improvement. If you want to know what it would look like, look at Lee Highway. Everyone loves Lee Highway.”
Mothersead, the director of Planning and Community Development for Warrenton, stressed that these are “the consultant's suggestions, and are not conclusions. They're subject to concerns voiced at the upcoming meeting, and to the BTSC.”
Mothersead also said that any changes that would affect personal properties, such as driveway consolidation, would require the permission of the owner.
The meeting will be held on April 14 at 5:30 p.m. at the Warrenton Community Center, 430 East Shirley Ave. Contact BTSC Chairman Dennis A. Taylor at dennis.taylor@paradigm-solutions.us with questions or to RSVP for the meeting.
You must be logged in to post a comment.