7.1. SR 05-13-2002TO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT:
MEMORANDUM
Mayor and Council
Pat Klaers, City Administrator
May 13, 2002
Consider City Transportation Plan Update
Item ~ 7.1.
Transportation is a big issue to most everyone in Elk River. To better address transportation
concerns, the City Council has requested information on updating our current city
Transportation Plan.
There are some transportation issues that the city can do very litde about. The highway
system fits into this category... There are other transportation issues, which the city can
"fix," but improvements are limited due to available funding and due to existing
developments. Most of our existing local streets fit into this category... Finally, there are
transportation issues that the city can do a great deal about and future streets, both within
proposed development projects and any proposed main corridor, fit into this category.
Our current Transportation Plan is more of a corridor preservation plan than anything else.
The Plan lacks policies that can guide Council decisions. The city needs a long-range
Transportation Plan to usc as a basis for staff recommendations and City Council decisions.
Work on the Transportation Plan will run parallel to the Comprehensive Plan work. Some of
the recommendations in the Transportation Plan will depend on future development
patterns and likewise, some of the land use recommendations will depend on the future
transportation system. The Transportation Plan and Comprehensive Plan go hand in hand in
providing good management tools for the city to use in making decisions that are consistent.
Much like the Comprehensive Plan, which is currently underway, there arc no funds in the
2002 budget for an updated Transportation Plan. In review of the material from the city
engineer, it is difficult to find many areas that can be deleted from the proposed work plan.
This will not be a cheap endeavor but a complete and thorough Transportation Plan is very
much overdue and needed.
Funding for the Transportation Plan could come from thc street reserves; however, a better
choice may be to use some of the fund balance. This issue is to be discussed during the audit
presentation and some monies are available at the Council discretion for this type of project.
Howard R
, Green Oompany
May 8, 2002
File: 816610J-0325
Honorable Mayor and City Council
City of Elk River
13065 Orono Parkway
P.O. Box 490
Elk River, MN 55330-0490
RE: COMPREHENSIVE TRANSPORTATION PLAN UPDATE
Dear Council Members:
Kevin Pape, a transportation planner from my office, and I have worked together to
prepare the attached scope of services'to provide a comprehensive transportation plan
update for the City of Elk River. The first two pages list ten key components to a
transportation plan. They are as follows:
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Task 4
Task 5
Task 6
Task 7
Task 8
Task 9
Task 10
Document the characteristics of the existing road system.
Identify the key transportation issues of the city.
Determine the appropriate evaluating criteria, or yardsticks, against which
the existing and expected future conditions will be compared.
Develop Year 2025 average daily traffic (ADT) forecasts for future road
system.
Identify existing and future roadway deficiencies.
Identify roadway mitigation measures.
Summarize state and county roadway improvement recommendations.
Prioritize roadway mitigation measures.
Establish roadway-planning guidelines.
Recommend possible jurisdictional transfers.
The attached outline provides a brief description of the services foreseen under each of
these tasks. Based on this list of tasks, we estimate the level of effort at $66,000.
In addition, on page 3 of the outline are listed four additional tasks that could be added
to the comprehensive transportation plan update but are not necessary for a complete
plan. They are as follows:
Optional Task 1
Optional Task 2
Optional Task 3
Optional Task 4
Document multi-modal transportation system.
Complete special studies.
Develop Year 2025 ADT forecasts for Additional Scenarios.
Conduct Public and Agency Involvement.
Ltr 5-7-02 Council
1326 Energy Park Drive · St. Paul, MN 55108 · 651/644-4389 fax 651/644-9446 toll free 888/368-4389
Honorable Mayor and City Council
May 8, 2002
Page Two
Again, as with the previous outline, each task contains a brief breakdown of the services
provided. The estimated level of effort for these optional tasks is as follows:
Optional Task 1 $16,000
Optional Task 2 $20,800
Optional Task 3 $5,900
Optional Task 4 $8,200
From a timing standpoint with your current comprehensive plan update effort, this work
could be completed in six to eight months. There may, however, be times when we
need to wait for outputs form the comprehensive plan work.
Kevin Pape will be at your meeting on May 13, 2002, to discuss the issue of a
comprehensive transportation plan update with you in detail and answer any questions
you may have.
Sincerely,
Howard R. Green Company
Te~.E.
TJM:tw
Attachments
Ltr 5-7-02 Council
Howard R, Green Qompany
QONSULTING ENGINEERS
ELK RIVER TRANSPORTATION PLAN TASK OBJECTIVES
Document the characteristics of the existing road system. Emphasis would be
placed on the functionally classified road system. Specifically, the following would be
documented:
o Existing daily traffic volumes
o Existing roadway characteristics (number of lanes and facility type)
o Existing functional classification system
o Existing roadway jurisdiction
o Existing land use (generalized)
Identify the key transportation issues of the city. This is completed to ensure
that the project tasks and, ultimately the transportation plan, will aid the city in
addressing what is believed to be the key transportation issues, particularly for
roadways under the jurisdiction of the city. Specifically, HR Green will meet with city
staff to make this determination.
Determine the appropriate evaluating criteria, or yardsticks, against which the
existing and expected future conditions will be compared. HR Green will meet
with the city to finalize the evaluating criteria initially proposed by the consultant.
Specifically, the following cdteda are expected to be utilized to determine existing
and future roadway deficiencies:
o Roadway Traffic Operations: Level-of-Service DIE boundary as index of
congestion
o Roadway Traffic Safety: Road segments in excess of critical crash rate
o Functional Class: Land Areas without the appropriate density of
functionally classified roadways based on Metropolitan Council functional
class spacing guidelines.
Develop Year 2025 average daily traffic (ADT) forecasts for future road system.
Doing this requires obtaining one recommended land use scenario from the
comprehensive land use plan in a format that can be inserted into the travel demand
model for the city. A year 2025 model roadway network would be created by adding
roadway improvement projects to the year 2000 model network that are being
constructed or are programmed for construction. This network is called the existing
plus committed (E+C) network. Year 2025 traffic forecasts would be developed for
one scenario under the assumption that the E+C improvements are in place and that
the recommended 2025 land use develops as planned. One more 2025 scenario
could be modeled to examine the effectiveness of roadway improvements/extensions
such as Tyler Street to the south and a CSAH 33/32 E/VV connection. Forecasts will
be only developed for functionally classified roadways and those roadways identified
by the city as being a key issue.
Identify existing and future roadway deficiencies. Using the existing roadway
information, the Year 2025 traffic forecasts (where developed), and year 2025
roadway characteristics assumed under E+C conditions, identify the operations,
safety (existing only), and functional class deficiencies using the evaluating criteria
previously established (see objective #3).
Elk River Page I of 3 5/8/2002
Transportation Plan
Identify roadway mitigation measures. Based on the deficiencies identified (see
objective #5), identify roadway improvement projects. Emphasis will be placed on
roadways under city jurisdiction. Once a recommended set of roadway
improvements have been identified, Year 2025 ADT forecasts will be developed from
one forecast scenado assuming these improvements are in place in order to vedfy
their effectiveness. From this analysis, a final set of roadway improvements will be
established.
Summarize state and county roadway improvement recommendations.
Improvement recommendations and timing for county and state roadways through
Elk River will be summarized based on the Sherbume County Transportation Plan,
TH 10 Interregional Corridor Plan, and TH 101/169 Interregional Corridor Plan.
Prioritize roadway mitigation measures. Based on the nature of the roadway
deficiencies (see objective #5) and whether they exist today, work with the city to
prioritize the roadway improvements into one of the three following timeframes:
o Short-Term: 2002-2010
o Medium - Term: 2011-2018
o Long-Term: 2019-2025
Mitigation measures and their prioritization will be focused on roadways under city
jurisdiction. However, mention of non-city roadway improvements will be made
based on available studies and reports such as the Sherburne County Transportation
Plan, TH 10 Interregional Corridor Plan, and TH 101/169 Interregional Corddor Plan.
Establish roadway-planning guidelines. General roadway planning guidelines
based on existing sources would be documented for use in the planning of city
roadway improvements due to land development and/or increases in traffic volumes.
The guidelines would be focused on local streets, collectors, and minor arterials
under the jurisdiction of the city. Specifically, the following roadway guidelines would
be established:
o Access and signal spacing guidelines (based on Mn/DOT guidance)
o General right-of-way guidelines for different types of city streets
o Signing policies for temporary dead-end streets
10. Recommend possible jurisdictional transfers. Based on input from the city and
the functional classification deficiencies identified, (if necessary) make
recommendations about potential jurisdictional transfers of roadways between the
city, county, and state.
Elk River Page 2 of 3 5/8/2002
Transportation Plan
o
OPTIONAL TASK OBJECTIVES
Document multi-modal transportation system. Using available data from the city,
county and state, document the existing multi-modal transportation system and
potential future improvements within Elk River. Specifically, the modes that would be
documented are:
o Bus and Rail Transit
o Bike and Pedestrian Trails
o Major Truck Terminals and Facilities
Complete special studies. Complete more in-depth studies of specirm sub-areas or
corridors. The studies could identify potential intersection improvements such as the
need for turn lanes and/or traffic signals as well access consolidation. These studies
could also be used to identify potential alignments for new roadway connections.
One example of a special study would be of Twin Lakes Road from 181a Avenue
(CSAH 12) to 171a Avenue. The Twin Lakes Road special study would identify
recommended future traffic signal locations and unsignalized access points pdor to
full development of the corridor. This study could also include a proposed future
extension south of 171a Avenue.
Develop Year 2025 ADT forecasts for Additional Scenarios. Currently, forecasts
for only three Year 2025 scenarios will be developed. All of the scenarios identified
assume only one future year land use condition. Additional scenarios could be
modeled to reflect different land use conditions and/or different road network
conditions.
Conduct Public and Agency Involvement. Without this task, it is assumed that
plan input will be received from city staff at Elk River. Any outside agency and direct
public involvement would require additional work tasks and budget. One option for
providing public involvement would be attendance at a public open house(s)
coordinated by HKGI as part of the Comprehensive Plan Update. However, this
assumes that the schedule for the Transportation Plan coincides appropriately with
the Comprehensive Plan Update. A second, more involved option would be to have
public open houses separate from the Comprehensive Plan Update.
Elk River Page 3 of 3 5/W2002
Transportation Plan