SAFE STREETS BURLINGTON: City Public Works Leader--Parkway Design Out of Date

Sunday, September 24, 2017

City Public Works Leader--Parkway Design Out of Date

Burlington was forewarned about the obsolete Champlain Parkway design at the “public” meeting (none of the public was allowed to speak) November 30, 2015 when Burlington Department of Public Works Director Chapin Spencer told the 100+ attending:

“This project would not be designed the way it is today if we were starting from scratch. I will be honest and transparent about this. There are pieces of this project that are vestiges from limited access origins.”

There could not be more forceful words in support of the Pine Street Coalition call for a new redesign that is cheaper, cleaner, quicker and (much!) safer. You can view Director Spencer make this statement at minute 51:00 on Channel 17:

https://www.cctv.org/watch-tv/programs/champlain-parkway-community-update

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Parkway Redesign Guideline and & Rethinking

CHAMPLAIN PARKWAY REDESIGN GUIDELINES Let's Do it Right June 2018

The Champlain Parkway Redesign Guidelines (Guidelines) arise from public many South End community and City groups discussions. The Guidelines shape a safe and complete street concept. Ultimately a new Parkway design happens through a thorough, informed, public discussion of today's needs. The Parkway dates from 1960s, the current design from a decade ago--plans do evolve over time! The Guidelines call for:

Cutting 1.5 mile lane miles of roadway
Conserving four acres between Flynn and Lakeside Avenues, about two for economic development of the “Gilbane” parking property and two for protection and improving Englesby Brook
Employing roundabout technology throughout to avoid dozens of crashes and injuries to the traveling public, and reducing intersection gas use and pollutants including global warming by about a third
Attaining about $12 million cost savings, one quarter of the $43 million project
Retaining connectivity and enable improved bus services as well as future light rail
Offering better, safe access to City Market South End and Petra Cliffs
Allowing some savings invested in lower Pine Street and Flynn Avenue for sidewalks
Providing separate and safe individual walk and bike facilities now completely absent
Fostering a livable and sustainable South End so critical to both quality of life and new vibrancy of the neighborhoods--as well as the arts, education, and business economies

Champlain Redesign Guidelines feature:

Reversing dead-ending of Pine Street at the Parkway Current design dead-ending worsens the nearby single-lane bridge, cuts Queen City Park road access and linkages to the Industrial Avenue and South Burlington points.
The I 189 segment for years used for commuter parking, children bike riding and dog walks Some can be retained as a two-lane road allows a linear transit or park 'n ride facility.
From Home Ave. to Flynn Ave. the Parkway converted from two segregated streets, becoming a single, quality and safe “complete street.” Melding Briggs and Batchelder into a single street with full connectivity possible for City Market and Petra Cliffs (no vehicle access to Morse, Lyman and Ferguson).
The “Parkway” ends at Flynn Ave. The original “Purpose and Need” to speed traffic downtown no longer serves the City or is possible with moving the railyard abandoned. The objective of shifting trucks off local streets to the industrial areas still occurs.
The natural areas of Englesby Brook now preserved and two acres of prime development land at Glbane recovered for businesses and associated jobs. The Gilbane property and Innovation Center now become an overall “Lakeside Innovation Zone.” Guidelines affirm the value of the energy and industrial innovation enclave which mark the area from its earliest days. This “innovation enclave” engages with the City's food hub and energy production as a common goal.
Safe and separate walk and bike routes Walk/bike quality facilities along the Pine Street corridor serve the neighborhood, commuters, and feature a focus on “safe routes to school”, thereby becoming a complete street with “low stress” bikeways.
Stormwater infiltration Mechanisms for stormwater include rain gardens, soils remediation and open space protection on the Barge Canal as an ongoing remediation site.
Pine Street to Main Street With Bicycle Connections: The Tuning Fork Separate from the Parkway project, the Railyard may allow a one way street design west from Curtis Lumber to South Champlain, north to Main Street then return down Pine Street—this allows the addition of a low-stress bike circulation and connector to the Burlington Bikepath.

Online: https://www.facebook.com/SSBPineStreetNOW/ SafeStreetsBurlington.com

Southern Connector Rethinking

By Steven Goodkind P.E.

The Southern Connector Project is one piece of a larger transportation plan for Chittenden County that was formulated over 40 years ago. It consisted of a network of highways that would encircle the county through Burlington, South Burlington, Williston, Winooski, Essex and Colchester. Parts of it included existing state highways and the interstate. There were also proposed new roads i.e. the Northern and Southern Connectors and the Circumfential Highway.

These proposed new roads share many common characteristics. They were to be for the most part limited access routes that would take traffic from existing local roads and reassign it to these new segments. But just as importantly, they all contained a huge conceptual flaw by relying on the perceived benefits of the ring road concept. .

We have learned a lot in the transportation field in recent decades and it is now widely recognized that it is generally better to improve our existing system to make it safer and more usable to all modes of transportation, than to build new

roads. We have also grown to appreciate the benefits of neighborhood connections that are not separated by manmade barriers such as limited access highways or large development projects. (The Burlington Town Center is an example of the latter case).

As a result, only portions of the original plan have been constructed. They are the three “bypass segments”, including the so-called “road to nowhere” in Burlington. The ring road concept is essentially dead.

However, the old concept does live on in at least one project. The Southern Connector, especially the piece from Home Ave. to Lakeside, is a classic example of old thinking, the benefits of which are far outweighed by the negative aspects it delivers. Because the latest version of this project dumps its supposed

reassigned traffic right back onto Pine Street without a connection to Battery Street, it fails to provide any significant transportation benefit that could not be achieved by simply opening the “road to nowhere”. The current plan eliminates

existing neighborhood connections and removes the connection of Pine St. to Queen City Park Road. A better name for it might be the “Southern Disconnector”. It is a costly and unnecessary relic of the past. This is further compounded by a design for the Pine St segment that is not up to the standards that Burlington has set for “complete streets”. Even our Public Works Director has acknowledged this when he recently said, “if we were designing this project today it would not look like this.”

If we hope to be a 21st century city, we need transportation projects that have designs that reflect 21st century thinking, not 20th century throwbacks.

The Mayor and his associates say they have done their best and it is too late for that. If we don’t proceed, we will have to pay back $7 or 8 million to the federal and/or State governments. This may be a possibility, but making the city payback money for a project that has been significantly changed, (notice I did not say cancelled), is unprecedented in Vermont. Here are some examples:

1) At the last minute the Northern Connector Project was modified to end at Manhattan Drive rather than at Battery and Pearl. This was to avoid destroying a good part of the Old North End.

2) The Circ Highway has been substantially redesigned to use existing routes and much of the originally proposed design will never be used

3) About 25 years ago, governor Dean stopped the construction of the Southern Connector from Home to Lakeside because of the uncertainty that a connection to Battery Street could be built.

4) Even though ROW had been secured and some railroad facilities and the DPW offices in its’ path have been relocated, the Southern Connector route from Lakeside to Battery through the Barge Canal was abandoned.

5) The “road to nowhere” was constructed 30 years ago but never completed and never maintained.

6) In the 1980’s, South Burlington decided not to participate in a segment of the Southern Connector that would have been in their community.

In none of these cases were the communities asked to repay the money they had spent on the project. There has never been and there should never be a penalty for making a project better and/or less expensive. History in this case is clearly

on the side of RETHINKING, REIMAGINING AND REDESIGNING the Southern Connector. It is the smart thing to do! It is not too late!

Sunday, September 24, 2017

City Public Works Leader--Parkway Design Out of Date

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