Agenda - Public Works Committee - 08/26/2003

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PW CASE # / CONSIDER TRAFFIC CONTROL CHANGES ALONG RIVERDALE DRIVE By: Steve Jankowski, City Engineer Background: With the connection of Pdverdale Drive to Highway 10 at Ramsey Boulevard,' th/s roadway will begin to function more as the collector street for which it was plarmed. Additional traffic will also be generated onto this roadway as the townhomes associated with Rivenwick ? develop. Shown in Figure 1 is a sketch which illustrates the existing daily traffic volumes on each street segment in the area, along with the existing traffic control which is currently in place. Also attached is Figure 2 which represents the projected traffic volumes through this same area, assuming the 112 units Of associated with the R/venwick townhomes are fully developed. This development will add 717 daily trips, of which 70 percent are anticipated to be eastbound. It should be noted that the intersection of Garnet and Riverdale is the only one in the area which is currently uncontrolled. Some type of control should be considered as the.townhouses and additional traffic generating commercial development occurs along Pdverdale. Figure 2 also contains what Staff recommends as the eventual traffic control scheme in this area, with Riverdale traffic being given the right-of-way and all other side streets being controlled with stop signs. While Garnet should at some point-yield to Pdverdale, the traffic counts show the north-south movement between the sought leg of Garnet and the northeast leg of P,.iverdale to be the predominant movement through the intersection. To cause the predominant movem....ent to ~eld to a lesser one is problematic. One alternative would be to keep the intersection of Garnet/Riverdale uncontrolled. R seems quite likely that citizens in the existing Pdvenwick subdivision will demand some type of control at this intersection. Second alternative would be to post a stop on the south leg (Garnet Street) as identified in the long-term traffic control plan presented in Figure 2. This will be needed eventually, however, until traffic increases with development, th_is control will be stopping the predominant movement. A th/rd alternative would be to post an all way stop (three way) at the intersection until R/verdale becomes the predominate through movement. This alternative is unlikely to meet the recommended warranty for all way stops, which is, a mini2num of 200 vehicles entering the intersection from all directions for a minimum of eight hours per day. A second negative is that at some point in the future it would be necessary to implement a traffic change to ~ve Pdverdale the right-of-way, when it previously needed to share this with Garnet.