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CASE 153RD CROSSTOWN ARTERIAL By: Steven Jankowski, City Engineer Background: On September 24, I991, separate meetings of the Budget Committee and the Road and Bridge Committee were held to discuss the completion of 153rd Avenue as a crosstown arterial. At that time, Mr. Jank0wski presented a proposal for completing this roadway in. accordance with the alignment proposed on the City's Thoroughfare Plan contained in its Comprehensive Development Plan. While the City has numerous State and County trunk roads and Variolite Street which service the City's traffic in the north/south direction, it has only U.S. Highway #10 which facilitates east/west traffic across the entire City. The City's recently updated transportation plan indicates that Trunk Highway gl0 is operating at "D" level of service through Ramsey and no capacity improvements are planned through 2010. At the present time, 5.33 miles of 153rd Avenue are presently in place. At the September 24 meeting, citizens expressed opposition to the pr.oposed alignment and suggested several alternatives be considered. The Committees tabled acuon on this case until a staff response to the citizens comments had been prepared. This case will serve as a response to the alternatives proposed and the comments made. Alternate 1: Connect as per Thoroughfare Plan. This alternative considers the alignment as proposed by the City's Comprehensive Plan and wl~ich was presented previously by the City Engineer at the September 24 Budget and Road and Bridge Com~nittee meetings. Consideration of 153rd Avenue as an arterial has been contemplated since the early 1970's. T~a~.~ design~ o~_th_e_W~hispering Pines Estat~ision_which was recorded in 1972 is such that no lot ne~e_~dLto fr_on~t~on 153rd Avenue, and a mi~nimum number of lots"~ contiguous to 153rd Ave_~nue._Selection of this route would follow through on planning efforts fonn'al'~t~tst twenty years ago. A significant accomplishment of this alignment is the creation of 153rd Avenue as an east/west crosstown arterial. T_he a' ' uire the construcfi~on of 0.65 miles of roadway, the approximate alignmem is identified in the attac-h--ed sk~ entffi~l AlTe~i~ i~. 'initially, thi~' roadway will service a minimum of 550 . ~ This projection is based on an analysis of the traffic/~sing the'e-a~~mmediatelynorth of the proposed roadway. The fact that convenient crosstown access would be available will generate additional trips. Without the benefit of a relatively costly origin/destination engineering study, however, it would be difficult to quantify this amount of additional traffic..The aii~,nm~,r~duce the travel between the two points it connects .by 0.4 miles and w~ill eliminate f~c~.eg__tl2f being_made by t~fic ~~ t-o traV6~e these two poi-n~~ ~ ~ yebx design perio[[,~-t~{fff-~c c~i~b~ t~his segment of roadway are anticipated to triple. The construction of this roadway will reduce traffic on 156th Avenue from 468 vehicles per day to approximately 74 vehicles per day. Likewise, the traffic on 158th Avenue can be expected to decrease by approximately 150 vehicles per day. f_~he _tot~px~jeg!.c~_o__s! is. an~cjp_a~ted_toJae.~$61)OXt00-w~th~bout_$_400+0_00 be~.~aBficip_a_ted in cons~ction~t. Major cons~ction costs associated wi~ this alignment include~a~g~ _ paving, c~b ~d gutter, w~fl~d'~ons~cfion,,.~~~figafi°n-