Agenda - Council - 01/14/2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I I 'i I I I I I I I I I I I I lu u~ 1~: iup SNF Consultin~ Group Inc ?S3 475 242B Mr. Steve Jankowski -3- November 26, 2002 Current traffic controls include signalization at the intersections of TH 10/Ramsey Boulevard.and TH 10/Sunfish Lake Boulevard; and side-street stop control' at. the intersections, of TH t0/Feldspar Street and Riverdale Drive/Feldspar Street. SRF Consulting Group collected a.m. and p.m. peak hour turning movement counts .in October 2002 at all key intersections, except for the intersection of TH 10/Ramsey Boulevard. This intersection was counted by MnDOT in April 2002. Existing geometrics and peak hour traffic volumes for the key intersections m'e shown in Figure 2. A traffic operations analysis was conducted for the a.m. and p.m: Peak hours at each of the key intersections to determine how traffic currently operates within the project area. All signalized intersections were analyzed using Synchro, with the SimTraffic simulation software. The unsignalized intersections were also analyzed using the Highway CapacitY Softwm'e. Capacity analysis results identify a Level of Service (LOS), which indicates the quality of traffic-flow through an intersection. Intersections are given a ranking from LOS A through LOS F. LOS A indicates the best traffic operation, with vehicles experiencing minimal'delayS: LOS F indicates an intersection where demand exceeds capacity, or a breakdown of traffic flow. LOS A through D are generally considered acceptable by driversl LOS E indicates that an inte/'sectiOn is operating at, or very near its capacity and that vehicles experience substantial delays. The traffic operations at an unsignalized intersection with side-street stop control can be described in two ways. First, consideration is given to the overall' intersection level of service. This takes into account the total entering volume into the intersection and the capability of the intersection to support these volumes. Second, it is also important to consider the level of service on the'side-street approach. Since the mainline does not have to stop at an unsignalized intersection that has side-street stop control, the majority of intersection delay can be attributed to the side-street approaches. It is typical of intersections with higher mainline traffic volumes to exper/ence high levels of delay (poor levels of service) on the side-street approaches, but an acceptable overall intersection level of service during the peak hour periods. Results of the analysis shown in Table i indicate that all key intersections currently operate at an overall acceptable LOS D or better during the a.m. and p.m. peak hours, with existing traffic controls and geometric layout, except for the intersection of TH 10/Sunfish Lake Boulevard. This intersection currently operates at LOS E dunng the p.m. peak hour. The poor level of service at this intersection is due to the high volume-of through traffic on TH 10. In addition, the southbound left-turn volume is currently at the threshold for consideration of dual left-turn lanes (300 vehicles per hour). -139-