5.3. SR 06-13-2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Transportation Issues June 3, 2005 Page 7 14. Southbound Jackson Avenue at School Street Attached is an aerial photo of the intersection of J ackson Avenue and School Street. The issue we were asked to look at is what can be done differently with the lane drop for southbound J ackson Avenue just south of School Street. Currently, there are two southbound lanes north of School Street. One is a through/right turn lane and the other is a through/left turn lane. Approximately 300 feet south of School Street these two lanes merge into one. The issue here is often times individuals are in the through/left turn lane anticipating continuing southbound on J ackson Avenue, only to find cars speeding by them on the right side to merge into the single lane ahead of them. As the City Council may remember, staff has indicated that we would like to see Jackson Avenue south of School Street considered for three-lane restriping after it is sealcoated. In fact, the recently approved Jackson Villas, the townhome development on the west side of J ackson Avenue, was required to pay a fee to help facilitate the restriping of J ackson Avenue. It is unlikely that this will happen in 2005 because as the Jackson Villas development begins, there is a significant amount of unsuitable material that will be removed from that site and a similar amount that will be imported to the site. All of this heavy truck movement would destroy a new seal coat and striping configuration. So, it is our opinion that the sealcoating of J ackson Avenue south of School Street will not be recommended until 2006. For that reason, there have been no mailings to the property owners on the east side of J ackson Avenue to solicit input and comments relative to a three-lane striping. However, staff will still accomplish an informational mailing and solicitation of comments before any restriping proposal is brought back to the City Council. With this being said, if Jackson Avenue were restriped to three lanes, the three-lane configuration could be run all the way to School Street and actually a little bit to the north of School Street. This would eliminate the two southbound lanes merging into one south of School Street. This scenario would mean at southbound J ackson Avenue at School Street would be a left turn lane and a through/right-turn lane. To make this change, however, would require some modification to the current traffic signal at this intersection. This may also be the time to add left turn arrows for southbound Jackson and/ or westbound School Street. If the City Council would like staff to pursue this further and potentially anticipate this change in 2006, we would request direction to analyze the turning movements and traffic flow at the intersection of School Street and Jackson Avenue. From that traffic counts, we could bring back a firm recommendation and cost estimate to make the striping changes and modifications to the existing traffic signal, at the same time keeping in mind the input from the residents south of School Street on the east side of Jackson Avenue relative to a three-lane striping configuration which would eliminate on-street parking. 15. Pedestrian Count Down Timers There has been some discussion about installing pedestrian count down timers at the TH 10 intersections with Main Street and J ackson Avenue, anticipating parking on the north side of TH 10 with pedestrians accessing downtown by crossing TH 10. I have recently been informed by the MnDOT District 3 Assistant Transportation Engineer Tom Dumont that the installation of count down timers will not be possible at this time at S:\Engineer\200S CCmemos\06 0305 Transp issues. doc