To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
Through: David L. Corliss, Town Manager
From: Daniel Sailer, P.E., Director of Public Works
Aaron Monks, Project Manager
Title
Discussion/Direction: Proposed Concept for Improvements to Crowfoot Valley Road Widening Project
Body
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Purpose of Memorandum
The purpose of this Memorandum is to summarize the feedback received for the Crowfoot Valley Road Widening open house that was held October 27, 2022, and obtain any feedback and direction from Town Council on the concept to move forward into design with.
Executive Summary
Public Works staff utilizes the aspects the community values from our public transportation infrastructure: high safety, low downtime, low total lifecycle cost, reliability, and low environmental impacts to guide all activities of the department. The widening project has several primary objectives; improve capacity to accommodate forecasted growth, improve safety for the traveling public, and minimize delay to intersecting street vehicles making turns. These objectives were designed around the elements valued by the community. As a part of the project’s communication plan, a second project open house was held to inform the community and other stakeholders of the project conceptual design and overall project timeframes.
The project team has recently assessed two different alternatives, one has left turn acceleration lanes from non-signalized intersections with minimal median widths and one concept that does not have left acceleration lanes with wide medians. The second alternative was developed as a result of feedback from the design consultant that the availability of distance available for the left turn acceleration lanes is less than optimal and may not be utilized by the majority of left turning traffic.
Feedback solicited from participants was concise. The main themes provided from the community included:
• Support for left acceleration lanes at non-signalized intersections
• Wider and taller medians at all other locations where practical
General support for the overall project was represented by those that provided feedback. Where concerns and oppositions were expressed, the primary drivers were: safer left turning movements onto Crowfoot Valley Road from side streets, and methods of slowing traffic.
Discussion
Project Background
Crowfoot is a major arterial connecting local and regional travel between two growing communities, and northeast portions of Town to I-25. Roadway and pedestrian improvements for Crowfoot have been identified within the 2017 Transportation Master Plan (TMP) that will maintain adequate capacity, enhance multi-modal travel experiences, improve safety, and ensure efficient road network connections for future development. The improvements identified by staff include:
• 4-lane major arterial configuration from Knobcone Drive to the Town limits
• Addition of sidewalks from Knobcone to Sapphire on the south side
• Intersection improvements to Sapphire Pointe Blvd (Traffic Signal)
• Raised medians
• Implementation of on-street bike lanes/shoulders from Knobcone to Sapphire Pointe on the east/northeast bound lanes
Community Engagement
A concentrated effort to identify the community desires for the project was undertaken with the Community Relations Division during the project’s planning phase. Town staff performed the following community notification and outreach efforts related to the project:
• Project website creation, including regularly scheduled updates and feedback form
• Two (2) public open houses during preliminary design to inform and collect feedback
• Created/updated/monitored an email notification line for the project
The primary goals related to community outreach for this project include: creating a culture of trust among adjacent residents and project stakeholders, and facilitate stakeholder buy-in throughout the design process by incorporating community feedback into the project where appropriate.
The first community open house (held in August 2021) solicited feedback to determine what type of intersection traffic control was most favored by the community. A roundabout was provided as an option, or traffic signals once conditions were supported by an engineering evaluation as required by State law. Left turn acceleration lanes were also presented as a potential concept to explore. The majority of feedback received did not support a roundabout, but the left turn acceleration lane concept was favorably received.
The second of the two community open houses was held on October 27, 2022 to share various recommended preliminary design elements provided by the design consultant and collect feedback. Since it was identified that the left turn acceleration lanes are shorter than optimal, and may not be utilized by a majority of the left turning traffic, staff wanted to present this information along with a revised concept geared to maximizing speed reduction.
October 27, 2022 Open House Summary
The open house was well attended with approximately 70 people in attendance and 80 online feedback forms/comments provided. Between the open house feedback forms received and the online forms received a total of 93 total feedback forms were provided. Stakeholders were asked to provide feedback on the concepts via a project feedback form at the open house and website. Comments were collected and summarized into categories:
• Support
o Wider and taller roadway medians where possible
o Keep left acceleration lanes from side streets
o Right and Left turn lanes at intersections
o Sapphire Pointe Signal
o On street bike lanes
o Sidewalk on both sides
• Concerns
o High speeds of traffic
o Perceived lack of ability to safely make left turns from intersections
o Noise
Staff carefully evaluated concerns to determine if changes to the proposed concept can be implemented to address these comments. Several comments recommended adding a roundabout into the project. Since this wasn’t a majority opinion, and based on the input received at the first open house, it doesn’t appear that this is supported. Returning left turn acceleration lanes back into the concept will aid with providing improved left turning abilities until conditions are appropriate to install traffic signals at intersections. Sapphire Point Blvd is the only intersection that is forecasted to meet conditions appropriate for a signal to be constructed with this project. All other intersections are forecasted to be more than five years away for conditions to be appropriate for signalization. If traffic signals are installed earlier than supported by conditions, increased safety risks can result as increased accident rates would be likely. This has been studied and well documented nationally.
The addition of left turn acceleration lanes back into the project concept creates tension with the desire to reduce vehicle speeds. With the widening of the roadway to include additional through lanes in each direction and the left turn lanes included, the roadway environment will be very wide. This tends to favor higher speeds. Options to combat this would be extremely costly. The most effective means include trying to add physical elements that force drivers to slow such as roundabouts or adding curvature to the road (such as wide medians at locations that are away from intersections to add curvature of the through lanes). Based on the existing right-of-way available and distance between existing intersections, these options don’t appear to be practical. The addition of a roundabout for example is estimated to be in the range of an additional $4.5 - $5 million dollars.
Some feedback has included a recommendation to reduce the speed limit posting. Speed limit postings have also been well studied nationally and results have consistently confirmed that speed limit postings do not have an impact on actual travel speeds. The primary reason for this is that drivers have a good sense of what a safe operating speed is for the given environment. The result is that actual speeds stay the same in the before and after condition. This essentially puts a larger number of drivers in the scofflaw category and creates more demands on law enforcement. This essentially is not in the majority interests of the public as they are essentially driving at safe operating speeds but are susceptible to penalties. Additionally, this condition can create increased disparity of speeds that can actually lead to increased accident rates. To illustrate this, imagine if the speed limit on I-25 were reduced to 55mph. If you drive I-25 you are likely to know that this wouldn’t be a reasonable posting. If drivers were encountered driving this speed, it is also illustrative of the type of safety risk that can exist as the speed differential with the prevailing traffic speeds would create aggressive passing maneuvers.
Recommendation
The team seeks to deliver the highest value to the Castle Rock community through the implementation of the Crowfoot Valley Road Widening Project. In consideration of overall community values and input, it is recommended that the project move forward with constructing left acceleration lanes at non-signalized intersections and wide medians with a vertical element where feasible along with a new traffic signal at Sapphire Pointe Boulevard.
Attachments
Attachment A - Crowfoot Valley Road Widening Open House Feedback Summary