City View by Chad Adams

One of the core essential services that cities provide is public safety.  Most residents immediately identify public safety with fire, police, emergency medical services, as well as emergency management (i.e. natural disasters, etc.). In addition to these more known services, public safety is considered in several other city services including park and recreation playground equipment, design of facilities, building codes and transportation planning.

The focus of this column centers on the upcoming Monday council meeting discussion of the South Broadway (Trunk Highway 65) conversion of a four-lane to three-lane and the public safety benefits of the conversion to a three-lane. The city has received a lot of great questions and some concerns about the project, but it is well documented through transportation planning standards at the state, federal and local level, that a three-lane corridor on South Broadway from Main Street to Seventh Street will provide more public safety benefits than costs.

Before divulging into details about the public safety benefits, I want to again clarify to our residents and businesses that the South Broadway corridor design from a four-lane to a three-lane does not include any round-a-bouts. There was some consideration of roundabouts along the corridor, but state and local transportation officials, along with elected officials did not believe that roundabouts would work at most of the intersections on the corridor. Thus, no future roundabouts are planned or will be looked at for the corridor for likely 10 to 20 years.

The primary benefits to the three-lane conversion include reduction in crashes, which are generally involving side-swipes from vehicles changing from one lane to another. Over the past three years, there have been 39 crashes along this segment of the corridor.  The crash rate along the corridor is twice the state average, and the severity rate is nearly 10 times the state average.

It is expected there will be a 29 percent reduction in all crashes on the corridor.

The one time costs of repainting the lines is estimated to be about $40,000 to local taxpayers through property taxes or fund reserves that will come from all taxpayers.

The long-term benefits of the 29 percent reduction result in a savings of $1,678,619 over a 20-year period, which largely represents vehicle damage, lost days of work and wages, as well as health care and medical costs. The benefit to cost ratio in this project is approximately 42.6, which is well above the 5.0 ratio that is considered good.

Another public safety benefit for the project is the buffer distance between the drive lanes and the parallel parking that will remain along the corridor. The buffer lane will include painted bicycle lanes that are designed as an alternative form of transportation that will connect not only the downtown, but also Front Street and the Main Street corridor where bicycle transportation is planned to be implemented from Broadway out to I-35 in 2020.

The city also received news this week that the Statewide Health Improvement Program will be allocating $15,000 to the project to fund the painting and signs related to the bike lanes. This will reduce the cost of the project to local taxpayers and is a good use of the SHIP funds.

While public safety is the core topic of this column, the city has also been investing time and resources (including taxpayer dollars) to redevelop key corridors in the community. South Broadway is designated in our Comprehensive Plan as one of those primary corridors. Another great example of a redesigned street improvement that is resulting in private investment and a primary destination to the community is Broadway downtown.

It is the city’s ultimate goal to provide safe public transportation for all forms of users, including vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. The city is also working hard to create places of destination, increased tax base and jobs and population growth.

The conversion of the South Broadway corridor to a three-lane meets these goals and objectives that have been evidenced by other recent projects in Albert Lea.

I encourage you to contact your local Council member or myself prior to Monday’s discussion.  If you are available, please share your concerns or support for the project at the Council meeting on Monday night.

 

Chad Adams is the Albert Lea city manager.