Synopsis of Presentationand Discussion
Note: Those items in red indicate new design items of changes/revisons to previously discussed items/issues for West 12th Road.
1. Mr. Menzer of the RBA Group opened with a brief overview of the "Shared Space" street design concept to be utilized on West 11th, 12th and 13th Roads.
2. At our meeting with DOT and the RBA Group back in September 2011many residients raised concerns about the use of steel bollards to define the protected pedestrian pathway mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The protected pedestrian walkway will now be defined via the use of a tactile, street level, "half dome bump"instead of the previously considered "bollards" to delineate the separation of the shared space roadway and the protected pedestrian pathway.
3. Initial designs for this project called for the entirety of the "shared space" street to be constructed of concrete which could be decoratively tinted and/or scored. The protected pedestrian pathway on the north side of the street and a three foot section of the south side of the street will still be constructed via the use of concrete slabs, however, the middle roadway section of the shared space will now be constructed of a flexible material roadbed (i.e. asphalt or some other material). This change was made to accomodate the issue of street settlement due to weather, tidal and water table conditions which would result in cracked concrete slabs which would be inordinately expensive to maintain and repair. The use of asphalt or other flexible material will be much easier and inexpensive to maintain. While the property side concrete slabs may still be decoratively "scored" or tinted, the black asphalt section of the shared street space cannot be tinted or decoartively designed.
4. At our meeting with DOT and the RBA Group back in September 2011 many residents raised concerns about the initial designs use of street tree plantings citing possible property damage and/or personal injury during severe storms. All tree plantings have been removed from this project design.
5. All fire hydrants on West 12th Road will be relocated from the north side of the street to the south side as called for in the original design to allow for an unobstructed protected pedestrian pathway on the north side street. Placement of utility poles will be determined by the utility companies with prior notification to residents of the affected block.
6. Prior to the start of construction, each individual homeowner will be required to sign a "Consent" letter authorizing the city to work on his or her property. If an individual property owner refuses or otherwise fails to sign such "Consent" letter, the project will go forward without any work being done to his or her property.
7. The original timeline for this project called for final design completion and advertising of bids for construction. contract award and actual work to begin in spring/summer of 2012. The timeline for this project has been revised and it is now expected that the project will be put out for bid in April 2012 with the contract being awarded in June 2012 with an expected construction start date of October 2012. The delayed construction start date for this project has become necessary to accomodate the permit process for this project.
8. Once started, the duration of construction for this project is expected to be approximately just over 2 years. Initially, it is expected that new bulkheads will be constructed on all 3 streets simultaneously and then street construction will commence one block at a time starting with West 12th Road. Individual street construction is estimated to last 9 months per street.
9. There will be another "Mass Mailing" of the proposed final design to city agencies and utilities for their reviw of this project in March 2012 prior to the project being put out for bids and unlike the initial "Mass Mailing" of December 2011, this time design plans will be made available to residents.
10. Commissioner McCarthy (DOT) stated that the scheduling of street work one block at a time will minimize the displacement of resident parking and she is presently exploring the possibility of
authorizing displaced resident parking on the Cross Bay Boulevard median.
11. The city will assign a "Community Liaison" staff person who will serve as liaison between contractors and residents during the construction phase of this project.
12. There were several questions/concerns raised regarding technical issues (i.e., water main street access, accomodations for possible future natural gas lines, individual property backfill, efficacy of street sub-bed materials, etc.) Although these issues were discussed, they will be more definitively explained/addressed with publication of the March 2012 "Mass Mailing II" project design plans which will be 80% complete at that time and our next meeting with the RBA Group.
2. At our meeting with DOT and the RBA Group back in September 2011many residients raised concerns about the use of steel bollards to define the protected pedestrian pathway mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The protected pedestrian walkway will now be defined via the use of a tactile, street level, "half dome bump"instead of the previously considered "bollards" to delineate the separation of the shared space roadway and the protected pedestrian pathway.
3. Initial designs for this project called for the entirety of the "shared space" street to be constructed of concrete which could be decoratively tinted and/or scored. The protected pedestrian pathway on the north side of the street and a three foot section of the south side of the street will still be constructed via the use of concrete slabs, however, the middle roadway section of the shared space will now be constructed of a flexible material roadbed (i.e. asphalt or some other material). This change was made to accomodate the issue of street settlement due to weather, tidal and water table conditions which would result in cracked concrete slabs which would be inordinately expensive to maintain and repair. The use of asphalt or other flexible material will be much easier and inexpensive to maintain. While the property side concrete slabs may still be decoratively "scored" or tinted, the black asphalt section of the shared street space cannot be tinted or decoartively designed.
4. At our meeting with DOT and the RBA Group back in September 2011 many residents raised concerns about the initial designs use of street tree plantings citing possible property damage and/or personal injury during severe storms. All tree plantings have been removed from this project design.
5. All fire hydrants on West 12th Road will be relocated from the north side of the street to the south side as called for in the original design to allow for an unobstructed protected pedestrian pathway on the north side street. Placement of utility poles will be determined by the utility companies with prior notification to residents of the affected block.
6. Prior to the start of construction, each individual homeowner will be required to sign a "Consent" letter authorizing the city to work on his or her property. If an individual property owner refuses or otherwise fails to sign such "Consent" letter, the project will go forward without any work being done to his or her property.
7. The original timeline for this project called for final design completion and advertising of bids for construction. contract award and actual work to begin in spring/summer of 2012. The timeline for this project has been revised and it is now expected that the project will be put out for bid in April 2012 with the contract being awarded in June 2012 with an expected construction start date of October 2012. The delayed construction start date for this project has become necessary to accomodate the permit process for this project.
8. Once started, the duration of construction for this project is expected to be approximately just over 2 years. Initially, it is expected that new bulkheads will be constructed on all 3 streets simultaneously and then street construction will commence one block at a time starting with West 12th Road. Individual street construction is estimated to last 9 months per street.
9. There will be another "Mass Mailing" of the proposed final design to city agencies and utilities for their reviw of this project in March 2012 prior to the project being put out for bids and unlike the initial "Mass Mailing" of December 2011, this time design plans will be made available to residents.
10. Commissioner McCarthy (DOT) stated that the scheduling of street work one block at a time will minimize the displacement of resident parking and she is presently exploring the possibility of
authorizing displaced resident parking on the Cross Bay Boulevard median.
11. The city will assign a "Community Liaison" staff person who will serve as liaison between contractors and residents during the construction phase of this project.
12. There were several questions/concerns raised regarding technical issues (i.e., water main street access, accomodations for possible future natural gas lines, individual property backfill, efficacy of street sub-bed materials, etc.) Although these issues were discussed, they will be more definitively explained/addressed with publication of the March 2012 "Mass Mailing II" project design plans which will be 80% complete at that time and our next meeting with the RBA Group.
13. There were several questions raised regarding the proposed project design sent out with the December 2011 "Mass Mailing I" regarding street parking on the shared street space. According to the plans, it appeared that there was only dedicated space for parking on one side of the shared space street (adjacent to the protected pedestrian pathway.) Mr. Menzer (RBA Group) indicated that parking could also be accomodated on the opposite side of the shared street space. Commissioner McCarthy
(DOT) then advised us that certain city agencies were having some difficulty in completely embracing/understanding the "shared space" street concept and have questioned the propriety of dual side street parking when existing regulations only authorize single side parking. Obviously this raised the possibility of the city emplacing "No Parking" signs on the south side streets at which time we reminded Commissioner McCarthy of our September 2011 meeting wherein it was agreed that "The new "Shared Space" design would allow for parking on both sides of the street with no loss of parking spaces due to the requirement of "bump outs" for relocated utility poles on the old design which still called for curbed strets with sidewalks. Additionally, the "Shared Space" design would forever put to rest the possibility of the involved streets being subjected to a parking on one side of the street only regulation as well as those annoying middle of the night visits by Traffic Enforcement Agents who ticket private vehicles for parking on the sidewalk". This issue will be revisited at our next meeting with DOT/RBA at which time it will have, hopefully, been resolved.
his is great. I really like the shared street design. I hope this comes to the rest of the Channel as well. Did they discuss parking during the construction process?
ReplyDeleteI can't say that I am a fan of striking the trees from the design. I believe the trees would be beautiful and would actually help shield homes from the environment. They make great wind breaks and help keep homes cool with shade.
Despite the tree removal... I am looking forward to a flood safe and beautified Broad Channel.