04-13-2016 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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STAFF REPORT TO: Mayor Keis and Members of City Council FROM: Joel Hanson, City Administrator DATE: April 8, 2016 RE: Rice Street Bridge Over I-694 – Design Update Beth Engum, Project Manager for Ramsey County Public Works, will be present at Wednesday’s meeting to review the design concept being used to seek money at this year’s legislative session. As has been briefly discussed, this concept utilized round-abouts to enable the best traffic movements though a tightly constrained area. A committee consisting of representatives from the County, MnDot, Shoreview, Vadnais Heights, Little Canada and other impacted agencies, has been meeting since February 9th to review design alternatives that address a multitude of needs including traffic movements through intersections, accommodations for bicycles, accommodations for pedestrians, access to the 12-acre former County Garage site to facilitate redevelopment, Trout Brook regional trail factors, redevelopment along Count Road E, redevelopment of the Taco John’s site, Federal requirements relative to the eligibility of the existing bridge for inclusion in the National Registry of Historic Places, MnDot’s concerns about multiple bridge structures (like Rice & 36) and a myriad of other factors. Many design options were evaluated, and the one left standing at the conclusion of the process is 1B (a copy of which is attached). You will note that four round-abouts are proposed with the concept. While many of have concerns about that approach, the traffic modeling indicates this is the superior way to move traffic while achieve many of our objectives. To be clear, this is still conceptual and much more work needs to be done before construction would occur including a public involvement process. What we have accomplished is the development of a concept and budget that we can take to the legislature to ask for funding that has a basis in reality. Ms. Engum will provide greater detail on the project at Wednesday’s meeting. Ideally, we are looking for support of this concept as we approach the legislature. Cc: Beth Engum, RCPW