03/22/2004 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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COUNCIL MINUTES MARCH 22, 2004 APPROVED 431 Mr. Swing noted this is under ideal conditions, meaning no snow, rain, fender benders, etc., with •432 someone waving cars on the traffic split between two directions. 433 434 Councilmember Dahl asked if all the traffic the church has projected and Mr. Swing has projected 435 only the church traffic. Mr. Swing stated the church traffic has been added on to the existing 436 conditions. Councilmember Dahl asked if it included projected traffic. Mr. Swing stated it takes into 437 consideration a projected growth of 4.9%. 438 439 Lorene Kodell, SRF Consulting stated 4.9% is the forecasted growth per year in Washington County. 440 She indicated they received Staff permission to use that figure. She noted that on the Anoka County 441 side they are using 4% growth. She indicated their numbers include existing traffic and the projected 442 church traffic in addition to the growth numbers. She advised the westbound and northbound traffic 443 provide the worse queues in the 15 minute peak. 444 445 Councilmember Dahl asked if the numbers are based on now or in 2005 or 2007. Ms. Kodell stated 446 they used the numbers in 2005, including growth between now and then. She indicated they used a 447 high growth rate. 448 449 Councilmember Dahl stated Councilmember Reinert brought this up, and refreshed her memory as to 450 if there would be enough stopping time. She commented her family had an accident coming off 35E 451 on County Road J. She indicated her husband was breaking coming off the ramp, and another driver 452 fell asleep at the wheel. She stated the other driver was in a small car, and they were in a large van, 453 and luckily the other driver was not killed. She indicated they need to remember the scenario in all 454 these cases is the perfect scenario, but that is not always the case. W455 456 Councilmember Stoltz stated that four weeks ago they looked at a computer simulation of 35E and 457 Town Center. He indicated although Councilmember Dahl was not able to be with them at the work 458 session, they did see a computer simulation of the ramp. He asked if the consultant could highlight 459 the main points from that simulation for Councilmember Dahl's sake. He noted that when the traffic 460 analysis was being done they tried to look at worse case scenarios. 461 462 Ms. Kodell showed three scenarios. She stated they concentrated their efforts on Saturday night 463 because the existing Saturday conditions are worse than Sunday. She noted the first scenario is at 464 100% seating capacity, the second at 87% capacity, which is where the church has shown their 465 maximum average capacity. She indicated the third shows 22% of the traffic rerouted to Highway 61, 466 left to County Road 4 and left onto CSAH 21, entering the church from the north. She stated that in 467 all three scenarios it is showing the maximum and average queues. She indicated the maximum 468 queue is during the 15 minutes before the service; the average is what most motorists would 469 experience over an hour. She noted it shows the northbound traffic would not extend onto the main 470 thruway. 471 472 Ms. Kodell indicated the reason they modeled the third scenario is if you read the travel management 473 information there are some things the church is planning on promoting, such as car pooling. She 474 indicated this model is based on zip codes provided by the church. She stated their study shows the 475 reroute is two miles longer and 1.1 minutes more, whereas going the normal route would result in a 476 seven minute delay. She indicated they felt it reasonable to convince parishioners to take the 477 alternative route. . 478 10