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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCDOT POUDRE RIVER REST AREA - SITE PLAN ADVISORY REVIEW - 27-04 - CORRESPONDENCE - CITY COUNCILf4 As far as planned improvements for the interchange, CDOT is presently conducting an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) on I-25 in which all interchanges are evaluated for safety, capacity and mobility. When the final EIS is complete, it will make specific recommendations for interchange improvements, including the interchange at Prospect Road. Presently there is no Federal or State funding available for any improvements north of SH 66. With the completion of the EIS in 2006, Prospect Road will be then ranked in importance by various transportation agencies. Funding for all these projects, including the Prospect Interchange, will be eligible for federal funding, as they become a priority according to their ranking. Respectfully submitted, 1i� Karla Harding Region 4 Transportation Director cc: Rick Gabel Dave Martinez Pete Graham Harry Morrow, Attorney General Dale Stein, Stantec File "Taking Care To Get You There" Page 6 of 6 floodplain and floodway through the project limits have been established. FEMA will allow CDOT to submit a CLOMR (Conditional Letter of Map Revision) based upon the City of Fort Collin's newly designated existing floodplain and floodway. A CLOMR is a pre -construction submittal to FEMA showing the proposed conditions and grading and how their mapped floodplain and floodway will change as a result. Development is allowed within the floodplain fringe (the area between the limits of the floodplain and floodway) and although it is common practice to avoid building within the floodway, FEMA as well as the City of Fort Collins allows development within the floodway. To build within the floodway, no rise is in water surface elevation is allowed upstream or downstream of the developer's property where.the development will be taking place. This condition is met by doing one or both of the following: a. by allowing the floodplain to increase only on the developer's property b. if fill is placed, the flow area lost due to the fill is compensated for on an elevation/volume basis By meeting the above conditions, building within the floodway is considered acceptable by FEMA and the City of Fort Collins. As part of the CLOMR submittal the City staff will review the proposed project and its effect on the floodplain and floodway prior to submittal to FEMA. Once the CLOMR is accepted construction would be allowed to commence. After construction CDOT will submit a LOMR (Letter of Map Revision) to the City and FEMA to show that what was built actually meets the same criteria discussed above. If a non-residential developer, in this case CDOT, were to build within the floodplain fringe/floodway it is a requirement to have 18" between the 100-year water surface elevation and the lowest opening (windows, doors, vents). The City of Fort Collins Stormwater Department has reviewed the proposal and concurs with CDOT's proposed site layout and conditions. o The State is not providing its fair share of financial contribution to needed improvements at the I-25 /Prospect interchange. This comment is outside the scope of the review considerations. The State is providing more than $500,000 in interchange improvements for a development (rest area) that will only increase traffic volumes by 2-8% in the peak hours. (In the City of Fort Collins, developments whose impacts are 2% or less are not required to complete any improvements, regardless of how badly an intersection is failing). The estimated traffic due to the rest area is 5 - 10 times less than other developments proposed in the area. For a minor increase in traffic, these are substantial and significant improvements from which the entire community will benefit. "Taking Care To Get You There" Page 5 of 6 CDOT's consultant in addition to providing the traffic analysis for CDOT, performed on for another rest area project for the Wyoming DOT along I-80. The conclusion for the WyDOT traffic analysis was that truck percentages along I-80 vary substantially not because the number of trucks vary, but rather because the number of cars vary. The number of trucks remains constant throughout the year. All three of these sources concurred with the conclusion that the number of trucks remains constant throughout the year, and that the number of trucks counted at the existing Poudre Rest Area on that Friday in April (the day of the week with highest truck volumes) would be reflective of the truck volumes any other time during the year. Whv 20% increase in car volumes? The rest area traffic counts were completed in April. The rest area traffic is reflective of the current volumes along the interstate — i.e. higher interstate usage becomes higher rest area usage as well. There is an automatic traffic recorder (ATR) located along I-25 at milepost 229, near SH 7. This was the closest functioning ATR information available at the time. All traffic was downloaded for the previous 12 months, and completing a review, the following conclusions were drawn: ❑ The peak day of the week is Friday, which is typically more than 20% higher than average days. By counting existing rest area traffic on Fridays, we were encompassing the peak day of the week. ❑ The peak month is August. Our counts were completed in April, and by using the data from the ATR, the actual volume factor from April to August is 1.17 northbound, and 1.18 southbound. We utilized a factor 1.2 (20% higher) for all rest area car volumes. Most traffic studies do not take seasonal peaks into account. The Rest Area caretaker, Tim Tweedy, thought that April car volumes did not reflect the highest possible volumes using the interstate. Our analysis takes this observation of increasing traffic volumes from April to August into account. o The proposed design violates the City's adopted stormwater regulations affecting the Boxelder floodway. In particular, a portion of the proposed building and parking area will be located within the floodway boundary. The impacts of the building and the floatable materials, such as trucks and vehicles within the parking areas, may cause negative impacts downstream from the site: The proposed improvements do not violate the City' adopted stormwater regulations. As published by the City of Fort Collins fill within the floodway is allowed as stated, "New non-residential development allowed as long as applicant can show no -rise, and must meet freeboard requirements". From the beginning of the project the CDOT design team has been aware of both the City of Fort Collins floodplain and floodway and the FEMA mapped floodplain. The CDOT design team has met with the City stormwater staff on numerous occasions throughout the project to obtain clarification and direction from the stormwater department to ensure that the proposed building and fill shown within floodway and floodplain limits meet City and FEMA requirements. The City is about to embark on a review process with FEMA termed the "Map Modernization Program" which allows the City of Fort Collins to update their floodplain and floodway mapping within the City for FEMA review. As a result of the map modernization program the existing "Taking Care To Get You There" Page 4 of 6 East Prospect is a city street and as such, an over width permit is required by the City of Fort Collins for vehicles over 10' wide to legally access Prospect. The bridge will easily accommodate two "City Legal" 10' wide trucks. In the rare event an oversize load exits from I-25 onto Prospect illegally, that is, without a City permit, we offer the following discussion. A State of Colorado over- width permit is required for all vehicles over 8'-6" wide. Permits may be issued for one time trips or they may be annual permits. At the time a permit is issued, the trucker is informed of the conditions of the permit for travel on state highways, and he (she) is advised about the need for city permits off of the State system. The State of Colorado permit for any truck over 17' wide requires the use of a pilot car in the front of the wide load. Before a load this width or wider would enter the Prospect Roadway, the pilot car would hold oncoming traffic to allow the truck to cross the bridge, thus avoiding conflicts. Discussions with the Colorado Port of Entry indicate that in August, about 3 to 4 % of trucks (50 — 60 vehicles) are extralegal (predominantly wide loads). According to the POE, because of permit restrictions such as daylight limitations, most of these will make few stops in order to deliver their load during the required daylight hours. It is unlikely that these trucks would exit to use the rest area, and most rest time occurs at truck stops. Although it is possible some trucks will leave the highway illegally, the chances are extremely remote that two illegal oversize loads will encounter each other on the bridge. o The 20% projected increase in traffic from the month of April to the month of August cited in the Traffic Impact Study was too low relative to the higher traffic volumes perceived by some members of the Board. Actual counts comnleted: All counts were completed by WL Contractors (now All Traffic Data). This is a company that specializes in traffic data collection and is a pre -qualified consultant for CDOT. They have collected traffic data throughout Colorado for hundreds of projects, including all the interstate and interchange data collection for the current I-25 north EIS project. Eric Bracke, the City of Fort Collins traffic engineer also reviewed the raw data, and fully accepted its legitimacy. Raw data taken at the existing interchange was compared with other counts completed for neighboring proposed developments — and all are very similar. The board improperly considered anecdotal information provided by board members while disregarding actual traffic data. Truck percentages : Discussions with the on -site caretaker at the rest area indicated that there is no substantial difference in truck traffic at the rest area throughout the year. Car traffic is slower in the winter, picks up in March and lasts through October. Heaviest car traffic months appear to be June - August. The CDOT Region 4 Traffic Engineer has stated that the peak day of the week for rest area traffic is Friday and that the number of trucks remains constant throughout week and year. "Taking Care To Get You There" Page 3 of 6 s Existing Conditions The current congestion at the Prospect Road interchange is substantial. The northbound off ramp at Prospect in the AM peak is a Level of Service (LOS) "F" with the off ramp queues extending more than 500 ft from the intersection. This is impacting main line I-25 traffic, with stopped ramp terminal traffic directly adjacent to high-speed interstate traffic. The intersection meets multiple signal warrants. The current Western Frontage Road intersection has a southbound approach leg with LOS "F" in the PM peak hour. The average vehicle waits more than 1 minute to find a gap to enter Prospect Road. The intersection meets multiple signal warrants. Amount of rest area traffic at the interchange Adding rest area traffic to the interchange will add 2-3% to the volumes in the AM peak, and 7-8% tc the volumes in the PM peak (a relatively low percentage). The peak hour of usage for the rest area is 11 am and 3 pm, and does not coincide with peak interchange hours (7 am and 5 pm). In the peak hours, it is estimated that a truck bound for the rest area will arrive on an average of one every 4 minutes in the AM peak, and one every 6 minutes in the PM peak. Specific numbers of trucks were calculated for each turning movement and the volumes (and lengths) are included and accounted for in the analysis. Resultant Improvements With the rest area relocation complete and proposed signals in place, the LOS of the northbound ramp terminal is improved from an LOS "F" to an LOS `B". The western frontage road intersection will now have a southbound approach LOS `B" instead of "F". The ramp terminal intersections will accommodate large tractor -trailer trucks. The current design vehicle is a WB-67. In all cases, the proposed signals provide an important and substantial capacity, function and safety enhancement to the intersections. The current "congestion" is greatly improved with the installation of the signals. The improvements from the signals far outweigh the minor additional traffic that the rest area presents. o Travel lanes on the East Prospect and I-25 overpass are of an insufficient width to accommodate large trucks simultaneously crossing the overpass; It is a very remote possibility that two oversize loads would meet on the Prospect bridge and there are no cases documented where this has been an issue to date. The existing Prospect bridge over the interstate is 28 feet wide. Most of the trucks on public roadways are of standard size, that is, 8'-6" wide. The bridge will easily accommodate two standard size trucks passing across it at the same time. "Taking Care To Get You There" Page 2 of 6 STATE OF COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Region Four 1420 2n° Street Greeley, CO 80631 (970)350-2103 Fax (970) 350-2177 September 9, 2004 Fort Collins City Council City Hall West 300 LaPorte Avenue P.O. Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80521 Attention: Wanda Krajicek, City Clerk RE: Appeal of August 26, 2004 Planning & Zoning Board Decision Dear City Council Members: OT DEPAR7MINf OF TR4NSFOR7ATION SEP 9 0 The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), pursuant to Fort Collins Municipal Code Section 2-47, is appealing the Planning and Zoning Board's August 26, 2004 decision that disapproved a CDOT proposal for the relocation of the "Poudre River Rest Area" to a location adjacent to the existing Colorado Welcome Center. CDOT's appeal of the Board's decision is based on Fort Collins Municipal Code Section 248(b)(1) and (2). CDOT's appeal asserts that the Planning and Zoning Board (the "board") failed to properly interpret and apply relevant law and failed to conduct a fair hearing. The grounds for CDOT's appeal follow. The purpose of the board's review was to evaluate the Poudre Rest Area project based upon its "location, character, and extent" pursuant to C.R.S. 31-23-209. CDOT believes the board has misapplied the criteria in the evaluation of the project merits. CDOT believes that critical data was not taken into consideration in the board's decision to disapprove the project. CDOT presented traffic data and analysis that was prepared by a Professional Engineer utilizing accepted methods. This study was reviewed and validated by the City of Fort Collins Traffic Engineer. By failing to thoroughly review and accept this data, CDOT contends that the board's recommendation is not an accurate representation of the merits of this project. The board also erroneously concluded that floodplain issues would not allow the buildings to be located at this site even though the City Stormwater Department reviewed and approved the plans. On August 31, 2004, the Planning and Zoning Board submitted a letter to the Colorado Department of Transportation that listed several concerns that led to its decision to disapprove the project. The following italicized bullets list the board's comments and CDOT's response follows immediately after each bullet. o Increased truck traffic at the Prospect and I-25 interchange will increase congestion and create conflicts with vehicular movements, particularly during peak hours. C�, "Taking Care To Get You There" P Page 1 of 6 City Clerk City of Fort Collins NOTICE The City Council of the City of Fort Collins, Colorado, on Tuesday, October 19, 2004, at 6:00 p.m. or as soon thereafter as the matter may come on for hearing in the Council Chambers in City Hall at 300 LaPorte Avenue, will hold a public hearing on the attached appeal from the decision of the Planning and Zoning Board made on August 26, 2004 regarding the relocation of the Poudre River Rest Area filed by the Colorado State Department of Transportation. You may have received previous notice on this item in connection with hearings held by the Planning and Zoning Board. If you wish to comment on this matter, you are strongly urged to attend the hearing on this appeal. If you have any questions or require further information please feel free to contact the City Clerk's Office (970-221-6515) or the Planning Department (970-221-6750). Section 2-56 of the Code of the City of Fort Collins provides that a member of City Council may identify in writing any additional issues related to the appeal by October 12, 2004. Agenda materials provided to the City Council, including City staffs response to the Notice of Appeal, and any additional issues identified by City Councilmembers, will be available to the public on Thursday, October 14, after 10:00 a.m. in the City Clerk's Office. The City of Fort Collins will make reasonable accommodations for access to City services, programs, and activities and will make special communication arrangements for persons with disabilities. Please call the City Clerk's Office at 970-221-6515 (TDD 970-224-6001) for assistance. Wanda M. Krajicek City Clerk Date Notice Mailed: October 4, 2004 cc: City Attorney Planning Department Planning and Zoning Board Chair Appellant/Applicant 300 LaPorte Avenue • P.O. Box 580 • Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 • (970) 221-6515 • FAX (970) 221-6295