HomeMy WebLinkAboutMULBERRY LEMAY CROSSINGS, LOT ONE, FILING ONE - FINAL PUD - 36-96D - MEDIA - (28)State says_, no
By DAVID RUISARD
The Coloradoan y- Y _ O O
The Colorado Depart-
ment of Transportation on
Friday turned down the
city's proposal to transform
the Mulberry Street/Lemay
Avenue intersection into a
roundabout.
CDOT had to approve the
design because Mulberry dou-
bles as Colorado Highway 14.
"We know the city and the
city staff really poured their
hearts into this," said Karla
Harding, regional director
for CDOT. "I really com-
mend the amount of work
they put into this.
"We just felt that, at this
intersection, it was too much
of a risk to put on."
After learning Friday
morning that the roundabout
plan was denied, city traffic
engineer Eric Bracke decided
to take the afternoon off
"Pm going home for the af-
ternoon," he said. "1 feel kind of
drained, to tell you the truth"
Over the past year, through
numerous roundabout test
runs at the Cloverleaf Kennel
Club in Loveland, Bracke
won support for the $1.5 mil-
lion project from local truck-
ers, the Fort Collins City
Council and the Federal
Transportation Department.
to roundabout
"I think we did a good
job," he said.
Plans for the 300-foot-di-
ameter roundabout were
sent to CDOT on Jan. 19
with unanimous support
from council.
Almost three months later,
an eight -member CDOT de-
sign team decided the round-
about would be too difficult
for out-of-town drivers to
navigate and predicted the
traffic device would be too
costly to remove once the in-
tersection served its purpose.
"One of the things we dis-
cussed was how well these
work," Harding said. "Over
in Australia and Europe,
people grow up with them
and know how they work."
Bracke and his consult-
ants determined early in the
roundabout design that it
could safely accommodate
UP to 8,000 vehicles an hour.
Its capacity, he said, would
not be maxed out for at least
20 years.
"I thoroughly believe that
without the roundabout,
that intersection will fail in
about seven to 10 years,"
Bracke said.
City Manager John Fis-
chbach said he will pursue
an appeal Harding's deci-
sion if it is possible.