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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2/6/2018 Item 12, Hudson City of San Luis Obispo, Council Memorandum DATE: February 1, 2018 TO: Mayor and Council FROM: Daryl Grigsby, Public Works Director (TSB for DG) Jake Hudson, Transportation Manager VIA: Derek Johnson, City Manager SUBJECT: Broad Street Bicycle Boulevard – Broad & Hwy 101 Ramp Closures In conjunction with the Broad Street Bicycle Boulevard (Anholm Bikeway) Plan, questions have been raised regarding progress towards closure of the SB Broad Street Ramps. The purpose of this memo is to summarize the progress to date, highlight issues that some may not know about and give a status. What is the Broad Street Ramp Closures? Dating back as far as the 1994 Circulation Element, the concept of closing part of the Broad Street & Hwy 101 ramps was considered. In the 1994 Circulation Element only the NB Ramps were recommended for potential closure. As part of the 2014 LUCE update, additional analysis was done to consider also including the closure of the SB ramps and potential effect on the surrounding street system. The traffic analysis found that closure of the ramps would create a number of transportation impacts on both City and Caltrans facilities. As a result, the General Plan calls for improvements at the Hwy 1 & US 101 interchange as a prerequisite to the Broad Street Ramps closure. About the same time the City’s General Plan was updated, SLOCOG was updating the Regional Transportation Plan. As part of that update, the Broad Street Ramp closures were included as a subcomponent of the Hwy 1 & 101 interchange upgrade project with a total project estimate of $76,320,000. Of this estimate, approximately $9,000,000 is estimated for the Broad Street Ramp Closure & Multiuse Path overcrossing proportion. These projects were included in the “Unconstrained “project listing of the RTP with no funding assumed in the 20-year forecast of the document. Why not simply close the Ramps? In 2016 Caltrans conducted studies evaluating the conditions of the SB Ramp system considering improvements to the ramps and main line US 101. Potential closure of the Broad Street Ramps was also considered. The results of the Caltrans studies yielded similar findings as the City’s General Plan EIR, i.e. potential impacts at US 101/HWY 1 could be significant without additional improvements at that location. These findings were consistent with General Plan in that Hwy 1 & 101 interchange upgrades are a prerequisite for closure of the SB Broad Street Ramps. Based upon this work as well as General Plan analysis, staff does not believe that closure of the ramps, even as a temporary test, could occur without significant environmental review and potentially a General Plan revision. What is the path forward from here? The path forward is not a matter of only convincing CalTrans, it’s also a matter of assessing and addressing potential impacts to City facilities and neighborhoods. To date, all studies that have been conducted conclude that closure of the SB Ramps would lead to impacts at the US 101/HWY 1 interchange, along Santa Rosa and potentially to other surrounding City streets and neighborhoods in the vicinity of the Hwy Broad & Hwy 101 Ramp Closure Page 2 1 & 101 interchange. In order to close the ramps significant operational and environmental analysis would be necessary. Funding for this work has not been secured through any previous financial plan and is not currently in the City traffic impact fee program. Partial funding for early project development work on the Broad St Ramp Closure and US 101/HWY 1 interchange is currently proposed as part of the City’s AB 1600 impact fee program update which is currently under review. Additionally, the proposed 10-year CIP identifies needed funding for continued work on these projects the closures and other work however funding is yet to be secured. A critical component of the proposed Anholm Bikeway plan is continued progress towards the ramps closure and staff continues to work with Caltrans and SLOCOG on this important project. However, given the scope, cost and other major priorities, full project implementation is anticipated as a long-term measure substantially dependent upon regional or state approvals and funding outside of City control. Ultimately improvements proposed in Anholm bikeway plan would not preclude the future closure of the Broad Street ramps and would still support the City’s bike mode share Goals after the Broad Street ramps are closed. For additional information on the project, please contact Luke Schwartz, Transportation Planner/Engineer, at lschwartz@slocity.org or 805-781-7190.