Published: July 17, 2008 12:00 am            

One-way, two-way frontage roads discussed

Dozens of Dove Crossing residents attend meeting

Dozens of Dove Crossing residents showed up at a public hearing Thursday evening to express their concerns about studies being done on whether to convert some frontage roads along Interstate 35 to one-way from two-way roads.

Dove Crossing can be accessed only from the west side frontage road between Main and Robinson streets, with residents especially concerned about emergency responder access.

About 80 people listened intently to a presentation by HNTB Corporation consultants hired by the City of Norman to evaluate various impacts of one-way vs. two-way frontage roads.

Public Works Director Shawn O'Leary said the City's portion of the analysis is on track. However, the cost and traffic analysis being done by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation is not finished yet and may not be finished for about two months. ODOT officials were not in attendance.

"We're not done and no decisions have been made," O'Leary said several times to the crowd.

He said ODOT's widening of I-35 to six lanes and the accompanying changes is the first real major change in about 50 years and they are trying to do the difficult job of trying to project what will be needed for the next 50 years.

The first phase of widening I-35 will be from Indian Hills Road to Main Street and is planned to begin in early 2009. The second phase would be from Main Street south to the Canadian River bridge and is projected to start in 2012.

O'Leary said the one-way frontage road began being considered when former mayor Harold Haralson asked in 2007 if it was time to look at the frontage road system in conjunction with the I-35 widening.

Potential options for the frontage roads would be to do nothing, improve the two-way roads, convert to one-way roads or have a combination of one-way and two-way roads.

Development Strategies from St. Louis, Mo., was hired to work with HNTB on the economic aspects of the study.

Concerns expressed in their interviews were for:

· Access and impact to businesses

· Access to homes

· Fire, police and ambulance access

· Ease of use

· Efficiency

· Congestion on east-west streets

· Safety

· Concerns that decisions have already been made

There also was an unscientific online survey on the City of Norman Web site that garnered 273 responses. In that survey, 47 percent said what they liked about the current frontage road system was that it is two-way, with 32 percent indicating easy access.

Other input from the online survey indicated the frontage roads should be widened, key intersections improved including Main and Robinson streets, turn lanes added, Texas turnarounds added and improvements made in pavement, signage, highway access and signals.

Eighty-three percent of the respondents said they would be willing to wait longer at Robinson and Main streets to keep the two-way frontage road system.

The survey forms will be available on the Web site at www.NormanOK.gov through July 31.

HNTB project manager Kip Strauss said it takes 6 1/2 minutes for first responders to reach homes in Dove Crossing, but that will be helped when the City's new fire station is built in the vicinity of 36th Avenue NW and Tecumseh Road.

The firm found two studies it used to evaluate the Norman situation: a study from the Texas Transportation Institute Research; and "The Effect of Converting Frontage Roads from Two-Way to One-Way Operations," by the University of Arkansas in May 2004.

Strauss said according to TTI Research, the Norman frontage roads exceeded the thresholds for accidents, frontage road volume and interchange volume. A fourth measurement, that of peak hour traffic threshold, will be part of the ODOT analysis.

The studies indicate one-way roads had positive factors of increased safety and reducing delay, with negatives of cost and added travel distance.

Positives on two-way roads were lower travel distances, existing conditions and lower costs, with negatives being more traffic conflict, higher numbers of accidents and more delay.

"They are really kind of inverse to each other," Strauss said.

There were 330 collisions in the past four-and-a-half years on the frontage roads between Main and Robinson streets, an average of more than 73 collisions annually. Most were on the east side near the businesses just north of Main Street.

"There are way too many (accident) dots on that map for us," O'Leary said of the east frontage road between Main and Robinson.

Strauss said conclusions of the studies showed that on one-way frontage roads, traffic flows more freely, delays along frontage roads decreased, the proposed new overpass would help reduce travel time and transportation benefits are heavily influenced by the road's design.

Matt Bauer of Development Strategies said case studies of the Interstate 240 corridor in south Oklahoma City showed the sales tax and land values do not indicate a significant effect for either option.

"Everyone maintained that Texas turnarounds are critically important if frontage roads are one-way," Bauer said, along with maximum crossover points.

He said the developers and owners like Wal-Mart and 240 Penn Plaza were happy with the growth and performance of the corridor, with Wal-Mart twice located to larger stores along that corridor.

Bauer said 240 Penn Plaza sold for the highest square foot value in Oklahoma City.

Information provided by Tom Ferguson about the Crossroads Chrysler Jeep location estimated a 30 percent drop in sales after the conversion to one-way frontage roads. The dealership was located just before the off ramp on the frontage road with no connectivity back to the dealership from the fast food restaurant parking lots.

However, a David Stanley Chevrolet store similarly located before an exit ramp fared better because there was connectivity from nearby parking lots to the dealership.

O'Leary said there had been some talk of a secondary access road to Dove Crossing, but he didn't know if that was a possibility yet.

Dove Crossing resident Leonard Youngblood asked why the City was still considering one-way roads when 83 percent of the online survey respondents are willing to have delays on Main and Robinson to have two-way roads.

"This is a joke," Youngblood said. "You've already laid this out. You want it."

Another resident called the HNTB and Development Strategies presentation "a hard sell," and questioned the motivation of the City officials and consultants.

They asked about the community in Kansas City, Mo., that had one-way frontage roads that were converted to two-way.

"They are looking at converting back to one-way," Strauss said.

O'Leary said it is a decision of the Norman City Council as to whether the frontage roads are one-way or two-way and they are looking forward to getting more information from ODOT on the traffic analysis.

Deputy Fire Chief Jim Bailey said one-way or two-way frontage roads would have little impact on response rates for Dove Crossing, although the new northwest fire station will cut response times, "whether it's one-way or two-way."

Only one hand went up when a Dove Crossing resident asked who at the meeting was in favor of one-way frontage roads.

It was the hand of Bob Post, a Norman police officer and a traffic accident specialist who is in charge of keeping accident statistics for the City.

He said he is greatly concerned about collisions on the frontage roads.

"I think the one-way system would most likely reduce the frequency and severity of collisions," Post said.

Carol Cole-Frowe 366-3538 ccole@normantranscript.com

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.