Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Department of Public Works

TO:	Chuck Soules, Public Works Director
FROM:	Shoeb Uddin, City Engineer
CC:	Dave Corliss, Jonathan Douglas, Cynthia Boecker, Diane Stoddard
Date:	April 07, 2008
RE:	19th Street (Ohio Street to Alabama Street), Geometric Improvements Project No. 61-GI2-1104(C) – Response to Michael Almon Letter

During the development of the reconstruction of an existing roadway staff carefully evaluates not only the engineering and safety aspects of a project but also neighborhood impact, adjacent property impact, Commission / City policies and goals and neighborhood input.

Due to limited right of way, the driving lanes for this project were narrowed down to 11 feet in many places. Utility and Pedestrian easements were acquired along the north side of the project. The width of the easements acquired was just enough for a new sidewalk and utility lines. There are places where water line will be installed under sidewalk because of lack of adequate easement. Under normal practice, water lines are not installed under sidewalk. Wider easements would have cost much more and require cutting down a dozen of mature trees in the area. It is important to note that the new sidewalk will bridge the gap on the north side of 19^th street for the entire stretch of this project and hence will improve connectivity and multi-modal aspect of public transportation.

On the south side, a continuous bike lane cannot be provided without acquiring additional right of way or easements.

19^th street is classified as a Minor arterial street with significant traffic volumes and has large number of driveways, alleys and intersections creating high potential for conflicts with bicycles. This creates a potential safety hazard for bicyclists and therefore, is not recommended to provide bike lane along this stretch of 19^th street.

The main focus of this project was to improve the intersection geometry of 19^th and Louisiana to address the safety concerns involving high number of accidents in the recent past. In order to improve safety of the driving public, a continuous two way left turn lane for the east bound traffic will be provided from Louisiana to Alabama.

In order to minimize the project cost, existing curb and gutter and existing sidewalks were left in place as much as possible. Continuous bike lanes would have required removing and replacing all of the existing curb and gutter and sidewalks. Furthermore, it would also have required constructing full depth pavement for the bike lane and the project cost would have been significantly higher. Currently, this project is running just under budget.

The 2008 Street Maintenance Program includes:

-19^th street between Alabama and Naismith will receive mill and overlay and there appears to be adequate room within the existing curb and gutter to accommodate a bike lane along that stretch.

-19^th street between Tennessee and Massachusetts will also receive mill and overlay, however, there is not enough room within the existing curb and gutter along this stretch to accommodate a bike lane.