Title
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A PEDESTRIAN CROSSWALK SIGNAL ON MACARTHUR ROAD APPROXIMATELY 650 FEET WEST OF OLIVER. DISTRICT 5.
Presented by: David Spears, Assistant County Manager of Public Works, Facilities Maintenance, Project Services and County Engineer.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Take such action as the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) deems appropriate.
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Spirit Aerosystems has contacted the County to explore options to enhance pedestrian safety on MacArthur between Oliver and K-15. Over the course of about nine months, several strategies were discussed. They included vacation of MacArthur where Spirit owns both sides of the road, installation of a signalized crosswalk, and construction of an overhead walkway.
Public Works prefers vacation of MacArthur Road through the Spirit plant because it would provide the highest level of pedestrian safety and protects the intra-plant cart traffic that already crosses MacArthur at several locations. The International Association of Machinists has contacted the County and Spirit to voice opposition to the vacation and closure of MacArthur.
Overhead walkways are generally not successful unless pedestrians can clearly see that they cannot physically cross over at street level or they are built to cross from an upper floor level on one building to an upper floor level on another building. Examples of successful overhead crossings exist over the interstate system or between buildings downtown. In areas like the Spirit plant where the goal is to cross from one ground level parking area to another ground level parking area, pedestrians will generally not take several flights of stairs up to a crossing and then back down when they perceive that they can likely make it through traffic on ground level. Overhead walkways are expensive and would need to include ADA access. This would consist of long (perhaps spiraling) ramps or elevators. Public Works does not recommend an overhead walkway at this location.
Public Works has studied installation of a signalized crosswalk at this location. The crosswalk will be located immediately adjacent to parking lot entrances on the north and south side of MacArthur. It will provide additional pedestrian safety at this location from through traffic on MacArthur but due to its proximity to the driveways, vehicles leaving the parking lots may not be able to see whether the signal is active and pedestrians will not be protected from this parking lot traffic. Crosswalk signals operate on demand and at busy times of the day, the study shows that near constant use of the signal by pedestrians could back up westbound traffic on MacArthur to the point where it impacts traffic on Oliver. Public Works also notes that this solution will not provide the benefits at other locations along MacArthur that could be gained with the vacation option. Public Works does not recommend the installation of the signalized pedestrian crosswalk because of new traffic problems that may be created and because the vacation of MacArthur is a better alternative.
Alternatives:
Financial Considerations: Funding for construction of the signal will be identified at a later date. A CIP Amendment will be presented to the BOCC if it is required.
Legal Considerations: The BOCC is authorized to perform such duties as required by law concerning roads under K.S.A. 19-212 Ninth. Under K.S.A. 8-2001, et seq. the Board has the power and authority with respect to streets and highways under its jurisdiction and within the reasonable exercise of the police power to enact and enforce resolutions regulating traffic, said resolutions relating to those subjects enumerated in K.S.A. 8-2002.
Policy Considerations: