kakoluri.com

Project Area

On April 8 the City of Fort Collins, Transportation Planning Department had a public open house to introduce Phase II of the North College Avenue street improvement project. Phase I, completed, ran from Jefferson to near Vine. Phase II runs from Vine Drive to Conifer Street. The open house was conducted at The City’s Streets Department building on the South West Corner of Vine Dr. and Lemay Ave.

I’m glad I went. The open house was well attended. The Gypsy Chief noticed Mayor Doug Hutchinson fresh from a 60 something to 30 something election victory. The mayor looked pleased … he quipped about barely squeaking by. I did think the mayor having a name tag was a bit of overkill. We would have recognized him anyway. Honest.

The City’s project staff as well as consultant team were very much in attendance along with representatives of CDOT, various members of other city departments and quite a few members of the general public.

City staff as well as project consultants distributed questionaires soliciting input from the public. They also gave out those round colored sticky things you can get at the stationery store. In view of attendance by state highway personnel we decided to call them Cee Dots.

This is a complex project for a number of reasons. North College Avenue is a state highway. It is lined with strip commercial with a wide variety of setbacks and front parking. There is plenty of bicycle traffic to contend with as well. There are some pending right of way issues and landscaping needs. The project team included a consultant landscape architect who was busy answering questions. The open house featured numerous exhibits, aerial photographs, Gantt charts, etc.

North College Avenue since it is an important bicycle route may receive some funding from a program known as safe route to work …

Gosh, where have I heard that phrase before? Oh yes, during the discussion of the Obama administration stimulus plan there was criticism of bicycle paths by Senator Fake Suntan [R-NV]. The senator claimed that construction of bicycle paths doesn’t create jobs, etc.

Anyway I did some research and found an organization called The National Center for Bicycling and Walking which I put in the public interest section here at the Gypsy Chief blog. The center has a lot of information about the safe route to work program. So, apropos of that it was a special treat that the City of Fort Collins city bicycle coordinator David Kemp was seen at the open house.

The project team asked the public to choose among three options in case not all funding can be found in time for project start.

The Bottom line

• Do light to moderate improvements along the entire corridor
• Do more complete improvements at specific locations or intersections
• Start at one end and construct as far as possible with available funds

Make no mistake about it, this is an important project which the city just has to get right. The Gypsy Chief is certainly happy to see how Phase I of the project turned out. 2009 is an exciting year as the project moves toward 2011 construction start .Transportation Planning webpage There will be more open houses later this year. Stay tuned.

Posted by Gypsy Chief