Galveston Corridor Design Part II (updated 6/19/2019)
The consultants recommendations can be found in the following link:
Draft Galveston Corridor Traffic Impacts Report (posted 5/5/19)
The neighborhood’s counterpoints were:
1. The mini-roundabout fails to meet the city mobility standards in 2040 and fails to comply with Federal Highway Administration criteria for mini-roundabouts.
2. Consultants claim traffic calming measures shifts from Columbia and Harmon to other local streets west of Columbia and Harmon. Neighborhood members pointed out the flaws in the consultants traffic modeling assumptions and suggested Columbia Street stop at a “T” intersection with a paved Commerce Street to create a barrier to cut-through traffic.
3. Consultants’ analysis of intersection operations demonstrates that staff is ignoring a bigger bottleneck at the roundabout at 14th Street and Galveston with an estimated 800-foot queuing of westbound vehicles (about half the length of stretch of Galveston under design).
In 2011, a small group of citizens began a four-year planning process to develop an improvement strategy to Galveston Avenue to “foster corridor livability, economic vitality, multi-modal user safety, improved aesthetics and a reduction in roadway caused environmental impact”.
October 2017 – Council authorized staff to complete 100% level design.
August 2018 – Then two individuals spoke at the August 15, 2018 City Council meeting to encourage Council to add a mini-roundabout at Galveston Avenue and Harmon Boulevard to the design.
September 2018 – Council asked staff to use latest transportation model (“2040”) to evaluate intersection designs for Columbia/Galveston and Harmon/Galveston.
October 2018 – Staff hosted a well attended neighborhood meeting where the neighborhood communicated their concerns about any alteration to the previously authorized design.
May 2019 – In a neighborhood meeting, city consultants presented their recommendations from their three reports consisting of 99 pages. They recommended the addition of a mini-roundabout at Harmon and Galveston along with medium level of traffic calming on Columbia and Harmon to to address future cut-through traffic.
Re-cap of Galveston Corridor planning and Design
Galveston references from Central Westside Plan and Galveston Parking Study