Tag: west end

Categories
News Transportation

Cincinnati Seeking Feedback on Two Bike Infrastructure Projects

The City of Cincinnati is studying two new streets for potential bicycle enhancements, and officials with the Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE) are looking for the public’s feedback.

The first project is on Delta Avenue where they are considering adding a five-foot bike lane on both sides of the street, and the second is a larger project along Central Parkway that is considering adding either striped bike lanes or physically separated cycle tracks along a 2.2-mile stretch of the roadway.

Delta Avenue Bike Lanes
The Delta Avenue project will take place between Columbia Parkway and Erie Avenue, but will not impact Mt. Lookout Square. DOTE officials say that the schedule calls for repaving to begin in early 2014.

Right now planners and engineers are looking at two options for Delta Avenue. One option would maintain the existing roadway conditions that include two 10-foot travel lanes and two 18-foot travel/parking lanes.

Delta Avenue Proposed Section

The second option would modify this layout to include two 5-foot bike lanes, two 10-foot travel lanes, one 9-foot left turn lane, and two 8-foot parking lanes.

The proposed reconfiguration, DOTE officials say, would provide safety benefits for bicyclists, pedestrians and automobile drivers, and is similar to what was recently installed on Madison Road between Woodburn Avenue and O’Bryonville.

In addition to improving bicycle accessibility along Delta Avenue, the new bike lanes would connect into the recently installed bike lanes on Riverside Drive, which will be extended into the downtown area later this year.

“Delta Avenue is a primary cycling route from Riverside and downtown to the city’s eastern neighborhoods, and these plans will help to calm traffic and make the street safer for cyclists, pedestrians and motorists,” Queen City Bike president Frank Henson stated.

Those interested in sharing their feedback regarding the Delta Avenue project can do so by visiting the City of Cincinnati’s webpage for the project and answering a few brief questions.

Central Parkway Cycle Tracks
The larger Central Parkway project is planned to be built in two phases, with the first phase of work stretching from Elm Street in Over-the-Rhine to Marshall Avenue in Fairview.

Neighborhoods along the first phase of the project have already been approached about the project, and the City of Cincinnati received a $480,000 Transportation Alternative grant from the federal government, administered through the OKI Regional Council of Governments, in June 2013.

This portion of the work is being studied in three separate segments due to existing roadway configuration.

Dearborn Street Two-Way Cycle Track
City officials are looking into the possibility of installing a two-way cycle track along Central Parkway – similar to Chicago’s two-way cycle track on Dearborn Street. Image provided by Active Transportation Alliance.

The first segment is from Elm Street to Liberty Street, and due to the median that divides Central Parkway there, it is considered unfeasible to have a two-way cycle track. As a result, the DOTE is considering only two options – the existing road with no enhancements or one-way cycle tracks on both sides of the street.

The second segment being studied in phase one is from Liberty Street to Brighton Avenue, and is studying three options in addition to the existing conditions. The first would be a 14-foot, two-way cycle track on the west side of the street, the second would be 7-foot-wide one-way cycle tracks on both sides of the street, and the third would be 5-foot bike lanes on both side of the street.

The final segment within the first phase of the Central Parkway project is from Brighton Avenue to Marshall Avenue. Here, the same three options are being considered as for the second segment. The only difference being the two-way cycle track on the west side of the street would be 12 feet wide instead of 14 feet.

“Adding a cycle track to Central Parkway will create a safer, family-friendly space for people on bicycles and will exponentially increase the number of people using bicycles in this corridor,” explained Mel McVay, senior city planner with Cincinnati DOTE. “This project is a game changer for Cincinnati – it has the ability to completely change the way people feel about riding bicycles in our city.”

Those looking to share their thoughts on which design option would be best can do so by completing a very short survey on the Central Parkway project’s webpage.

The second phase of work along Central Parkway would then progress northward from Marshall Avenue to Ludlow Avenue, where the city’s first green bike lanes were installed in November 2012. The details have not yet been worked out for this phase of work, but will progress as soon as funds become available.

“Both of these projects would be extremely beneficial if completed,” noted Queen City Bike executive director Nern Ostendorf. “What bike lanes and especially cycle tracks do is they expand the accessibility of biking on city streets to more users who consider biking on roads without special bike facilities too dangerous, or at least too stressful.”

This story was originally published in the July 19, 2013 print edition of the Cincinnati Business Courier. UrbanCincy readers are able to take advantage of an exclusive digital membership and access all of the Business Courier‘s premium content by subscribing through UrbanCincy‘s discounted rate.

Categories
Business Development News Transportation

Design Options for $2.7B Brent Spence Bridge Project Narrowed

Planned Brent Spence Bridge Approach

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a “Finding of No Significant Impact” (FONSI) for the $2.7 billion Brent Spence Bridge Replacement & Rehabilitation project last August.

The finding means that the project can move forward to its next phase of work with the current proposed alignment, which is not expected to change much from this point. The alignment included in the FONSI includes a number of interesting features different from what exists on the site today.

Consolidated Footprint:
One of the most notable pieces of the plan is a consolidated footprint. While it still includes a web of ramps at the southwestern edge of the central business district, the project does eliminate a flyover ramp currently not in use, and consolidates the existing footprint of ramps leading to the new and existing bridge, and Fort Washington Way.

The approved alignment also preserves the existing dunnhumbyUSA building that was thought to be in the way for the rebuilt interstate network.

A final, and perhaps the most significant, result of the consolidated footprint is additional land along Central Avenue in between Fourth Street and Sixth Street.

This land could be used for one of a number of things, but there is currently the Cincinnati Fire Fighters Memorial at the corner of Fifth Street and Central Avenue, which could be moved south one block across the street from the Company 14 and Fire Headquarters building, and allow for the long-desired expansion of the Duke Energy Convention Center.

Leadership at the Cincinnati USA Convention & Visitors Bureau declined to comment on any plans to expand the convention center until plans are finalized for the Brent Spence Bridge project, and the agency has time to review them.

The alternatives moving forward also call for a portion of historic Longworth Hall to be demolished to make room for the new bridge. Additionally, the existing Duke Energy Substation will need to be relocated, which project officials say has already been discussed with the energy provider.

Brent Spence Bridge Design Alternative 1 Brent Spence Bridge Design Alternative 2
Design Alternative 1 [LEFT] would appear similar to the ‘Big Mac’ Bridge upriver, while Design Alternative 2 [RIGHT] would introduce a two-tower, cable-stayed bridge to the Cincinnati waterfront. Renderings provided.

Architectural Design:
While separate from the issued FONSI, project officials have also narrowed down the design options for the bridge itself. Perhaps the most eye-catching of the options, the single-tower cable-stayed bridge ($646 million), has been eliminated due to its higher safety and engineering risks.

What is left is the arch bridge design ($571 million), similar to the Daniel Carter Beard ‘Big Mac’ Bridge, and the double-tower cable-stayed bridge ($669 million). Both, officials say, would have fewer risks involved and would allow the project to move forward on a more predictable schedule.

Next Stages:
Project officials are currently finalizing action plans based on the Began Value for Money (VfM) study, and hope to begin the necessary right-of-way acquisition process this year.

Should the States of Ohio and Kentucky choose to pursue a public-private partnership (P3) financing model; officials say that they will issue an RFP for that sometime next year. Construction could begin as early as 2015 if the current schedule continues to be met.

Categories
Development News Transportation

Bike Lanes Included as Part of Cincinnati’s Annual Street Rehabilitation Program

The City of Cincinnati kicked off its annual street rehabilitation program last week. This year’s program will focus work on 113 segments of roadway in 22 neighborhoods.

According to officials within Cincinnati’s Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE), the 2013 Street Rehabilitation Program will include work that replaces layers of deteriorated paving with new surfacing, fixes problem areas where needed, and then install new curb work as necessary.

While the primary focus of the program is to rebuild streets and curbs, it also offers the city the opportunity to implement components of its city-wide bike plan.

Gilbert Avenue Green Bike Lane
Recently installed bike lane with green markings on Gilbert Avenue heading south into the central business district. Image provided.

“Installing bike lanes in conjunction with the street rehabilitation program really gives us the best bang for our buck,” explained Mel McVay, senior city planner with the DOTE. “In this case, city council has already allocated money for repaving the street, so the cost to the bike program of the additional stripe for the bike lane is really minimal.”

Through this program, five streets will see new bike facilities installed over the course of the coming months as streets are rebuilt through the summer and fall.

The biggest stretch of roadway that will see a new bike facility installed under this program will be Winton Road in Spring Grove Village, where a 1.8-mile stretch will see a shared path put in place when the roadway is rebuilt.

In the West End and Queensgate, buffered bike lanes will be installed along Bank Street from Linn Street to Dalton Avenue. Meanwhile, bike lanes will be installed on Dalton Avenue between Linn Street and Eighth Street, and on Western Avenue between Hopkins Street and Findlay Street.

McVay says that the “buffered” bike lanes will include a striped buffer area of three to four feet separating the travel lane and the bike lane. Within the city, both Beechmont Avenue and E. Mitchell Avenue currently include buffered bike lanes.

The final piece of bike-related work to be completed as part of the 2013 Street Rehabilitation Program will be a climbing lane on Woolper Avenue between Vine Street and Clifton Avenue.

Additional bike projects are in the works besides the five to be completed as part of this program, but the lack of funding and political will continues to serve as barriers to doing more.

With the improvements on-tap for the remainder of this year, the City of Cincinnati will be just less than halfway toward its goal of installing 104 miles of on-street bike facilities by 2015

The Bicycle Transportation Plan, which was adopted in June 2010, includes an ultimate goal of installing 454 miles of on-street and off-street bike facilities by 2025.

“At this point, working with the street rehabilitation program is really our best opportunity to significantly increase the number of bike lanes around the city,” McVay concluded.

Categories
News Politics Transportation

Ohio Fails to Show Improvement in Latest Infrastructure Report Card

We take for granted that bridges, roads, highways, water treatment facilities and dams will function as expected and take us to where we need to go. But our nation’s aging infrastructure has long been in decline as money is diverted from maintenance to construction of new projects, many times for politicians eager for the photo op of a ribbon cutting event.

Recently, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its latest report on the current state of the nation’s infrastructure. The last such report, issued in 2009, had given the country a rating of D. This year’s report showed the nation’s rating had improved to a D+ grade.

“Our country’s association of civil engineers continues to do the yeoman’s work of sounding the alarm on our country’s infrastructure — the roads, rails and waterways that we depend on to move our goods from place to place and get us where we need to go each day,” James Corless, Director of Transportation For America (T4A), stated in a prepared release.

I-75 Reconstruction
Work on the multi-billion dollar repair and widening of I-75 through Cincinnati proceeds, but the project still has yet to receive the full funding it needs to be completed. Photograph by Jake Mecklenborg for UrbanCincy.

As the nation sifts through a backlog of infrastructure replacement projects, national policy has shifted away from funding such critical infrastructure needs as budgetary concerns linger.

The current transportation bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21), offers no new funding for investments in transportation alternatives to relieve congested corridors or encourage smart solutions to these complex problems.

“It’s a sad reality that little has changed since the last report card in 2009,” Corless continued. “Has anything in Washington changed to drastically improve the condition of our roads, bridges and transit systems in the four years since?”

Without new revenue sources, Corless says, the funding problem is only poised to get worse as revenues continue to decline from the federal gas tax, which has not been raised since 1993. Such a lack of necessary revenues may soon leave the federal government unable to perform basic infrastructure maintenance.

Local Implications?
In both 2009 and 2013, the ASCE gave Ohio a C- grade in their infrastructure report card. While the grade places Ohio ahead of the national average, it still translates to 2,462 structurally deficient bridges and approximately 42% of its roadways in “poor” or “mediocre” quality.

While the State of Ohio raised its gas tax in 2006, the extra revenues have not been enough to keep pace with the demand for larger transportation projects like the expansion of I-75 through Cincinnati, the  Brent Spence Bridge project, and the long-planned MLK Interchange project, which all currently stand unfunded or only partially funded.

“Some other states aren’t waiting for billions that are unlikely to come and are thinking about ways to make their dollars do more. Like Massachusetts, where the DOT director issued a goal of tripling the number of trips taken by foot, bike and public transportation — reducing the load on roads and bridges that are among the oldest in the country,” explained Stephen Lee Davis, T4A’s Deputy Communications Director.

Ohio Infrastructure

The City of Cincinnati has been working towards improving some of its worst-rated infrastructure since the last report card was issued in 2009. Since that time, Cincinnati’s Department of Transportation & Engineering (DOTE) has performed a $22 million rehabilitation of the W. Eighth Street Viaduct and is in the midst of a $55 million replacement of the Waldvogel Viaduct which connects the west side with the center city via the Sixth Street Expressway.

Additionally, Cincinnati’s 3,500-foot-long Western Hills Viaduct also is considered structurally deficient. Replacing a span that is nearly twice as long as the longest Ohio River span, and crosses the Midwest’s second busiest rail yard, will be one that is both difficult and costly.

Cincinnati officials say that they are currently studying whether a rehabilitation of the existing 82-year-old, double-decker viaduct or a replacement will be more appropriate.

“That is one of those kind of icons in the Mill Creek Valley that you like to look at,” noted Michael Moore, Cincinnati’s DOTE Director, on The UrbanCincy Podcast. “But we will need to be very cognizant of how we spend the public’s money in making sure we have a good safe mode to get across that area.”

Moore says that the department hopes to wrap up the study on how to fix the Western Hills Viaduct early this spring. Once that is complete, he says that there will be a good idea on how to accomplish that. Where the funding might come for such a large project, however, is still up in the air.

Categories
Business News Politics Transportation

President Obama Shifts Attention Toward Economy, Cities in 2013 State of the Union Address

President Barack Obama (D) delivered the annual State of the Union address last evening. The hour-long speech covered a wide range of topics including gun control, military policy, immigration reform, voting rights, domestic economic programs, education reform, and energy policy.

One of the most-discussed topics of the evening was when the President announced his aspirations to see the national minimum wage raised to $9 an hour. The current minimum wage of $7.25 an hour results in an annual income of $14,500 – a number the President says keeps families with two minimum wage earners below the poverty line.

In 2006, Ohioans voted to raise the state’s minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $6.85 an hour, with an annual cost-of-living escalator.

“This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families,” President Obama stated. “It could mean the difference between groceries or the food bank; rent or eviction; scraping by or finally getting ahead. For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets.”

Brent Spence Bridge Alternative 1

Brent Spence Bridge Alternative 2
The President called for a “Fix-It-First” program during his State of the Union address, but will it make a difference for Cincinnati’s Brent Spence Bridge Rehabilitation/Replacement project? Brent Spence Bridge replacement Alternative 1 (TOP) and Alternative 2 (BOTTOM) renderings provided.

Since the last time Congress voted to increase the federal minimum wage, which is effective for all states that have a minimum wage lower than the federal level, 19 different states have voted to raise their respective rates. The President’s $9 an hour proposal with an annual cost-of-living escalator would place it above every state in the union with the exception of Washington which pays its lowest earning workers $9.19 an hour.

In addition to raising the pay for the nation’s lowest earners, the President also pushed for new programs meant to spur job growth in a new economy. He called for the reform of high school education to more effectively train graduates to be able to fill high-tech jobs.

He also asked Congress to create a network of 15 manufacturing innovation hubs, modeled after the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (NAMII) established in Youngstown, OH in August 2012. Those cities selected, the President says, would work to partner businesses with the Department of Defense and Energy.

The President stated that the goal is to transform “regions left behind by globalization into global centers of high-tech jobs” in an effort to jumpstart the next revolution in manufacturing.

The advanced manufacturing policy proposal is one that should certainly catch the attention of local policy leaders as they work to transform Cincinnati’s Mill Creek Valley into a productive economic engine for the 21st century, as laid out in the Growth & Opportunities Cincinnati Plan published in 2008.

Another point of emphasis during the President’s first State of the Union address of his second term revolved around repairing the nation’s existing built environment.

To that end, he discussed retrofitting buildings to become more energy efficient, and announced a goal to cut energy wasted by homes and businesses in half over the next 20 years. President Obama continued by calling for a program that would prioritize infrastructure spending on existing assets in need of repair, like Ohio and Kentucky’s combined 4,054 deficient bridges.

“I propose a ‘Fix-It-First’ program to put people to work as soon as possible on our most urgent repairs,” said President Obama. “And to make sure taxpayers don’t shoulder the whole burden, I’m also proposing a Partnership to Rebuild America that attracts private capital to upgrade what our businesses need most: modern ports to move our goods; modern pipelines to withstand a storm; modern schools worthy of our children.”

Perhaps the biggest bi-partisan applause of the night went to the President’s condemnation of gun violence and call for action to prevent further atrocities like those at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and those that occur on the streets of America’s cities every day.

“Our actions will not prevent every senseless act of violence in this country. Indeed, no laws, no initiatives, no administrative acts will perfectly solve all the challenges I’ve outlined tonight,” President Obama clarified. “But we were never sent here to be perfect. We were sent here to make what difference we can, to secure this nation, expand opportunity, and uphold our ideals through the hard, often frustrating, but absolutely necessary work of self-government.”