Road proposal draws questions

By Christopher Eshleman, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Published Sunday, June 8, 2008.
Source: http://newsminer.com/news/2008/jun/08/cushman-street-could-go-two-way/

Public planners and engineers last summer started looking to return two-way traffic to downtown Fairbanks' major triangle of streets.

One year later, the area's elected leaders are pushing for answers on how the plan fits in with an adjacent downtown road construction project — a rebuild of Illinois Street. So city and state transportation officials have pieced together a tentative schedule and funding plan that would, among other things, make Cushman Street — downtown's historic traffic spine — two-way in 2010, the first time in more than three decades.

The change would fall in line with a recent push to change traffic patterns, widen sidewalks and add parking to make downtown more enticing to prospective retail investors and pedestrian-friendly for visitors and residents.

The plan leaves some questions unanswered, including what two-way traffic would mean for the busy intersection north of the Chena River, where urban planners last year envisioned a roundabout as a long-term solution.

Public officials had already approved a rebuild of the intersection as part of the long-discussed overhaul of Illinois Street.

Mayor Jim Whitaker, a member of the transportation policy-making committee at the Fairbanks Metropolitan Area Transportation System, said he's ready to see work on Illinois Street move forward in 2010 and doesn't want plans south of the Chena River to increase costs for, or delay construction on, the project.

"That would be unacceptable," he said.

Engineers indicated the busy intersection — where Cushman Street transitions into Illinois Street, meets two side roads, and, in the next few years, will connect to a second bridge leading south across the river to Barnette Street — could wind up needing more design work than previously planned if traffic patterns become two-way south of the river.

State engineers have already started to design the intersection with one-way traffic in mind. Steve Titus, who directs the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities' northern region, said they'd need to take designs further — soon — if transportation officials want to blend steps to accommodate changing traffic patterns on Cushman and Barnette streets.

"We don’t want to go back and have to do it twice," he said of the intersection.

While some questions may remain about the intersection, Titus said he senses strong momentum to make Cushman Street two-way.

The most visible stretch of Cushman Street — connecting the Chena River and Gaffney Road — was switched to one-way in the early 1970s, before the highway to the east was built, and has stayed that way since.

An advisory technical board at the transportation system recommended Wednesday that public officials follow city engineers' plan to cobble together state money to convert traffic on Cushman Street. The proposed project would also start the longterm process of adding on-street parking, widening sidewalks and adding other perks included in the Vision Fairbanks downtown revitalization plan — a plan the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly will be asked later this summer to add to the borough's regional Comprehensive Plan.

Many phases

A three-block section of Cushman Street between Gaffney Road and 10th Avenue and near the city's police and fire headquarters already is slated to return to two-way this summer to give emergency responders quicker access to the southern half of town. The parallel stretch of Barnette Street would follow a year later, in 2009.

North of that, the other nine blocks of Cushman Street leading to the Chena River would constitute a separate project penciled for the summer of 2010. Donna Gardino, a coordinator for the transportation system, said that project would cost up to $14 million, depending on how many other changes — widening sidewalks, adding patches of on-street parking — were included.

"It’s a big range," she said of the "very early" cost estimates. "But it's a question of what can we do to make Cushman two-way in concert with the Illinois Street project but without delaying the Illinois Street project."

Meanwhile, the state of Alaska is looking at the same year — the summer of 2010 — to start rebuilding Illinois Street and add a second bridge across the river.

Engineers' tentative plan could also mean either converting Barnette Street to two-way between First and 10th avenues or forcing residents to live with slower intersections at points along Cushman Street.

Local officials have identified about half the money needed for the Cushman Street project. They have yet to find money for converting traffic on Barnette Street to two-way, a question mark raised by Chad Roberts, a Fairbanks City Council member who sits on the transportation system's Policy Committee. He questioned whether the millions that would need to go toward Barnette and Cushman streets under the proposed traffic redesign constitute smart spending.

"I am very much in favor of getting this Illinois Street project done and moving forward. I'm not very interested in spending more money to do this Cushman two-way street or this Barnette two-way street," he said.

Meanwhile, traffic service levels on Cushman Street could worsen during the lag between its conversion and a future change on Barnette Street, according to past traffic analyses contracted by the city of Fairbanks.

The city also plans to convert the east-west Gaffney Road, near Airport Way, to two-way next year as part of a previously-planned project, according to the proposed timeline.

The FMATS policy committee this fall wrote to the state's transportation commissioner that the proposed traffic revisions were top priorities on a list of projects for Fairbanks. In the letter, Titus noted the plan "focuses on economic development and is based on smart-growth principles."

Don Arambula, a planner at the Portland-based Crandall Arambula who worked on the Vision Fairbanks project, said the proposed traffic conversions will help turn space along and near Cushman Street into a retail "hot spot" sought by the plan's supporters and organizers. While that would slow traffic on the street, Arambula said it would still also leave those drivers looking to downtown for a quick route north or south with the option of taking Barnette Street.

"It's important as a lead piece to revitalize your downtown," Arambula said of traffic changes. "You've got to do this first, you've got to lead with your retail strategy and everything else comes later."