Traffic Commission

The City of Morgantown 389 Spruce Street Morgantown, West Virginia 26505 (304) 284-7412 Fax: (304) 284-7409 www.morgantownwv.gov Traffic Commission March 4, 2020 Traffic Commission Minutes Voting Members Present: William Blosser, Chip Wamsley, Matt Cross, Frances Brownfield, Sam Zizzi, Martin Dombrowski, Dave Harshbarger Non-Voting Members Present: J. Andrew Gatlin, Sgt. Bill Runyan Members Absent: Erica Bowe MATTER OF BUSINESS: Chairman Matt Cross called the meeting to order at 6:30p.m. and held roll call. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None MEETING MINUTES None approved. COMMITTEE REPORTS: Bicycle Board - Chip Wamsley There is nothing new to report. The Bicycle Board are going to plan a meeting for April, 2020 so that they can go over the Lead American Bicyclists plan and also talk with Drew Gatlin about some of the upcoming things. Discussion ensued. Pedestrian Board – Matt Cross Drew Gatlin presented to the Pedestrian Board at the last meeting. He spoke about specific features and some infrastructure improvements. Christiaan Abildso is working with a lawyer to put together a runnable user law. He will be presenting to the Pedestrian Board next Monday. Discussion ensued. DISCUSSION ITEMS All of the topics in this section flowed together, there was no clear separation between them. Drew Gatlin reviewed the Paving List for 2020. He stated that we had abandoned the Oakland Street plan due to complications with coordination with utilities and some uncertainty regarding the extent of the utility repairs. Removing that gave the City the opportunity to add another street from our 5 year paving plan. The Engineering Department chose Center Street. This decision was made based on the condition of Center Street, the ease of executing the project and lack of known utility repairs that need to happen. Drew Gatlin also reviewed the Alleys that are going to be paved by the Public Works Department along with extensive concrete repairs on Grove Street and Vassar Street. Those two streets are both in the Evansdale Neighborhood. In a separate project the City will be widening North Street, as of right now that project is still in the design phase. There are delays for Baldwin Street and Listravia Avenue due to underlying utility issues and planned repairs. The City hopes to complete those next year. There are also pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure improvements that the City is planning. Drew spoke about installing bump outs in various places and a Contra-Flow Bike Lane on Prospect Street, which are all still in the design phase. Drew went on to explain that a Contra-Flow Bike Lane is a special lane for bicyclists that flows in the opposite direction of traffic on a One-Way street, thus making it a two-lane street for bicyclists only. The Commissioners discussed getting the word out to the neighborhoods about which streets will be paved this summer. Specific questions were raised about the Bike Climbing Lane on White Ave and how it would potentially narrow both driving lanes on that road. Matt Cross raised a concern about Baldwin Street and the water run-off from the BOE parking lot. Martin Dombrowski questioned the storm drains and how they are almost like a pothole being so far below the pavement. Drew stated that we are trying to bring those drains up, but it is a little difficult with the cost being anywhere from $4,000.00 - $5,000.00 per inlet. He also stated that the inlets will always be a little below the surface to encourage water runoff to flow into them but by replacing the inlets the City is trying to make that transition smoother. Discussion ensued. There was talk of past requests and the spreadsheet that was developed in 2017 to keep track of the status of them. Drew is working on getting all the requests into the spreadsheet, especially the outstanding items, after everything is in the list would be made public. This list would encompass not only public requests but also internal traffic projects. Drew Gatlin also stated that Buckhannon Avenue has also been postponed due to hillside slip. Engineering feels that it would be a waste of time and money to pave and then have to repave the street after putting heavy equipment on it to fix the slip. Discussion ensued. Frances Brownfield brought up an issued with Mississippi Street and Madison Avenue intersection. She stated that people are not stopping at the stop sign, if they do it is a “rolling stop”. Drew Gatlin suggested changing the intersection from a 4-way stop into a 2-way stop, essentially removing the expected stop from those traveling on Mississippi Street. Discussion ensued. Martin Dombrowski asked for an update on the Killarney Bridge project. Drew Gatlin stated that the initial detour was a mistake and that has been corrected, the City and MUB are working together to come up with a fix for this area. It was discovered that half of the bridge was turned into a box culvert by MUB at some point, while the other side was left alone. At this point the whole thing needs to be replaced with a box culvert. Once the design is completed MUB and the City will hire someone to do the construction. Discussion ensued. Drew Gatlin discussed what he had discussed at the meeting with First Ward. He discussed the paving plan, traffic calming ideas and different options for the neighborhoods. Those present at the meeting then began to give Drew input and ideas of their own, which was great. Drew learned that a lot of his assumptions and hunches of problem areas were correct. The neighborhood was able to give more specific details of the situations and problems. Discussion ensued. Drew Gatlin encouraged the commissioners to attend their neighborhood association meetings and get input from them, bring it back to the Traffic Commission meetings, send in emails for agenda items etc. Commissioners asked for a prioritized list of items with a scoring system, and a better way to collaborate on the pending items. Discussion ensued. Adjournment: Frances moved to adjourn the meeting. Sam Zizzi seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.