by Brad Carlson, Idaho Business Review
07/03/2006
The Meridian City Council on June 22 approved a $97,460 contract with a Boise firm to plan the area of the future Ten Mile Interchange.
The Idaho Transportation Department won’t finish the Ten Mile Road interchange with Interstate 84 until 2009. But Meridian planners aim to start the formal planning process this week by holding the initial meeting with engineering and architectural firm HDR July 7, city Comprehensive Planning Manager Steve Siddoway said.
The affected area lies within Meridian’s impact area, and the city plans to annex it as development unfolds, he said. City crews have done some utility work in the area recently.
“As a city, we’re looking to make Ten Mile a showcase for the state of Idaho as to how an interchange, land use and the local transportation system can be developed together,” Siddoway said.
Components of the specific-area plan include a market study.
“We want to make sure our planning efforts are grounded in the market realities for the area and the region,” Siddoway said.
HDR and Meridian planners also will evaluate transportation needs in the interchange area, and recommend building design guidelines, Siddoway said.
“The mayor and City Council desire to increase the quality of development in Meridian, and we are using the Ten Mile Interchange area to develop those standards,” he said. “We will be looking at things like basic building design elements, site design and how a building relates to parking areas and the adjacent roadways.”
The transportation component will address traffic patterns and intersection capacity, trip generation, access management and impacts on land uses.
“We expect to see some access control to provide for smooth traffic flows along Ten Mile Road,” Siddoway said, “and as such, we need to look at a series of collectors and possibly backage roads that will provide the commercial access to the areas around the interchange.”
Meridian planners and HDR intend to start interviewing stakeholders and coordinating efforts with various agencies immediately after the July 7 meeting.
The city plans to hold public meetings, including a four-day planning workshop during the last week of September, Siddoway said.
“We will take all the information that we have gathered and all the preliminary work we have done, sit down and start working out the issues,” he said.
H.W. Lochner Inc., Boise, is leading design and engineering of the interchange structure, and will gather input from residents, he said.
Meridian officials believe replacing the existing freeway overpass with a full interchange would provide more convenient access to and from the west side of the city, relieving some pressure on the Meridian Road interchange to the east, Siddoway said.
HDR will conduct a citywide industrial lands analysis and needs assessment as part of the Ten Mile contract, he said.
* * *
To contact the author, send email to: brad.carlson@idahobusiness.net.
No comments:
Post a Comment