MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization is once again asking the community to get involved in planning for the future of the area’s transportation system.
The Mountain Line Transit Authority’s Pifer Terminal will host the first in a series of public feedback opportunities from 4 p.m.- 7 p.m. Tuesday regarding an update of the MPO’s Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP)
The MTP is a federally-mandated, long range blueprint that outlines strategies and projects to improve how people will move – by car, bus, bike or on foot – over the next 20-plus years.
The MPO is scheduling public meetings, virtual meetings and pop-up displays through early November, including events at Morgantown City Hall, WVU Mountainlair, the Monongalia County Courthouse Plaza and the historic train depot near the Ruby Amphitheater.
“We really want to have a strong public involvement process as we go forward. It’s the right thing to do. It’s also a requirement. So, we’re going over and above what our policy says we have to do,” MPO Executive Director Bill Austin said.
A central component of the plan update will be the inclusion of the findings and recommendations informed by a two-year, $500,000 microsimulation study of the area in and around downtown Morgantown.
That study recommends roundabouts at the 8th Street intersection with Beechurst Avenue, the multi-pronged intersection of Stewarts Street, Protzman Street, Van Gilder Avenue and Hoffman Avenue, and potentially, the crossroads of University Avenue and Pleasant Street.
It also prescribes the removal of vehicular traffic at Grumbein Island, significant changes to Willey Street, restricting a portion of Monongahela Boulevard to two lanes, reconfiguring the intersection of University Avenue and Falling Run Road and various intersection and signal optimizations.
“That’s a pretty big part of it, because that was a Tier 1 project. And so it’s big enough with the recommended changes that we’re folding that in calling this a minor update of our transportation plan,” Austin said of the study.
Austin went on to say that MPO staff took on a number of efforts in-house that will also be presented for consideration as part of the plan update.
Those include a draft of a University Avenue Pedestrian Safety Study, Brookhaven Road area improvements and multimodal connectivity upgrades in the area of West Run Road and Riddle Avenue; the area near Mountain Valley Apartments that includes McCormick Hollow Road, Van Voorhis Road and Ackerman Road; and the high-density, mixed-use corridor between the West Virginia University medical school campus and the Suncrest Towne Centre.
“So, we’re bringing all that stuff together and calling it a minor update of the transportation plan. We’re not having the big consultant come in – the Stantec, the Kimley-Horn – and doing the full blown major update,” Austin said. “We look at it as validating those goals and objectives from our previous plan. We’re opening the box and asking, ‘Are these still appropriate? That’ll be part of what we answer with this update.”
The updated plan will likely go before the MMMPO Policy Board for approval at either its November or January meetings.
Community and project surveys supporting the planning effort are currently available at plantogether.org/2055mtp.
