Study recommends West Run roundabouts
Trending
MORGANTOWN - Two roundabouts - one at the intersection of West Run and Van Voorhis roads, and another at the intersection of West Run Road and Riddle Avenue - were among the recommendations to come out of a complete streets feasibility study of the West Run/Van Voorhis corridor.
The study, undertaken by the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization, was based on the planned Morgantown Greenbelt championed by the Mon Valley Green Space Coalition.
The green belt would use existing infrastructure (trails systems and parks) and future construction and property acquisition to create a walkable and bikeable loop generally throughout Morgantown.
"Complete streets" is a design policy that maintains street projects and construction should improve access and safety for all users - including pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders - in addition to vehicular traffic.
"The purpose of this study was not to further the plans for the green belt, but to look at West Run and the Van Voorhis Road corridors and see how we could supplement that plan with complete streets funding that was allocated by the [West Virginia Division of Highways] and [Federal Highways Administration]," Colin Frosch said.
Frosch is a transportation engineer with Kimley-Horn, the consulting firm tapped by the MPO to complete the study.
"You can see we're looking at enhancing pedestrian safety, improving the multimodal connectivity to the future planned green belt, and then finally designing infrastructure that will make it safer, not just for pedestrians, but for all street users."
Looking at a portion of West Run Road between Stewartstown and Van Voorhis roads, Frosh said the road sees nearly 9,000 vehicles daily. The speed limit is 25, but approximately 95% of vehicles exceeded that speed during the study period. The average speed detected was between 33 and 35 miles per hour.
Among the recommendations of the study are 10-11 foot lane widths, an eight-foot-wide multiuse path running the length of the road, improved lighting along the corridor, safer pick-up and drop-off sites for transit and school buses, improved pedestrian crossings, "mini roundabouts" at the aforementioned intersections, the placement of guardrails along some sections of the road, and the implementation of traffic calming devices.
As for the roundabouts, Frosch said West Run's intersections with both Van Voorhis Road and Riddle Avenue are projected to fall below acceptable performance standards in the coming years based on projected growth.
"As you can see, with the implementation of the roundabout, we would improve the level of service from failing at both of those intersections to highly acceptable. We're dropping the delay from 57 seconds or 47 seconds on each of the respective roadways down to 16 seconds in the worst-case scenario for each approach," he said. "So, it's a benefit for safety to pedestrians, a benefit to traffic calming inherently. Like I said earlier with chicanes, roundabouts provide that horizontal deflection, so that encourages slower traffic. It is also improving traffic operations as well."
Based on the feasibility-level design, the estimated cost of the corridor improvements is $21 million in projected 2030 costs.
Frosch encouraged the MPO Policy Board to forward the study recommendations on to the DOH for implementation into the DOH's forthcoming design of West Run improvements between Stewartstown and Van Voorhis roads.
"The intent is to show we would like to have roundabouts. We'd like to have narrower facilities. Here's the extent of where we want the pedestrian connections. These are the types of safe pedestrian crossings that we would like to implement," he said. "Those are key."