TRANSPORTATION PLANNING
As communities grow, the demand for transportation facilities to connect between public assets also increases. CFS offers planning services in all aspects of multimodal design including complete street and parkway projects, alternative intersections and traffic signals, system map creation, and transit-oriented planning. Based on our toolkit of beneficial alternatives, we assist communities to be positioned to reach the goals of reducing travel delay, emissions, and connectivity gaps while working towards expansion of recreational trails, shared-use paths, bike boulevards, and scalable multimodal infrastructure.
PROJECTS
US 24 - Fairmount Business District Master Plan
Independence, Missouri
The City of Independence defined a need to complete a new plan for the Fairmount Business District that would encourage redevelopment, pedestrian safety and excitement within this blighted neighborhood area. Input from the public was critical to the team’s understanding of the pedestrian, vehicular, commercial and residential land uses, the generation of concepts, and the development of the proposed implementation plan. The plan specifically accomplished the following:
» Engaged the Fairmount community and neighbors
» Created a plan for all forms of transportation, considering MoDOT requirements
» Created pedestrian connections throughout the area eliminating public safety hazards
» Created streetscape enhancements to improve the overall pedestrian experience
» Protect and restore the natural resources
» Facilitated revitalization efforts in the Fairmount Neighborhood District and surrounding neighborhoods
Innovations included protected intersections, trail extensions, intersection consolidation, and a wrap around plaza space for outdoor seating.
CFS led an 11-month planning process to identify transportation and land use goals, completed a discovery process, generate concepts, engage the public in English and Spanish, facilitate business owner conversations, make planning recommendations and identify a strategy for financing the project moving forward. CFS was responsible for project management, design leadership, MoDOT collaboration, and streetscape planning. CFS’ role also included working with additional consultants for public involvement coordination and national multi-modal standard collaboration.
Gladstone Parkway Corridor Study
Gladstone, Missouri
CFS conducted a traffic corridor study for the proposed new corridor project, Gladstone Parkway, between N. Broadway Street and N. Oak Trafficway. Previously adopted city planning efforts have called for a new gateway arterial between the intersections of N. Broadway & NW 68th Street and the intersections of N. Oak Trafficway & NE 70th Street that will improve traffic circulation and multi-modal accessibility. As a complete street with curb & gutter, storm sewer, green infrastructure solutions, multi-use path, street lighting, and tree canopy, the Gladstone Parkway concept will be a two-lane parkway providing a more direct connection between the US-169 & NW 68th Street interchange and the central business district. The overall objective of this report focused on the potential effects to the traffic network and travel time. The analysis included how the new direct route between Gladstone’s Downtown District and US-169 will change traffic patterns and how the potential for the corridor matches community goals for walkability, transit reliability, local food accessibility, streamlined emergency services, and sustainable infrastructure. Note that the eastern terminus of the parkway alignment is planned to include a new primary transit center for the city.
To complete the study, CFS reviewed previous studies, reviewed changes to transit service, investigated walkability improvements, revised the concept alignment while improving upon previous intersection ideas, explored replacing the intersection of NW 68th Street/N Broadway & Gladstone Parkway with a multi-lane roundabout, estimated trip redistribution due to the travel time savings of the proposed corridor, projected traffic network growth, determined travel time savings, and calculated monetary savings and changes to CO2 emissions. The project was completed on budget and on time. The schedule was a short time frame to submit the findings of the report as justification for future grant funding.
CFS provided project oversight and coordination through contracting, preparation of the traffic report with identified potential changes to trip routing patterns
