Plans for a challenge meant to strengthen protection for bicyclists and pedestrians on London Bridge Highway acquired the go-forward from the Lake Havasu Metropolis Council on Tuesday.
All through its assembly, the council voted 5-2 to approve an intergovernmental agreement with the Arizona Division of Transportation for a basic safety advancement challenge on the portion of London Bridge Road among Reimer Generate south to the intersection with Condition Route 95. The venture will consist of a “road diet” – an market expression for rearranging the lane markings on the road – to accommodate bike lanes wherever suitable and put in affiliated signage. The task would also include replacing four present speed limit signals with new speed comments signs that flash a vehicle’s pace as it passes by. The flashing symptoms would be placed in each individual of the transition areas concerning distinctive pace zones along that segment of the highway.
The undertaking is totally funded by the Federal Freeway Administration’s Highway Protection Enhancement Plan, distributed to Havasu as a grant by means of ADOT. The total amount of money of the grant is $606,286, and the intergovernmental agreement states that Havasu would be accountable for any prices that go over the volume awarded in the grant.
The intergovernmental agreement also states that ADOT will administer the layout and scope of the undertaking, and will be accountable for advertising and awarding the bid for building, as perfectly as administering the building of the task.
Assistant Town Engineer Dan Sloan instructed the council throughout Tuesday’s assembly that ADOT will start coming up with the scope and models for the security improvement venture subsequent fiscal calendar year, with building slated for Fiscal Calendar year 2023-24. Sloan mentioned the undertaking will not involve any additional pavement, but ADOT will look at that area of the street to establish exactly where a bike lane could be extra on to the present pavement.
“Part of the scoping and structure that ADOT would go as a result of would be wanting at spots on our highway that are in the town, and determining what is suitable for bike lanes,” Sloan reported. “It is not widening the street, but it is making use of the lane width that we have – if we have extra lane width in which we can slim the lane and increase a bicycle lane. There are some parts that are four lanes with a middle change lane that are just not going to be in a position to incorporate a bicycle lane on there. But in a couple places wherever we unquestionably have 15-foot extensive lanes, we may be in a position to reduce all those to a conventional 12-foot lane and have a 3-foot bicycle lane on either side.”
Sloan reported the correct destinations of bike lanes would be worked out by ADOT via the design method.
Sloan said the bicycle lanes would be identical to the types a short while ago place in farther north on the portion of London Bridge Highway outside of metropolis limitations and under the jurisdiction of Mohave County.
Councilmembers Nancy Campbell and Michele Lin voted against the arrangement – both equally expressed issues particularly about including bicycle lanes. Lin stated she was anxious that putting in a bicycle path on parts of the road, which she mentioned is now slim in some spots, would only cause much more security concerns. Campbell claimed she opposed the undertaking simply because she view’s London Bridge Highway as Havasu’s best wager for a second northern entrance into the town able of lowering website traffic on SR95, and that would probably call for the proposed bicycle lanes to be taken off in the upcoming.
Mayor Cal Sheehy observed that the task will occur back again to the city to assessment after ADOT finishes its designs. He reported at that place the council will be in a position to determine no matter if any proposed bicycle lanes should be bundled in the job. But Sheehy stated he believes the project’s main reward will be a website traffic-calming impact that lowers drivers’ speeds by reducing lane width and setting up speed feed-back indicators in an region of city the metropolis frequently receives grievances about rushing.
“The bike lanes will provide continuity with what has been carried out in the county currently, in the spots in which it will make perception. But that is a extremely small portion of what that job is,” Sheehy claimed on Wednesday. “If it doesn’t make feeling then it is clearly not likely to happen. But it will be great in the northern portion of Lake Havasu Metropolis to have the continuity and relationship to the county’s operate so it gives for safer use for these bicyclists that use it already. It is becoming applied for bicycling now, which is why it was recognized in the basic safety strategy.”
Lake Havasu Metropolitan Setting up Group Supervisor Justin Hembree claimed on Wednesday that the task is portion of the city’s bicycle and pedestrian approach, and the venture skilled to acquire Highway Basic safety Advancement Money for the reason that of the incident background in the spot. Hembree explained in purchase for a basic safety venture to qualify for these grants, they will have to be within a 50 percent mile radius of where at the very least one particular incident creating either fatality or significant injuries has transpired.
“You have to prove to the condition that persons are having in critical accidents or fatalities are transpiring, and what you are going to do to fix them with a sensible advancement,” Hembree stated. “It is about in which incidents are happening. That is in which these varieties of grants can be utilized, and only applied to these places that have mishaps.”
Hembree stated the MPO originally utilized for the Highway Security Enhancement grant on March 31, 2019. A targeted visitors research of that spot completed about the former 5 yrs determined 1 deadly incident and six other accidents that caused severe harm on London Bridge Highway involving Reimer Push south to SR95.
“It was backed by info,” Hembree claimed of the job. “We have other places that we are currently doing work on applications for security projects going forward.”
But Hembree famous that the city can’t decide on and pick out which protection initiatives obtain grant funding, and that a grant awarded for a particular undertaking like the London Bridge Highway enhancement can’t be invested on any other job. It is remaining up to ADOT to determine what tasks are awarded FHWA grant revenue, and when. The LHMPO competes with Arizona and each and every other political subdivision in the point out for Freeway Protection Advancement grants.
Lin kicked off the discussion by inquiring irrespective of whether London Bridge Road is commonly used by bicyclists. Sloan responded that the MPO arrived up with the undertaking, and recognized the challenge utilizing targeted visitors information. Anecdotally, Sloan pointed out that he works on London Bridge Highway and sees bikes driving every working day as he goes to and from operate.
Noting that likely bike lanes would only be mounted along some portions of the highway, Councilmember Cameron Moses requested whether “spotty bicycle lanes” would really offer a protection benefit for bicyclists. Sloan admitted that it’s not an excellent rem
edy, but explained getting a lot more regions where by bikers are safeguarded is nonetheless far better than owning none.
Campbell stated she is anxious that any money spent on bicycle paths on London Bridge Street would stop up being squandered in the future. She reported she thinks London Bridge Road is the city’s best option for an option route to minimize congestion from SR95 in the long term as the populace and tourism in Havasu carry on to increase.
“If Highway 95 receives really congested, my only option to assist us with targeted visitors would be widening and increasing this full London Bridge Road,” Campbell said. “I would despise to see us invest $600,000 on a bike lane when this may well be the possible best way to get visitors off Highway 95.”
Sheehy stated he felt the worries in excess of a bike lane overlook the larger issue of the challenge.
“Some of this is also site visitors calming. It will make the lanes skinnier which slows down traffic, and they will add velocity feedback indicators in addition to the bike lane,” he said. “So it is definitely about the targeted traffic calming for the problems we get about pace. That is one of the true gains as I see it. The bike lane is a reward if that can occur.”
Campbell floated the plan of putting the $600,000 towards one more website traffic precedence, but Councilmember David Lane stated that this specific grant from the Federal Highway Administration is only available to Havasu for this unique task.
“This is entirely funded by federal pounds,” Lane explained. “That doesn’t suggest that it is a good task, it just means that we both use it for this undertaking or we just switch the money down. We just cannot use it for any other jobs.”
Dolan said he supports the areas of the project intended to help reduce website traffic speeds on London Bridge Road, but he explained he has a tough time knowing how bicycle lanes would strengthen protection in the place.
“It just does not make sense to me that if people today are speeding we will just force the bikers closer to them and that will remedy safety,” Dolan said. “So I would like to see it appear back again and see what they existing. If it can make feeling it will make feeling, but if it is also limited then we could just do the pace abatement and not do the bike lane if the bike lane isn’t protected. I just loathe that we are variety of cramming it in there.”
Lin claimed she experienced very similar considerations about a bicycle lane.
“I just assume that placing this bicycle lane there is a protection issue,” she explained. “It is a super narrow road, and the folks do pace there. I really do not imagine it is the appropriate area for it. I’m not an skilled possibly, but I imagine it is going to trigger a lot more mishaps.”
Campbell also claimed she has uncertainties about no matter whether bicycle lanes would improve protection. She explained the edges of the pavement in which the bicycle lanes would be positioned are not in the finest form.
“I’m more concerned about some cracks and asphalt problems, the protection of the bicyclers, and encouraging men and women that we are setting up a bicycle path that every person can truly feel risk-free on,” Campbell said. “I just truly feel not comfortable about that. But I am certainly Alright with slowing individuals down and performing what we can do there.”
Lane claimed he felt some councilmembers experienced the mistaken notion about why new bicycle lanes are staying proposed.
“We are not declaring that we are pushing bicycles down onto London Bridge Street,” Lane reported. “What we are expressing is the research clearly show that they are previously using London Bridge Street. As Mr. Sloan explained, he sees them out there just about every single working day. We are striving to make it safer for the types who are now out there and presently utilizing the highway.”
Hembree stated he understands the council’s worries with the undertaking, like the highway staying far too slim for a bicycle lane in some spots, but he explained the scoping and design and style of the undertaking following 12 months will take into consideration all of individuals components just before coming up with a proposal for how finest to address safety issues.
“We are generally expressing that persons are by now working with this facility,” Hembree mentioned. “They are finding damage or dying, so the answer is to use this funding to have an ADOT engineer appear at this road and try out to appear up with a structure and answer to enable mitigate any variety of accidents that would transpire in the long run. There are clearly ideal-of-way limits and street restrictions. Like Mr. Lane alluded to, it may possibly not be the best venture but we have information that claims pedestrians or bicyclists are obtaining into incidents. We need to have to do a thing about it, and that is what this application was for.”