Uptown Transportation Study - OKI

Planning Study ReportPart B: Interstate 71 Access Improvement Study, PID 77628operation and grade separation pose challenges accessing the interstate from locations eastof I-71 and north of WH Taft Road.For the institutions and neighborhood business districts to remain competitive on a regionallevel, interstate access must be perceived to be at least adequate when compared tosuburban locations with higher visibility and more direct egress. The lack of direct fullservice interstate access to serve the study area is viewed as a limiting factor on the scaleand desirability of potential development.In addition to a no-build alternative and a transportation system management (TSM)alternative, which would modify the existing WH Taft Road/McMillan Street (Taft/McMillan)ramps to accommodate forecast peak hour volumes, a comprehensive array of over 40 buildalternatives for access improvements on I-71 were developed in coordination with the IP.These alternatives provided full interstate access at the existing partial interchange atTaft/McMillan and/or at Martin Luther King Jr. (ML King) Drive. These alternatives werereviewed with the IP over several meetings during the spring of 2006. The original arraywas gradually reduced to six alternatives to be advanced for more detailed evaluation. Themajority of the original array of alternatives was eliminated due to geometric or operationaldesign exceptions. Some alternatives, while technically feasible, did not address theproject’s adopted purpose and need statement or were felt to have disproportionately highenvironmental impacts and costs.The six alternatives that were evaluated in greater detail are as follows.BR-1- This alternative would provide full access at both Taft/McMillan and at ML King DriveThe access ramps located between Taft/McMillan and at ML King Drive would be braided, orseparated horizontally and vertically so that there would not be a weave necessary on themainline between the two interchanges.S-2a and S-3- These two alternatives would provide partial access at Taft/McMillan (to andfrom the south) as well as ML King Drive (to and from the north). The two access pointswould be linked by limited access service roads located parallel to the I-71 mainline. For S-2a, the service road would be bidirectional and located west of I-71. For S-3 there would bea pair of one-way service roads located to the east and west of I-71.MLK-2 and MLK-6a - These two alternatives are both new full access interchanges at MLKing Drive with both entrance and exit ramps located north of ML King Drive. They wouldwork in conjunction with a modified interchange at Taft/McMillan or as a stand alone accesspoint with the existing Taft/McMillan access ramps removed. MLK-2 is essentially a foldeddiamond design with two new signalized intersections on ML King Drive to control enteringand exiting traffic at the ramp terminals. MLK-6a provides for direct ramps from ML KingDrive entering I-71 and routes exiting traffic through a single signalized intersection onML King Drive.TM-7 - This alternative is representative of modifications to the existing Taft/McMillanInterchange, which would provide for full access to the north and south. This option wouldnot provide additional access at other locations. WH Taft Road and McMillan Street wouldbe linked with new local access or modified such that all movements could take place fromeither direction on the one-way pair. The existing exit from southbound I-71 toUptown Transportation StudyiiiURS CorporationNovember 2006