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X City of Arden Hills Page 11 of 63 October 7, 2022 Lastly, there are some sewer manholes (likely sanitary) within the path of the proposed trail. Refer to Figure 3 in Appendix A for their locations. It would be challenging to relocate or replace these manholes, so it is recommended that during the final design phase of the project, the exact location and nature of these manholes be determined and the trail design adjusted for minimal impact to them. For the purposes of this study, it is assumed that these manholes will remain in place and require a minor vertical adjustment to meet the final surface of the trail section. 4.0 DESIGN APPROACH The Old Snelling Avenue / Old Highway 10 trail is being used to connect local residences, Bethel University, and area parks, and it ties into other existing and proposed trails. Figure 9.1 on Page 5 of Chapter 9 of the City’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan includes a map to give spatial context to this. For the trail as a whole, the majority of users are coming from adjacent neighborhoods and most users are coming from west of the project corridor. For the portion of the proposed trail remaining to be constructed, this is especially poignant, as there are 28 occupied properties directly adjacent to the west side of the corridor and one occupied property directly adjacent to the east side of the corridor. Costs for the recommended trail configuration along the west side of the corridor were assessed. Refer to Section 6.0 Estimated Costs. To the extent practical, the recommended trail configuration consists of a pathway whose location is controlled by its relation to the adjacent roadway, as a trail within the roadway right-of-way but with its own horizontal and vertical alignment presents other challenges including higher potential impact to adjacent properties. All four previously-constructed portions of the proposed trail have been constructed adjacent to the existing roadway, so doing so with the portion of the proposed trail remaining to be constructed would also provide a consistency benefit to users. It also remains important to meet the minimum buffer and clearance requirements as explained in Section 3.2 Design Standards and shown in Figure 2 in Appendix A to the extent practical. It is recommended that to the extent practical, the trail be located at the preferred sidepath buffer of six feet, and with buffer widths of six feet or less, an urban section with concrete curb and gutter is recommended to provide additional safety for trail users by better delineating the trail from the roadway. In constrained areas such as those with a narrow right-of-way or those adjacent to wetlands and lakes, narrowing of the sidepath operating width to no less than eight feet can be considered, however it is not recommended to locate the trail such that the sidepath buffer would less than two feet. Refer to Figure 2 in Appendix A. It is anticipated that narrowing the separation below the minimum requirement in order to reduce impacts to lakes and wetlands would be permitted state or federal agencies if funding was proposed through those agencies. As noted in Section 3.1 Existing Topography, portions of the roadway contain bituminous or concrete curb and gutter with storm sewer. The existing concrete curb appears to be in adequate shape for reuse, however the existing bituminous curb appears to be in poor condition and replacement with concrete curb is recommended in the same operation that would add curb along the currently-uncurbed portions of the roadway, preferably when the roadway is reconstructed. For quantitative purposed in this updated report, the existing concrete curb is assumed to be reused, as noted in Figure 3 in Appendix A. It is recommended that the trail alignment be continuous on either side of the roadway and not shift from side to side, in order to reduce the possibility of pedestrian / vehicle conflicts due to traffic volumes in the project vicinity.