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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL—August 9, 2010 12 6. B. Mn/DOT Interstate 694 Improvement Project—Public Hearing(continued) Councilmember Holmes stated the trail crossing being proposed is reasonable and goes into County Road E where the City has plans to make a trail. She asked Mr. Lindeberg to respond to the trail proposed by Gene and Steve QJerdingen. Mr. Lindeberg stated a trail that ran parallel to Trunk Highway 51 would need to go under the railroad bridge and there is presently not enough width under this bridge or this trail would need to go up and over the railroad bridge, which the railroad may not be in favor of. -- Councilmember Holmes stated Mn/DOT is not trying to accommodate a pedestrian crossing. The US Secretary of Transportation stated that when a road project is being looked at, non- _ motorized traffic should be taken into account. Mr. Lindeberg stated Mn/DOT looked at having a pedestrian crossing but it was found to be unsafe unless a separate pedestrian bridge was constructed. Mayor Harpstead stated the project design and information being presented is incomplete. The whole concept of being unable to connect to existing County and City plans is a problem because this is a fast design. Clearly the whole opportunity to have those landing spots developed in parallel to Mn/DOT's project is an impossible opportunity. The City has been explicit in that they would like to be able to get pedestrians through here. Mn/DOT should pay attention to the fact that bikes do currently travel Hamline Avenue and Trunk Highway 51 and they are not prohibited from doing this. Bikes currently travel these roads and currently have the safety concerns that Mn/DOT has outlined and the design being proposed will increase the jeopardy for these people rather than reduce it if the margins are not increased to accommodate for them. The analysis on the benefits to local businesses is incomplete as well. The ramp traffic flows are not complete and it is not possible to compare "apples to apples". Mr. Lindeberg pointed out that local streets would benefit by having less traffic because it will move to I694 but the 2009 Traffic Counts state southbound Hamline Avenue is at 3,370 and in 2030 this is increased to 8,960. Clearly traffic has been added to this area from southbound Hamline rather than reducing it. He pointed out this analysis was not possible for northbound Hamline Avenue because the figures were not provided. The traffic figures also show that the traffic count through this area in 2009 is in the 16,000 range for northbound Trunk Highway 10 and the westbound I694 counts in the 43,000 range. When the project is finished these traffic counts are expected to be 36,000 on northbound Trunk Highway 10 and 43,000 on westbound I694. The redesign is shifting everything onto Trunk Highway 10, which impacts the City of Arden Hills and its residents directly and this is an area of concern. The traffic counts for north and south Lexington Avenue are not available for analysis. He asked if Bolton&Menk had these figures available. Mr. Lindeberg stated he would leave a copy of the layout that had the figures that Mayor Harpstead was requesting. Mr. Chris Chromy, Bolton & Menk, Inc., stated the layout that was reviewed by Bolton& Menk did not have the 2030 traffic figures and so these figures have not been analyzed.