[0:00] We're rolling. Okay, good evening, everyone. It's 5.30 p.m. on Monday, March 4, and we're at

[0:10] Beachwood City Hall in conference room A, and this is a safety and public health

[0:15] committee meeting. And we're here tonight to discuss the Chagrin Boulevard ODOT

[0:21] project. Can you please call the roll? Sure. Mr. Isaacson? Here. Sure, I can't.

[0:27] here Mr. here Mr. Sineberg. He's walking in. Okay. Say here. Say here. Here. Okay so on our agenda item number one is the mayor's report. I will wait for the regular council meeting. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. And item number two discussion and update regarding ODOT project.

[0:56] Okay, I will start while we're back here again to talk about the chagrin boulevard corridor

[1:04] improvement project. This project originally came up to us from the Ohio Department of

[1:10] Transportation in about 2012. This is a safety improvement project. I want to stress that

[1:17] This is about safety.

[1:21] We had done a study that was done over the course

[1:26] of several years by GPD.

[1:29] They've found several things that their representatives will

[1:33] go through this presentation that you've seen.

[1:35] Most of you have seen this previously.

[1:37] We have, I would say, two new council members.

[1:40] So they have a beautiful presentation.

[1:42] And we've kind of shortened that presentation down

[1:46] a little bit due to the most pertinent items to present. So again this is a

[1:53] project that's about safety, it will improve traffic flow and it will

[1:59] eliminate, part of it will eliminate the left turn that you currently have to

[2:06] make into Brighton, across two lanes of traffic which has been stated from

[2:10] members of the police department is being in very hazardous situation as well as

[2:16] Mr. Westbrooks will go through this. It's widening of the Shagrin Boulevard

[2:20] bridge. There's some changes to the entrance and exit ramps to 271 and

[2:25] certainly changes to the Richmond-Shagrin intersection. So with that I

[2:31] will turn it over to Mr. Westbrooks if you want to introduce the people that

[2:35] are on your team who are here today. So Kevin Westbrooks of GPD been in front

[2:39] of most of you. Many times it's a very similar presentation. I've got Mike

[2:45] Hobbs with me, he'll be the principal on the project, and then Mark Grossman who will be the

[2:50] PM on the project. Mark is our director of transportation. He's the guy we bring in

[2:57] for the big design jobs, particularly they've got a lot of ODOT involvement,

[3:04] a lot of ODOT oversight, a lot of experience, that's what his prime

[3:07] I'm doing this larger jobs, dealing with ODOT,

[3:11] dealing with all the design issues.

[3:13] So that's why we wanted to have Mark on the team.

[3:15] So for the first time, any of you have met Mark?

[3:20] And then I'll get the presentation.

[3:23] Let me tell you something while we're pulling that up.

[3:27] If this pilot, as you'll recall,

[3:29] was previously approved by city council,

[3:31] there was an amendment made to it

[3:32] by the Ohio Department of Transportation

[3:35] since the last time that this was approved.

[3:38] And that's why we're back here this evening.

[3:40] Hopefully move forward with this project at this point.

[3:43] So we can do it.

[3:52] I'm going to do it.

[3:54] I'm going to do it.

[3:54] You can just air around the house.

[3:56] Like

[4:02] the mayor said, this is a presentation most of you

[4:04] have seen before, or at least parts of it.

[4:06] We have kind of streamlined it due to time

[4:08] and because most of you have seen it already.

[4:12] Basically, why are we here?

[4:14] Whatever you're discussing wants to do this time.

[4:16] So obviously, it's a couple new council members

[4:18] and kind of a refresher for everybody.

[4:20] It's been about coming up on two years

[4:22] since we've talked to you about this.

[4:24] And there's a new agreement with ODOT.

[4:27] They call it the LPA Agreement.

[4:29] LPA in ODOT world is the local public agency.

[4:32] It's the beach world.

[4:33] So you guys are the local one.

[4:35] So there's a new LPA agreement.

[4:37] You sign the original one back in July of 2023

[4:40] where the council authorized the city to sign.

[4:43] But there's been a modification to that since that time.

[4:46] I've now put on is a new document.

[4:50] This requires a third party review

[4:53] of the plans on the city's behalf.

[4:55] So that's the really only big thing

[4:58] that's in this modified agreement.

[5:00] We will also go over project history

[5:02] and the overview status of it

[5:05] and kind of go over the funding.

[5:08] So we'll go through every single detail

[5:10] but the main point of this is to show you

[5:12] this is not something that's just recently happened.

[5:15] And this has been going on for at least since 2011,

[5:20] some form of trying to improve things on Chagrin Boulevard

[5:24] and near and near the interchange,

[5:26] where the heaviest traffic probably in the city.

[5:29] Now from signals that I worked on back in 2011

[5:32] to studies in 2012, 2015, there was a safety study

[5:37] that ODOT, based on the study,

[5:40] ODOT gave the city a half a million dollars

[5:42] to put towards future further study of it further investigation 2018 there was

[5:50] an alternative study kind of deciding what should be done out here from 2019 to

[5:57] 22 there was a variety of different council committee meetings council

[6:00] meetings public hearing the public involvement meetings between that March

[6:05] 13th and 2019 that's the one that the ODOT staff came to some of you were

[6:11] there. In 2020, ODOT awarded two and a half million dollars out of their safety

[6:16] program, the same program that gave you the half million dollars to further

[6:20] investigate it. They put two and a half million dollars towards the

[6:23] construction at that time. Then we've had a couple other studies, an interchange

[6:28] operation study was approved in 2021. That's an ODOT-acquired study that

[6:33] anytime you're dealing with the interchange, even if it's just the

[6:36] ram she'd got to get that approved there's also turn alternatives evaluation

[6:41] study that's probably the biggest effort we had and that's actually drawn some

[6:48] lines on paper to see where things are actually going to lay out what are your

[6:52] impacts where is the right away needed how can this be designed that study was

[6:58] finished in 21 then later into 2021 the mayor Chris area and I went to the

[7:05] track, which is the Transportation Review and Advisory Council.

[7:09] It's the committee that's made up of a variety of politicians,

[7:13] ODOT, various organizations, and they control the big dollars

[7:18] for ODOT.

[7:19] The big projects that need large amounts of funding

[7:22] have to go to the track to get those.

[7:24] So we went down to, we were at the Agri-Kinn Airport

[7:27] where they were meeting that time,

[7:29] and we were able to secure a million dollars

[7:31] towards the design of the project.

[7:34] Then in June 21st, 2022, that's when we came and did the similar presentation and council approved the LPA agreement that was current at that time, one that we're looking to get approval for again.

[7:50] And then in March of 2023, additional funding was provided by TRAC, almost $600,000 towards the acquisition of Brightway.

[8:03] So between ODOT's safety program and TRAC, ODOT has really started to make investment in this project.

[8:11] They're putting a pretty significant financial investment.

[8:15] They're definitely still on board with this project.

[8:18] It's important to them, just like it's important to the city.

[8:22] So that was kind of a quick overview of it.

[8:25] This has been a long process and it's what these processes are for these large projects.

[8:29] It takes the cost of a lot of money every year to kind of study every detail of it, and it's a process giving the funds.

[8:37] So just going back to the overview, that's the project area. It's primarily Chagrin Boulevard, but it's also on Richmond Road.

[8:45] Just west of the Richmond-Chagrin intersection to just north of Briden Road.

[8:50] It goes all the way out through the interchange, includes some work on the ramps right to the city line.

[8:58] This is just to give you some idea of the traffic numbers that are out there.

[9:02] Most of you have seen this.

[9:05] Today, there's about 50,000 cars a day on chagrin.

[9:10] Another 25,000 on Richmond.

[9:12] 75,000 cars a day traveled through that Richmond chagrin intersection.

[9:16] That's a good guess.

[9:17] I'm assuming that that's just a typo and not a projection for the last column where it says 2042.

[9:22] That is a projection?

[9:24] Well, that is a projection.

[9:25] So when we do all our traffic work, we're always going to project out at least 20 years

[9:32] trying to see, make sure that our design is going to at least last for 20 years, hopefully

[9:38] it lasts longer, hopefully it solves everything, but you want to make sure they are at least

[9:42] getting out of ways and handle that future traffic growth, but it's one of the busiest

[9:49] intersections around.

[9:50] So

[9:55] as the mayor said, this is really it's a safety driven project. If it wasn't for

[10:00] the safety issues and it was just congestion, ODOT would not be quite as

[10:03] interested in it. If you've seen anything from ODOT in the last few years, you know,

[10:08] safety, vision zero, all these various things, safety is a big deal. And this

[10:14] intersection has got a lot of safety, or not the intersection, it's a project area

[10:17] has a major safety concern. And three years when we did the safety study,

[10:23] This is a summary of the crash data that we pulled at that time.

[10:27] Five over 500 crashes in that area in three years.

[10:31] That's big.

[10:32] It's big numbers.

[10:34] Thankfully, it's not.

[10:35] I don't think we had any fatalities.

[10:38] But there's a lot of crashes.

[10:41] Primarily rear end site swipe, which

[10:44] is related to congestion.

[10:47] So it's lots of traffic and lanes

[10:52] that aren't quite where you want them to be.

[10:55] You can't quite get to that left turn lane

[10:57] or you don't want to be in that left turn lane

[10:59] or there's one single curb lane that takes you to 271,

[11:02] whether it's north or south, everybody wants to be

[11:04] and people changing lanes at the last second.

[11:07] I'm sure we've been heading towards 271

[11:09] and that sure comes up on your side

[11:11] and wants to get over to the last second.

[11:14] That's where the side swipes come in

[11:15] and somebody slams on their brakes behind him

[11:18] because somebody's getting over there.

[11:19] where the rear ends are coming from or the long line of traffic coming down Richmond to take a left

[11:24] on the chagrin user rear so it's congestion caused but it's it's the safety concerns is what's the

[11:31] big deal this is kind of a summary of those same statistics in ODOT's ranking every ODOT ranks

[11:40] everything in the state not just their roads they've got a variety they've got intersections

[11:44] they look at they've got sections of road they've got ramps that they look at

[11:48] and they rank them based on a variety of statistics.

[11:51] It's not all just numbers,

[11:53] but there's a lot of things that go in that ranking.

[11:55] But if you look at the little star there,

[11:57] that's the primary intersection of Richmond-Chagrin.

[12:00] That's the number 72 ranked intersection in the state.

[12:05] Think of all the intersections,

[12:06] how many thousands of intersections there are,

[12:08] and it's number 72.

[12:11] The orange section says urban segment number four.

[12:14] that's the fourth highest ranked in terms of crash safety in the entire state and

[12:22] you've got, you know, 252, number 13 ramp, the number 51 ramp. If this was, if there

[12:29] were good way prizes you guys would be taken home a lot, but they're not good

[12:32] prizes, you know, it's, it's, it just shows you in the state, this is

[12:36] significant. That's why ODOT is very interested in doing this. They need to

[12:40] get these cleaned up they need to get these things off their list they and they

[12:44] want things to be safer out there on the roads. This is a little too small to see

[12:49] and if we want to get the nuts and bolts of what's actually being improved I've

[12:53] got a PDF on the computer as well that we can zoom in on areas but this kind of

[12:58] shows you the whole scope of the project. There's gonna be widening but

[13:03] it's really not an excessive amount of widening it's a lot of reconfiguring

[13:07] there's a bridge itself is getting wider but what the main thing we're not just

[13:12] adding lanes to get traffic to plow through and move traffic we're trying

[13:16] to get cars are aligned where they should be a separate lane even on as far

[13:21] back as Richmond north of Brighton you'll get a specific lane if you want

[13:25] to get to 271 south you'll get a specific lane if you want to get to

[13:28] 271 north and carry you the whole way through without having to change

[13:32] lanes and there's there's you know both directions you'll be able to bypass an

[13:39] intersection so you don't have to stop another inch it's really going to make

[13:43] the traffic flow and have people get in the lanes that they need so there's not

[13:48] all that shifting of cars trying to change lanes it really cleared that up

[13:54] which is going to lead to your your improvements in safety if you've ever

[13:58] come down Richmond there come south on Richmond to take a left on the

[14:01] should ruin, you know, everybody wants to be in that right of the left two turn

[14:06] lanes. You get about 10% in the other one because that one goes, only goes over in

[14:11] the wood. If you want to get on 270, you got to be in that one. And if you want to

[14:15] be in that second left turn lane, you can't get to it because it's backed up

[14:18] through Bride and Road and you just, you got to wait, wait, wait. And then you

[14:23] can finally get over. A lot of people, you know, will try and do that then to

[14:27] sneak around the long line of queue and that's where you have your safety problems.

[14:32] So that's what the job is really aligning and again we can get into any of the details if you want to know that.

[14:39] We'll save that to the end because I know you're short of time.

[14:42] One of the more important slash controversial I guess you would call it,

[14:48] changes that are going on here is Briden Road.

[14:51] So the image on the left Briden currently is signalized.

[14:56] You can turn left on the right, you can do anything.

[15:00] If you want, except when there's traffic there, you've got cars queued up through the intersection during busy times.

[15:08] And I agree for Brydon, and you're looking at a line of cars.

[15:13] They've tried various things. We've tried things with signal timing.

[15:16] They've got, you know, the pavement marked out there to show people don't stop your car,

[15:20] but some people either don't care or they don't realize they're going to get stuck in that spot.

[15:25] they think the cars are moving oh it turned red now I'm out in the middle of the intersection.

[15:30] So on the on the right side is what the proposed intersection will look like in the future.

[15:36] When we when we first spoke with this project the the plan was to cut right off call the

[15:42] sack it just eliminate the intersection all together and that was I think that was ODOT's

[15:47] preference that's what they wanted to see that was our recommendation through the public

[15:53] meetings, town hall, talking to the city, the council, counselors. It's clear that we didn't

[16:02] want to just necessarily cut that off at least at that point. So we came to an agreement.

[16:07] ODOT has agreed. There's been a compromise. So the signal will go away, but the Briden Road will

[16:16] then become a right-in right-out. You can take a right turn southbound in the Briden.

[16:20] You could take a right turn out of Bride and the head south.

[16:24] You will not be able to go take a left turn out.

[16:26] You will not be able to take a left turn in.

[16:28] If you were heading north and want to take a left turn in,

[16:31] you're going across four lanes.

[16:34] Many times, both of those lanes are going to be full.

[16:40] It would be a very dangerous movement coming out.

[16:42] I can't imagine trying to come out across all those lanes.

[16:46] But the lanes are set up because that's where you want.

[16:49] This is the arrangement that I was talking about.

[16:51] You can get one lane for 271 North, one for 271 South.

[16:55] You can make those turns and stay in your lane

[16:57] and you'll keep on moving.

[16:59] So that's where that stands right now

[17:03] as I'll write it right out.

[17:08] Some of these are kind of common sense

[17:09] and we've kind of talked about them

[17:10] and the benefits of the project,

[17:12] consequences not doing, they're basically obvious.

[17:14] But yeah, improve safety.

[17:16] That's what we'd like the mayor to say.

[17:17] This is what we're here for, to improve the safety,

[17:19] get those crash numbers down.

[17:21] Ideally it would be zero, I'm realistic.

[17:23] We just want to get it down to a normal number

[17:26] that's not put you at the top of the list.

[17:28] Make the intersection, make the whole project area safer.

[17:32] Improved traffic flow is secondary,

[17:34] only secondary because the safety is so important,

[17:37] but to improve the safety,

[17:38] you're going to have better traffic flow.

[17:41] Economic benefit, it's kind of a more obscure thought,

[17:46] but the businesses in town, the hospitals,

[17:50] the headquarters, the offices,

[17:52] all these businesses that are located in Beechwood,

[17:54] that's the light of what makes Beechwood so great.

[17:59] The last thing you wanna do is make somebody mad

[18:02] and a business decides either not to locate in Beechwood

[18:05] because man, I don't wanna go through that traffic

[18:07] every morning, I kind of see crashes or it's jammed up

[18:12] or they, once their lease is up,

[18:15] they're like, we're getting out of town.

[18:16] We've got to go somewhere where it's a little easier.

[18:18] You don't want to do that.

[18:19] You don't want to chase off these great businesses.

[18:22] So this is important not only to the safety,

[18:24] but economic health of the city.

[18:27] This will reduce Charter Dunn-Briden and Halberd,

[18:30] we believe.

[18:33] I believe there's concerns from residents

[18:36] that there's people out there that use their road that

[18:39] aren't residents.

[18:40] They're legally allowed to.

[18:42] But they wouldn't normally be there

[18:44] if they weren't trying to avoid something else.

[18:46] Well, let me make those left turns.

[18:48] We're going to immediately cut out some of that traffic

[18:50] that's in there.

[18:51] And then a regional impact.

[18:54] While you guys are the ones that

[18:56] have to carry the weight of the project,

[18:59] this is not just for you guys.

[19:00] I mean, in other communities, other shakers,

[19:04] your universities, this is an important area for them

[19:08] as well, having traffic flow through your area.

[19:10] And then obviously the consequences is just the opposite.

[19:14] Safety's not gonna fix itself.

[19:16] You can't just leave this intersection alone

[19:17] and expect that things are gonna get better.

[19:21] Traffic flow's only gonna get worse.

[19:24] Traffic's gonna continue to increase.

[19:26] And if you don't do anything,

[19:28] it's gonna become worse than the obviously

[19:30] the opposite of the economic impact.

[19:32] You don't wanna chase off these businesses.

[19:36] Moving forward, hoping that the council will authorize the mayor to sign the revised LPA

[19:44] agreement.

[19:44] Hopefully it's in the next council meeting.

[19:48] That agreement then we go to ODOT and then ODOT is, because they've got a million dollars

[19:54] of federal funds in the design, they will have to review the design fee again and approve

[20:01] that and then start to contract for the design. Then our, you know, we'll get

[20:07] hopefully contract, you know, everything will move forward, design will start and

[20:11] then our next major thing is to go try and get more money. We have to get to a

[20:16] certain point in design before we can ask for more money, at least through the

[20:20] track which I think is again your best option for getting funds there. I've

[20:24] already shown twice that they're interested in putting money into this.

[20:28] So we're going to go back to track.

[20:29] We'll also apply for raise and build grants,

[20:31] but you're competing nationally for those funds.

[20:34] We'll try.

[20:36] There are big pots of money, but you never know.

[20:38] But we'll put the application into that,

[20:40] but I really think track is where the money is going to,

[20:45] you're going to find the money.

[20:47] Estimated design is going to take a couple of years.

[20:50] It started in 24, and probably finished in 26.

[20:54] Construction would follow that in 20 estimate now 2027 2028. It's a two-year

[21:00] construction. Bridge work is probably you know pushing a lot of that. There's a

[21:07] lot of stuff to do out there.

[21:12] Funding I'm sorry. It's the most

[21:14] important thing. The first kind of preliminary engineering that's the half

[21:17] million dollars and the city's match that ODAC gave back in 2015 to do to

[21:23] get you to this point. See the million dollars under secured track that's the

[21:27] design money that the track has given you. The five sixty-four that's the

[21:32] nearly six hundred thousand dollars of track is put towards the acquisition of

[21:37] right-of-way along chagrin. There's going to be some strips of right-of-way

[21:42] that are going to be needed to make the road a little wider. Under construction

[21:45] you see the ODOT HSIP that's their safety program. Same program they gave

[21:50] maybe the half million is they've got two and a half million dedicated to it.

[21:55] Nowakka resurfacing, there's 433,000 that Nowakka's putting into this.

[22:00] That was to resurface, should grin.

[22:03] It was probably supposed to happen, but no, the city requested, hey,

[22:07] can we hold off on that till we do this project and put it in the pocket?

[22:11] That makes sense.

[22:13] Let's not do this work twice, so they put that money in.

[22:17] Then the 8.6 million, the big number there, that's the money that we're

[22:20] going to be going back for probably likely to track total all those things up

[22:28] some big numbers but I think there's a big opportunity to get to get funding

[22:33] believe that is my last slide so that questions maybe

[22:44] I don't there's anything

[22:45] else that I missed that you want to throw at that I just wanted a few

[22:53] things. Thank you for the presentation. You know, looking at this project, I think this is the most

[23:00] important project probably that we've seen since probably 1988-89 when Richmond Road got expanded

[23:10] from two lanes to four and five lanes. And you know, the vision back then, actually I think I was

[23:17] here as a part-timers and dates, but you know looking at a head and forecasting

[23:25] where our commercial district is, we're not built out yet completely in the

[23:30] Chagrin Highlands and you know ODOT and the City of Beechwood had a vision to

[23:35] widen Richmond Road to Forsyth Park before all these commercial districts.

[23:40] So I think this is probably the most important project since that time, so

[23:45] But I think it's really important.

[23:47] ODAC did come to us because of all the accidents.

[23:50] And gee, you can attest it.

[23:52] They approached us back in 2012.

[23:56] And the governor knew there was a problem there.

[23:58] And it's continued on.

[24:00] So I just think that looking at everything,

[24:05] it's a regional thing, a further commercial area,

[24:09] not only in this city, but other cities also.

[24:11] When we went down to Akron, the Mayor, myself and Kevin made this presentation.

[24:17] It was very encouraging. We had three, I think, of the track council members that wanted us to write a check for construction that day.

[24:25] So they said, what's the hold-up? Let's write a check to the City of Beechwood and get this thing done.

[24:31] So it's been on pause for a couple of years. Hopefully the council has the same state of mind going moving forward.

[24:37] we're going to go back to them and we anticipate that we'll be able to get a

[24:40] lot of construction funding towards this project. So it's just it's extremely

[24:45] important. Mayor and I met with Deputy Picuri a couple weeks, two or three weeks

[24:50] ago, and Kerry Wells from ODOT and they still feel the same way about this

[24:56] project that they wanted to move forward. They wanted construction to

[24:59] happen in 2027 and 2028 and get this done and this job completed because

[25:04] spend 12 years. So it's an important project and I hope that Council sees it that way and

[25:11] approves the agreement. So that's all that I had on the bill if you want to answer.

[25:16] Like Chris said, when we went down to AFRIN I was floored by one of the members who wanted

[25:20] to write a step chat that day and I walked out of there and I think I said to Kevin

[25:24] we should have asked for 3 million more because it was really tough at that time. And I

[25:28] would say that was two years ago and nearly now and the cost of the project in here

[25:33] is increased like you know all of our projects I'm increased in cost. I felt confident, I'm

[25:38] guaranteeing, but confident that they will give us additional funding and I got that

[25:43] sense when we met with the deputy director a couple weeks ago as well.

[25:47] And Mayor Frager, the reason, the only reason they couldn't give you all the money that

[25:50] they wanted to at that time is because there were no plans were started, had to

[25:55] be through an environmental clearance and they had to explain to a couple of

[26:01] They haven't gotten to that point yet.

[26:03] The city will have to come back and ask for that in you at a later time.

[26:08] The only thing to stop them is Director Marshmings.

[26:10] Yeah, I think he was the one who had to speak up.

[26:19] I did have a question.

[26:20] Could you go back to the picture that shows current and proposed?

[26:25] So right here, I'm sorry, the existing condition.

[26:27] the rights from Brighton on to Richie.

[26:35] Is there concern that someone who turns right and they're trying to get to 271

[26:41] has to come over now? Are they having to come over more lanes in the proposed condition?

[26:51] Yes, thank you. Well, I think it's still three lanes you've got to get across.

[26:57] There's going to be two through lanes on Richmond Road but there will be two turn lanes that will extend all the way to that point instead of just the one.

[27:08] And even that one you can't really get to. So you still have to get across three lanes. You might be able to go straight to it.

[27:15] But I mean that is a concern. That's one reason that some of that cutting is considered.

[27:23] Because when does it will there be a so once you turn on to Richmond does it turn

[27:27] it do you have how much feet do you have before it turns into a right only

[27:32] your concerns traffic coming out right hand turn out here and then trying to

[27:36] get into these things correct yeah like how many ladies are they having that

[27:39] somebody somebody wants to get on the chagrin going eastbound so I don't know

[27:44] I'm not sure it gets in the intersection, but this is why ODOT wanted this cul-de-sac.

[27:49] Because they knew that people would be coming out of here and causing the same situation to have on a strip.

[27:55] So if people are going to turn right on here and then they're going to try and get into these two lanes and get out of the two separate lanes.

[28:01] That's why they wanted the light remove within the cul-de-sac.

[28:04] Okay.

[28:04] They ended up with this, but yes, that is still a concern.

[28:06] Okay.

[28:07] Thank you.

[28:10] So I shared some of Ms. Delong's concerns regarding, and I've expressed this before,

[28:15] people trying to make that right idling while they attempt to get into the center lane.

[28:19] Have we consulted with the superintendent and asked at all if the school would prefer

[28:25] for there to be a cul-de-sac?

[28:26] Would there be any enhanced safety to the students at Brighton Elementary

[28:29] if we were to reduce traffic in any sense?

[28:34] I think that the schools don't actually come up there.

[28:37] I don't know if buses utilize that intersection just because it's a very difficult intersection

[28:43] to navigate left northbound while corporate park is exiting left at the same time.

[28:49] The other thing that I wanted to just clarify that you had mentioned to me earlier is that

[28:54] median is a rollover so if we have an emergency vehicle we are able to press over.

[29:00] It's built and constructed so emergency vehicles can go over it.

[29:03] Even if it was cul-de-sac, and we determined to go that route, we could still build that

[29:09] where emergency vehicles can get over it, as long as it's a roll-curve.

[29:13] And finally, have you timed, if this were to take place or we needed to, we followed

[29:19] ODOT's recommendation and made this a cul-de-sac, do we have a general range or estimate of

[29:25] how much longer it would take for the residents on those streets to leave their homes

[29:30] and access one of the major roads for alternative routes.

[29:33] Is it like a five minute additional commute?

[29:37] Does it take them another minute, 30 seconds?

[29:40] When this first came up, we did time it out,

[29:43] and a resident that was living on, I believe, Halburden

[29:47] or Bryden, it was between a two to three minute range,

[29:52] extra, but that was without the phasing of the lights.

[29:55] Obviously, if we went with this project,

[29:57] lechwood would be a lot longer.

[30:00] Yes, it would be additional two to three minutes, but that's without the additional time for the

[30:03] light, so I'm sure that time would be less. There would be more time on that left-ward

[30:08] light. So what's the impact to

[30:14] Lechworth? Because if people who want to go northbound on Richmond,

[30:21] that is north, right? Yeah. People who want to go northbound on Richmond, they're

[30:25] to have to go over to Letchworth and then make the left turn from Letchworth on to Richmond

[30:32] and when school, when Briden lets out, we're going to see school buses and parents who

[30:37] are picking up their kids backed up and I could see that as being some, is creating

[30:42] some congestion for a little while. Plus, well plus if you adjust the light timing

[30:47] then it's going to have a knock on impact on Richmond.

[30:50] But just to be clear right now, Bride and School all exits out to leftward, so I don't think that there's going to be any more cars coming because they can't get to Bride.

[30:58] And I say I'm going to drive around and utilize Solgway and then they, you know, come back up to Bride and maybe a right turn out of Bride.

[31:05] The plan with the schools also is that the Bride and Driveway is going to be buses only, and the leftward driveway is going to be vehicular traffic for a school drop-off.

[31:18] That's correct.

[31:19] So it's not going to be one way any more bright.

[31:21] It is not going to be.

[31:22] Only buses.

[31:23] And again, talking to the schools,

[31:25] they would not have the buses come up to this intersection

[31:28] unless they were headed to go south by an entrepreneur.

[31:32] South by an enrichment, I'm sorry.

[31:35] It's been a few years, but when my kids were at Brighton,

[31:39] buses would come south by Richmond,

[31:41] hook the turn onto Brighton Road,

[31:43] and then work their way around and go in the driveway there

[31:45] to drop the kids off.

[31:48] So far as I know, the buses, all the buses would be coming in on the bride and they want to, they want to separate the carers from the buses.

[31:56] That's our plan of both schools.

[31:58] So, Chief, do we sit, how often do we sit and cite people for blocking the box?

[32:06] Not very often because it's so dangerous.

[32:10] Pulling out.

[32:12] Pulling out for the officers is so dangerous.

[32:14] There's nowhere to sit up there, because it's so congested.

[32:18] We get complaints and we try to address them, but it's very difficult for them to take action there because there's congestion.

[32:25] There's not a simple fix like paving a pad for a police officer to sit on and ticket everybody they see?

[32:31] No.

[32:31] Okay.

[32:34] So I saw, sorry, I have some high-level questions.

[32:41] So this project you said was initiated

[32:43] by ODOT, not by the city of Beechwood or anybody else, correct? Correct. And then, in whose

[32:51] direction does it proceed? Is it ODOT's project? Is it Beechwood's project? It's Beechwood's

[32:56] project. ODOT will be in the construction because you've got the interchanged interstate involved,

[33:06] but it's Beechwood's project to champion, carry through, provide the bulk of the funding,

[33:13] or at least find the funding, get the design completed, and then hand the, you know,

[33:21] ready to go to construction, ODOT's going to take it over to the enterprise.

[33:27] So, but the city of Beechwood, the administration of Beechwood is going to be the ones who are

[33:34] controlling the project and making sure that it's, that it happens, that the phasing happens,

[33:39] that the right amount of work happens, not too much work or too little work or anything

[33:43] like that, correct?

[33:44] Yes, all the parameters, what type of work is being done, once it goes into that

[33:48] construction phase usually will just be answered questions to ODOT thing is okay

[33:52] but but deciding you know is this a left-turn lane is this a through lane are

[33:57] we widening the bridge are we changing the signal on are we doing those

[34:01] decisions that have been the city's now it has to fit in with ODOT parameters

[34:06] don't do anything it's outside of one of their approved countermeasures or

[34:12] outside of their manuals but the city made all the decisions I had to go

[34:16] through the end but I had to agree that that's yes that's that makes sense and

[34:20] that's the right thing okay and there's there's there's four elements to this so

[34:25] now we have obviously ODOT we have GPD group the city of Beechwood and the

[34:29] third party engineer and so all four of those entities will get together and work

[34:34] together to make sure that everything's right on the project the now the

[34:39] third party engineer that's that that's a new mandate from ODOT there

[34:44] they've changed the ground rules for everybody that's correct so every

[34:47] project no matter who's doing it anywhere in the state of Ohio going

[34:51] forward requires this unfunded mandate no no not for

[35:01] projects that where the

[35:07] company that is the city engineer is doing the design plans okay that makes

[35:14] up a requirement that they've had before but it is a statewide requirement

[35:18] now so okay but it's not so but it's not a term and condition that only beachwood

[35:26] is required to follow correct okay got it so I saw that design is expected to

[35:34] take two years that seems an awful long period of time is this something that

[35:39] can be done a little more quickly so we can at least get some cost savings

[35:42] through avoiding inflation that's not not really because there's there's

[35:47] certain things that have to happen there's you know there's a big chunk in

[35:49] there that's review time you know where the third party and ODOT will be

[35:55] reviewing the plants there's big chunks of that there's a certain amount of

[35:59] work that has to be done before they can go acquire right away there's

[36:03] certain amount of work before they can go to environmental clearance so

[36:06] really honestly the two years is a pretty condensed schedule for something

[36:11] of those sides Alec we probably have a year of moving utilities before the

[36:16] project starts to so that's part that's part of a planning phase that's for

[36:20] leading up to construction yes I mean it's gonna take it's gonna take some

[36:23] time to do that sorry I was under the impression that it was simply people

[36:26] sitting around drawing making drawings for two years there's there's a lot of

[36:30] field work there's other elements are going on at the same time this is going to be two

[36:34] phases phase one and phase two so it'll be that's it'll be over the

[36:39] course of two years okay do the grants that we've been offered

[36:43] expire. They can eventually at this point everybody's holding their money

[36:51] that would have safety program is let you hold on to the two-and-a-half million

[36:54] for quite a while and the lack of money has been held for quite a while. At some

[36:58] point I feel like they're going to eventually say we're not giving up. As long as a

[37:03] project is moving forward the funding will be there. Okay. Council votes it

[37:08] down. The agreement down? I don't know how much longer the funding is going to last.

[37:12] Mr. Eisenstein, we asked that exact question, Chris and I, when we met with the Deputy Director

[37:16] a couple of weeks ago, and he assured us that he felt that all the funding that we currently have

[37:22] would still be there for his project to continue to move along.

[37:25] A couple more questions. In the safety rankings that were in there, the least safe pieces of road

[37:32] in the state, those were from 2018?

[37:35] Those are, yes.

[37:37] So have they been updated? That was six years ago. Have they been updated?

[37:40] We have not updated, you know, this is the data that we use in the safety study, in the studies that have been given to ODOT was based on this snapshot of data, a three-year period.

[37:55] There's also food wanted to update it. The data gets a little sketchy. 2000 was kind of, everybody kind of throws that out.

[38:01] that was 2021, things were starting to get back to normal.

[38:07] Then we've got 22 and 23.

[38:09] They like to have a good three years of solid data

[38:11] to do anything.

[38:13] So we haven't pulled new crash data.

[38:17] We know there's a safety issue.

[38:18] Is it gonna be slightly different than this?

[38:20] Yes.

[38:22] Is it gonna be ballparked this?

[38:23] Yes.

[38:24] Yeah, it's gonna be somewhere in that same range.

[38:26] I honestly, I don't know if they've updated

[38:28] any rankings.

[38:29] I know when this data was pulled,

[38:31] which was in the studies that got you a safety funding this is this is what it was so we haven't

[38:37] we haven't expended you know the additional hours and fees to to pull that data oh that's not what

[38:44] we're going to do right so yeah that's sure and then if we do this if this work is complete

[38:51] what happens to the east end of the bridge the lighted orange place that will still be part

[38:57] of the prod. You know, it'll still be there like it is. There is going to be a turn lane

[39:03] turning on the orange places added. So there is an improvement. It's pretty tough to see,

[39:07] but down there in the far right corner, there's a turn lane to keep that help get that intersection

[39:14] moving a little bit better. There's going to be additional lanes coming off the freeway

[39:19] ramps to try and clear that. So hopefully more time can be given to other of the

[39:24] traffic signal green time and we give it the other phases but you will get over

[39:28] there and you know we're not doing anything outside of the you know into

[39:33] orange place the road that's there is there what we will be doing is peeling

[39:39] off the 271 south peeling off the 271 north traffic so when the traffic gets

[39:46] over there it's not 271 and eastbound traffic mix it's you know so we're

[39:52] still the same amount but they keep it separate. I think things will still flow

[39:57] better a little over there on their end probably because the signal operations

[40:02] will be more efficient but we are not adding any lanes over there. It seems to

[40:07] me then that anybody who's been stuck on that bridge waiting to get on 271

[40:11] they're going to have their own lane. Okay all right. This will improve

[40:16] traffic on wood or something.

[40:18] Yeah, and with that bridge, it's a mess anyway.

[40:22] I mean, with the crumbling concrete and the,

[40:26] I've seen workers on it and the fence looks like it's coming down.

[40:29] I mean, I think that bridge is, is,

[40:33] it concerns me to drive under it. Let's put it that way.

[40:36] They did some repairs to the fence, actually, over the last few months.

[40:40] And then, one last question.

[40:44] We've been considering putting in a connector road

[40:46] that would take traffic out of Commerce Park

[40:50] over to Harvard.

[40:51] Would that have any impact on a project like this?

[40:55] Might it replace this project?

[40:58] I don't think it'll cause for the need to replace it.

[41:01] I don't think it would easily replace this.

[41:04] I think that's gonna facilitate traffic in that area.

[41:07] Hopefully, things move a little bit better over there.

[41:11] but the demand is always still going to be up here.

[41:14] I think it's going to give you more ability to move traffic

[41:18] in that area, open up some more area for development.

[41:22] But I think the traffic that wants to be here

[41:25] is still going to be here.

[41:26] Got it.

[41:27] Thank you.

[41:27] Thank you for showing it.

[41:28] Thank you.

[41:29] Mr. Centerberg, do you have any questions?

[41:31] Yeah, so the call to sec, is that a discussion

[41:35] that is now closed or might we reopen it?

[41:38] because it sounds like when I'm here tonight the idea of called us acting may have some

[41:43] benefits. I mean, it does have benefits, obviously. There's benefits and costs of any, either way.

[41:49] It was likely closed, I guess you could say. I mean, it's kind of, you know, came to this

[41:52] agreement. Could it be, could we go back and say, hey, we want to do this now? I certainly

[41:59] think ODOT would be in favor of it. It's, you know, I don't think it jeopardizes

[42:04] as any of the approvals that we've gotten from ODOT,

[42:06] you know, there is an interchange study

[42:08] that I mentioned that ODOT has to approve to allow you.

[42:11] That's far enough removed, that changing,

[42:14] call a second, Matt, in my degree.

[42:16] I do agree.

[42:19] I think if the city was interested in doing that,

[42:21] you could decide to do that.

[42:22] We probably met and noted with ODOT

[42:24] and they'd probably have to.

[42:25] They wish they did.

[42:26] When did that determination need to be made?

[42:29] Was that it?

[42:29] Was that determination need to be made?

[42:31] Very quickly, because that would affect

[42:33] your public involvement and would affect your environmental clearance that was mentioned

[42:37] that you have to have before you can get the next round of funding. So the actual project

[42:42] footprint has to be decided very quickly. What is very quickly? Within the first six

[42:48] months of the design project. Thank you.

[42:52] So it's okay. So we have time to make a

[42:54] final decision. From what I'm hearing tonight, it sounds like there are, as I'm

[43:00] rethinking this process I'm hearing maybe some more benefits to call to sacking it

[43:05] than to not call to sacking. There's always been my recommendation but yes. What is

[43:12] GPs recommendation? We think it's the safest and you know I'll say I think

[43:18] people on the roads back there might appreciate not having this connection

[43:24] cut through. I know if I'm coming down South Green and I'm going somewhere I

[43:28] I always put my GPS on just so I can see if there's going to be a traffic back of what I'm going to do.

[43:32] I know how to get there, but I want to see if it turns out right.

[43:35] It tells me to turn on the Brighton and cut through here to avoid all that.

[43:40] I don't do it, you know, but that always tells me to do that.

[43:44] Yeah, but there are people who will follow that.

[43:47] There are people who are passionate about that issue,

[43:50] and if we're going to consider cul-de-sac in Brighton,

[43:53] Then we're going to have to work carefully with the residents who live in that part of the community and help them to understand the value and the costs and the benefits and the steps that we're going to take to mitigate any perceived or real inconvenience that they run into.

[44:11] And now like I like to point out that we've already done a survey survey went

[44:16] out to the residents of Briden and I think mayor was over 50% that wanted to see a

[44:21] closer. Wait was that survey conducted?

[44:26] Yeah I don't remember the exact

[44:28] sample size was I mean I don't have the exact numbers. I'm going to get you those

[44:33] numbers but we did do a survey we did reach out to the residents and that

[44:37] was a you know that was a concern of ours and they did they did respond and 50%

[44:44] saying that they okay is there any thought to re-issuing a survey or I

[44:50] mean I know like you know a lot has changed on that street too. It might be nice

[44:55] just to engage them and get their thoughts too.

[45:00] Yeah, I think that might be an idea that we pursue.

[45:05] You've been telling us that.

[45:08] The more I think about it, the more I'm hearing from at least the professionals in the room, Mr. Aiden, and the GPD team that called us that, and Anne O'Donnell, it sounds like.

[45:18] That was O'Donnell's original plan. That's why we wanted to stick with it. And I think we pointed out some valid reasons as to why Ben and Jillian pointed out, I think Allie did too, that there's going to be issues with the right end and the right out end.

[45:30] The last thing we need is a cartridge right out on the Richmond cell phone.

[45:34] Stopping because it can't get left.

[45:36] And backing up traffic.

[45:38] We're going to be in the same situation we are now.

[45:41] One thing I'll put some money on is that the survey is not going to be 100 to 0 either way.

[45:46] There will be people on those lists.

[45:48] So we know that.

[45:49] I think last time it was slightly, it was like 50, I don't know,

[45:53] it was around 55, 45 or something.

[45:55] It was pretty even, pretty close.

[45:56] So, you know, we know it'll be over probably within 40 to 60, whatever, on both sides, either way.

[46:04] So we're going to have to ultimately, whoever's in this room,

[46:08] will have to make the decision based on what they think is overall.

[46:12] Property values go all up with the cul-de-sac.

[46:14] What's that?

[46:14] Property values increase when it goes in.

[46:17] Yeah.

[46:18] So I guess my only thought from this presentation is to reopen the cul-de-sac conversation.

[46:26] If we're going to do that, I'd like to do that.

[46:33] We can be, certainly council can be expeditious.

[46:36] I know that my idea of no left turn during morning and afternoon rush is, I think, a non-starter.

[46:46] Although I did notice today that that's exactly the way it works in front of the middle school,

[46:50] but I know it's not as many lanes to go across.

[46:54] coming out of the middle school.

[46:55] When you're coming out of the middle school driveway,

[46:57] there's a sign right there that says no left turn

[47:00] morning and afternoon,

[47:01] but you're going across four or five lanes there

[47:04] as opposed to six lanes here.

[47:11] Because that would be a...

[47:13] I think a solution that would...

[47:17] There's no way to have a limited left turn

[47:19] in there with a right and right eye.

[47:21] No, I know.

[47:22] There's just no way to...

[47:23] And then within a while, people can go left in a long time.

[47:29] And then we're relying on the chief for traffic enforcement.

[47:32] And again, if there's a safety issue,

[47:34] we don't want to put officers at risk like that.

[47:36] It's just difficult for them to get out.

[47:37] And then if they make a stop right there,

[47:39] then that backs up traffic even more.

[47:42] Ms. Taylor, did you have a question?

[47:44] Yeah, I did.

[47:46] It's nice to see you guys.

[47:47] And thank you for this presentation.

[47:49] I don't know how much leeway you're

[47:51] going to have with the proposed bridge structure.

[47:54] But having just come off the campaign, I know a lot of our citizens are very cognizant that other cities have really nice bridges with nice lighting and nice signage and brooding.

[48:10] So when appropriate, I think it would be nice to kind of let people know how that does or does not occur.

[48:15] because people are very prideful and they want a nice you know you know I mean

[48:24] if you look at Westlake I mean you drive under their bridge and you're like

[48:27] wow an opportunity quarter certainly has made an impact too. When we met with

[48:34] Deputy Director Precari I mentioned that exact thing and I said it's really

[48:38] nice driving up 480 and seeing that independence bridge and he acknowledged

[48:43] that they get more compliments about that right now and he was open to that.

[48:48] I think that the idea here right now is only one side of the bridge would be

[48:52] reconstructed. Correct. But maybe we could get B to it

[48:55] on that side so you're traveling northbound. There's a

[48:59] fair number of bridges. There's one in Canton. There's a couple in Canton. Yes.

[49:03] The Independence one is kind of the most amazing one. I think that would be really,

[49:07] and the lighting piece would really make a difference.

[49:11] And so, you know, before it's too late.

[49:15] That'd be great. Thank you.

[49:18] Last thing, it's hard for me to, I have to like be driving down the street to actually visualize it.

[49:23] But with these repairs or with these enhancements, do we need to look into any sound mitigation for these areas

[49:31] if we're expanding the roads, are we going to need to explore sound barriers

[49:35] or is that not relevant to the stretch of road?

[49:40] I don't think we need to look at it because it's all commercial property.

[49:43] It all is, it is all commercial property.

[49:45] And that's usually just where residential is.

[49:48] Yeah.

[49:49] So I don't think that that would be looking at anything unless you know something about it.

[49:53] I don't think so.

[49:53] I don't have to be like in my car driving down these streets for me to really be able to remember where everything is.

[49:59] Thank you.

[49:59] I've only seen some barriers on freeway lane additions, not arterial sort of streets.

[50:05] Okay.

[50:06] I want to be mindful of time, too, because I know we have another meeting after this,

[50:09] but Mr. Long, I know you have another question.

[50:12] Yeah, thank you.

[50:13] If you could just go back to the proposed condition one more time.

[50:17] Looking at the other side, I'm going to call it where you go to Hex.

[50:22] The other, yeah.

[50:23] Yes.

[50:23] Okay.

[50:23] So there's no light there.

[50:25] If I'm coming southbound on Richmond and I want to go into Hex or the chiropractor,

[50:30] how is that can I turn is that left now gone that option but we we did make

[50:39] provisions for this corporate place we gave them a right in and right out on

[50:44] enterprise got it okay so we gave them that so if I was coming southbound I

[50:49] would turn left on the science park right on enterprise and then right into

[50:53] into that corporate place that would be the other driver that North

[51:02] If I was driving down there, I would take the back of the van and wait until it turned left

[51:08] on Richmond, but they do have the other things.

[51:13] A couple of things.

[51:14] When this study was started, Pinecrest wasn't even envisioned, Van Aken District didn't

[51:19] exist, so I don't know about the future traffic.

[51:22] I can tell you that every administration surrounding us has all been in favor of this project.

[51:27] I know that it doesn't cost them anything, but they've all been in favor of it.

[51:31] And Woodmere is in the midst of it, driven down there, in the midst of widening the traffic

[51:36] going westbound.

[51:37] So they're going to push all their traffic into Beechwood.

[51:39] We're going to have to deal with, I don't know, later in the summer, all, and then

[51:43] probably the kids' time.

[51:45] So, sorry, in this picture then, traffic coming, heading east to west, out of the

[51:53] the next driveway, would they be able to go straight into

[51:57] Brighton? No, right here, right now.

[52:00] Especially if it's cul-de-sac. Well, no, but if it were

[52:04] right now, yeah. No, if it were cul-de-sac, obviously.

[52:12] Is it okay if we move to item number three, in the interest of time?

[52:16] Okay. So are there any other matters

[52:19] coming before the safety and public health committee?

[52:24] Seeing none.

[52:25] but I'm going to make a motion to adjourn the meeting.

[52:30] Is that Mr.

[52:32] Okay.

[52:33] All right.

[52:33] Mr. Isaacson.

[52:34] Yes.

[52:34] Mr. Jacob.

[52:35] Yes.

[52:35] Mr. Cinnaberg.

[52:37] Yes.

Mar 04, 2024 Safety and Public Health Committee

Agenda

Transcript