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Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. Warm. High 87F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%..
Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Partly cloudy skies after midnight. Low 68F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.
Traffic moves along Western Boulevard near the intersection of U.S. 17 Monday afternoon.
A large number of wrecks is driving a plan to improve the city’s commercial corridor.
“Collisions drove the study,” said Peggy Holland, Jacksonville Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) senior transportation planner.
The MPO in February published a draft long-range plan through 2040 and presented the document publicly during a meeting last week for comments about the plan.
In addition, the organization presented nearly 50 pages of findings from the Western Boulevard Corridor Study — which would require layers of additional review and aims to add a 14-feet, “low, landscaped” median as a safety measure to reduce wrecks along the road, according to the study and comments by Holland during the public meeting last week.
From November 2006 to October 2011, there were 1,864 wrecks on Western Boulevard between Circuit Lane and Lejeune Boulevard, according to data that N.C. Department of Transportation provided for the study. Of those wrecks, four were fatal, and 539 injured motorists, according to the study.
Comparisons per 100 million vehicle-miles traveled put the stretch of commercial road at more than three times the state average for multilane routes in North Carolina, according to the study.
The findings also factor lighting in upgrades for safety and appearance improvements to Western Boulevard.
All documents are available online at JUMPO-NC.org and public comments are sought until March 30, Holland said.
MPO Administrator Anthony Prinz said the Western Corridor Study is a “new-old project,” which dates to December 2010, to improve the appearance and safety of Western Boulevard.
Every five years, the federally mandated MPO must update its long-range transportation plan.
The long-range plan has been in the works for a little more than a year, she said.
Prinz said the workshop last week combined the long-range plan, the Transportation Improvement Plan, which is a funding document, and the corridor study.
He added that federal law requires the organization to approve its long-range plan by June. The organization’s Transportation Advisory Committee would make that approval, possibly in April, he said.
Current projections through 2040 identify budgets of roughly $543 for road maintenance and $1.1 billion for capital road funding, according to the new 2040 Long-Range Transportation Plan.
“Between now and 2020, we know what is going to get built,” Holland said. “Between 2020 and 2025, we’ve got a really good idea. After that, we’re working farther out.”
Projects slated for construction by 2020 will go forth as planned, Holland said.
The N.C. Department of Transportation’s new guide — Strategic Transportation Investments Plan — grades road projects on a scale that gave preliminary support of roughly 28 road projects in Jacksonville, according to previous Daily News reports.
The state’s competitive grading in the Strategic Transportation Investments Plan will not apply to local projects that start by 2020.
A list of 23 projects are included in the 2016-2025 road projects by the MPO. Those projects include:
There are more contingencies for projects slated for the plan’s latter years.
“The thing about the long-range plan, it’s fiscally constrained,” Holland said. “We have to look at how much money that we will reasonably have.”
Prinz said the long-range projects are intended to “generate ideas for future transportation improvements.”
In addition, the corridor study identified upgrades that included turning lanes at Western Boulevard and its intersections with Trade Street, North Marine Boulevard, Commerce Road, Country Club Road, Brynn Marr Road, Village Drive, Center Street-Liberty Drive and Lejeune Boulevard, according to the study.
“Access management” improvements is a general term in MPO funding documents that are specified in the study for Western Boulevard.
The funding documents identify $14.195 million for upgrades to Western Boulevard, according to the Long-Range Transportation Plan.
Other projects were identified in the study, including: pedestrian and bicycle enhancements such as a 10-feet multiuse side path along the entire corridor, and crosswalk signals, refuge islands, adjacent trees, lighting and parks.
The study also cites a new land-use approach that would minimize driveways with new development along Western Boulevard.
The study refers to projects budgeted generally in the Transportation Improvement Plan.
For more information, call Holland at 910-938-5073 or email PHolland@JacksonvilleNC.gov.
This article originally appeared on The Daily News: Long-range transportation plan released
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