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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Transportation Advisory Commission - 05/24/1993 TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY COMMLTTEE MINUTES (for the meeting of May 24, 1993) CALL TO ORDER Meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m. Messrs.Hecht and Routh were absent. II. TRAFFIC FATALITY REPORT Captain Byrd reported that there have been no fatality accidents since our last meeting. We are still holding at five for the year. The Police Department has arrested 447 persons so far this year. This is a decrease of 8% over last year but our record number of 30 DWIs issued this last weekend narrowed that gap significantly. (Mr.Pillinger stated for the record that there was now a quorum of members.) LCDR Williams questioned Captain Byrd if she knew how many of those 30 DWIs issued over the weekend how many of them were military? Captain Byrd did not have this information with her. Mr. Pillinger stated that they were proceeding a little out of order from the agenda because there wasn't a quorum earlier. Also,David Seiler is testifying in County Court on a case involving the City at 1:00 p.m.and hopes to be here by 2:30 p.m. Sitting in on David's behalf are Carl Crull,Director of Engineering Services and Walter Jarrin,Engineer II in Traffic Engineering. The first item we went to after the Call to Order was the Traffic Fatality Report. III. ELECTION OF OFFICERS Mr.Barry Pillinger was elected to serve as a Chairperson and Mr.Len Brandrup was elected to serve as Vice-Chairperson for the upcoming year. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Minutes of the April 26, 1993 meeting were approved without any changes. Regarding the June TAC meeting,a request has been made by the Staff to have a joint meeting with the Water Shore Advisory Committee to review the one-way traffic plan for the Gulf seawall section. V. CHAIRMAN'S REPORT Mr.Pillinger had mentioned earlier to Captain Byrd his concerns about the vehicles traveling in excess of the speed limits on the Crosstown Expressway and SPID and on Ocean Drive,south of Airline. This concern should be brought to the attention of Chief Garrett. Captain Byrd reported that officers have been working those areas on the swing shift hours and the officers have been very productive during those hours. Two other items have come up since the previous meeting that should be commented on by City Staff and possibly Captain Byrd. One relates to a traffic count being taken on Pharaoh and Nile Drive at the request of a city council member. The other relates to an accident at the midblock crosswalk on South Water Street (at the Shoreline Terrace office building)which has received a lot of publicity from the news media. Mr.Crull commented on traffic count at Pharaoh in that it was a request from Councilman Best that we look into the possibility of a count there to warrant signalization at that intersection. Once the counts are complete,analysis will be done and staff will be reporting back to city council and to the TAC as to the results to that study. (Captain Byrd requested her comments regarding traffic accident at the crosswalk on South Water Street be off the record due to the possibility of future litigation.) SCANNED VI. CITY TRAFFIC ENGINEER'S REPORT Mr. Walter Jarrin asked if the City Traffic Engineer's Report could be deferred to the end • of the meeting in the event Mr. Seiler arrived later. VII. MONTHLY TRAFFIC ACCIDENT EXPERIENCE REPORT(Attachment B) Mr. Walter Jarrin reviewed the traffic accident report. Mr.Jarrin stated a correction needed to be made to the report in the 1992 Accidents through April should show 26 instead of 8. Also, change needed in Statistics of Breakdown of Accidents Experienced,date should be April instead of March. VIII. DISCUSSION ITEMS A. Spur 3 (Ennis Joslin/Alameda/Ocean Drive)Street Improvements(Attachment C). Mr.Crull updated the committee on this project. Highway Commission authorized the department to proceed with the preparation of plans and specifications of the project. At this point in time, the staff-of the Texas Highway Department is somewhat overloaded with projects, they decided to hire a consulting engineering firm to perform the design work on this project. After consulting firm completed their portion, a public meeting will be held to present the schematic layouts and the environmental assessment to the public and answer any questions. After this, there is an opportunity for a public hearing and if there is no request for public • hearing, they will proceed with final design of the project. Plans are for a full five-lane facility along Ennis Joslin from Ocean Drive to the Alameda/Ocean Drive intersection and five-lanes also from that point to the east entrance to the campus. There are some environmental concerns in regard to blind Oso area which is the area between CCSU and the Alameda/Ocean Drive intersection. Part of problem is that this is a low area, goes under water fairly easily during high tide and hurricane conditions we want to raise that area up to same elevation as the island and the intersection which will require some fill and the blind Oso area is an environmentally sensitive area,its the habitat for a bird called piping clever which is on the endangered species list. There are couple of other environmental areas which the range outfalls by the Oso treatment plant and the Pharaoh Golf Course which will require some litigation also. Another complicating factor in this is the presence of South Guth Park which will require some meditation to offset the additional right-of-way which will be taken in there. The Federal Highway Administration looks very dimly on taking park land for a roadway. All of these items will befully addressed in the environmental assessment. Also,noise factor study will be addressed in environmental assessment. 1X. STAFF RECOMMENDATION SUBMrrI ED FOR COMMI lmE APPROVAL A. Proposed speed limit reduction on South Alameda Street between Louisiana Parkway and Ayers Street,as follows: 1. From 35 MPH to 30 MPH between Louisiana Parkway and Cole Street...Committee declined to take action. Motion made and seconded to have speed limits remain the same as they are. 2. From 30 MPH to 25 MPH between Cole Street and Ayers Street...After introduction and background explanation of this matter by Mr. Crull, Committee declined to take action (Len Brandrup abstained from voting due to RTA having offices in this area). Motion made and seconded to have speed limits remain the same as they are. Carl Crull stated that he is obligated to take this back to the Council at their direction. X. RECOGNITION OF AUDIENCE FOR PUBLIC COMMENTS AND CONCERNS.None Page 2.of 3 F+ XI ACTION ON ABSENT MEMBERS FROM APRIL MEETING Mr. Braselton excused. Mr. Brandrup commented that he and LCDR Williams were still shown as X's in January on the attendance calendar.LCDR Williams stated minutes had been changed but not the calendar. (Correction will be made to attendance calendar and presented at next meeting.) XII. PREVIOUS CONCERNS Mr.Pillinger commented on three ordinances pending before the city council that this committee has had a part in writing,commenting or drafting. The ordinances in question are 1) the Transportation Advisory Committee responsibilities,2) vision obstruction ordinance and 3) off-street truck parking restrictions. Mr. Crull reported that the TAC responsibilities was being delayed until after the elections and the vision obstruction ordinance is still being reviewed by the Legal Department. Walter Jarrin commented that David Seiler had stated that all three of these items were submitted for consideration before the council. He also stated that each item has been resubmitted under the new Agenda/Memorandum report format. He is proceeding with getting these items through the city council. Mr. Crull mentioned about the off-street parking restrictions that there have been some discussions with the Municipal Court representatives about not only enforcement but how the Municipal Court views these types of transgressions in the past. Some Municipal Court judges have looked very leniently upon some of offenses and dismissed other similar offenses. We want to make sure if we are going to enact such an ordinance that the offenses are prosecuted and carried through. Another concern was the vacancy on the Transportation Advisory Committee. Mr.Crull mentioned that there are thirty some boards and committees that all have some vacancies and the council is taking about 6 or 8 of those at a time to fill. We have to wait our turn in having our vacancy filled. (Mr. Robert Beggs was named to replaced Mr. Robert Bosquez on the Transportation Advisory Committee.) Mr.Braeslton inquired about the status of the Oso Parkway bridge by the Ella Barnes School. Mr. Crull stated that the archaeological survey has been completed and submitted to both the Texas Antiquities Committee and the Corps of Engineers for their review. He had received call Friday from Staff Archaeologist for the Corps of Engineer who indicated to him that the Archaeologist would be forwarding his recommendations to the Corps coordinator for the permit this week and hopefully by next week that the City would have permit in hand to build that bridge. XIII. NEW CONCERNS. None XIV. ADJOURN. Meeting was adjourned at 3:35 p.m. MinutesMay Page 3 of 3