Salt Lake County East-West Arterial Study

Salt Lake City, Utah - 2007 to 2008
Brandon Weston & Randy Park, UDOT Region 2 | 801-975-4841

The Utah Legislature passed a bill (House Bill 108) initiating a million dollar study to evaluate East-West mobility in the south-west quadrant of the Salt Lake Valley. Avenue Consultants was part of the team selected to study the traffic mobility and make recommendations to improve the transportation systems. This planning level study’s purpose is to identify new corridors, freeways, corridor treatments, transit services, and other transportation elements to improve the mobility within the study area. Avenue’s primary role in the project has been to guide the approach and delivery of the project. Avenue has also played a key role in the development of communication elements and reporting the technical evaluations and results to elected officials and decision makers. Avenue is also guiding the development of the implementation plan for the proposed projects in a way that will help the various stakeholders to understand, prioritize, and budget the funds necessary to implement the plan.

Featured Project

COMPASS High-Volume Intersection Study

Ada County (Boise), Idaho - 2007 to 2008
Don Matson, COMPASS | 208-855-2558 ext. 230

Avenue Consultants was the innovative intersection and operations analysis LEAD for the team that competitively won this project from COMPASS (an MPO for the Boise, Idaho area) to evaluate ten of Ada County’s most congested intersections. The goal of this project was to identify innovative intersection treatments that would reduce the congestion and the delay at these ten high-volume intersections. As part of the study team, Avenue brainstormed and developed concepts that were then evaluated with detailed micro-simulation models (mainly VISSIM). These models provided a means to communicate the operations of the new intersection treatment and to accurately evaluate the operations of the intersections. From these evaluations, Avenue identified the operational improvement and benefit of the proposed treatments and developed volume capacity thresholds to help define a lifespan for each intersection. The primary deliverable was a series of graphics illustrating the concepts for each intersection along with other key elements such as cost, delay reduction, impacts, and traffic volumes. The study was well received by the planning organization and is receiving further discussion related to potential implementation.

Dugan Fields - 3.4 DUA (1,232 acres/4,223 units)

Stanfield, AZ (SR-84 and White & Parker) - 2005 to 2007
Matt Montgomery, SPD | (480) 734-0273

Comprising two full sections of land in Pinal County, this community was a large master plan with a baseball theme in an emerging area of the Phoenix Megapolitan. The project was unique in both scope and quality, boasting four little league baseball fields, two splash parks, soccer fields, basketball courts, a dedicated library site, an elementary school site, five lakes, 10 neighborhood parks, over 10 miles of walking trails and 30-acres of neighborhood commercial.

The engineering scope included preparation of a feasibility study, a PAD submittal and the preliminary plat for the first phase. Unfortunately, this fabulous project is currently at a standstill due to litigation over water and sewer service areas as well as the current conditions in the Arizona real estate market. Despite the current setbacks, this is an exciting project and we hope to see it under construction sometime soon.

Featured Project

Copperleaf PAD - 7.3 DUA (103 acres/750 units)

Phoenix, AZ (24th Street and Southern Avenue) - 2001 to 2003
Terry Brafford, Trend Homes | 602-695-5112

This project was a Target Area B community revitalization project that was completed in partnership with the City of Phoenix and the local community of the South Mountain Village. The 103-acre parcel was an assemblage of 17 different parcels, one of which was taken using the City’s powers of eminent domain.

Typical of many infill developments, this project required special consideration for existing facilities in the project vicinity, including existing utilities (such as sewer) that required extreme care in design to support the needs of the subdivision. Because of the public involvement and high levels of public scrutiny, the project also required considerable management time to keep the public, the City, and the client moving forward in the same direction.

This project included the approximately 2 miles of arterial roads and collectors and over 8 total miles of water, sewer and storm drain infrastructure.

Villa Siena - 50,000 Leasable SF (6 AC comm/office)

Gilbert, AZ (Cooper and Elliot) - 2003
Terry Brafford, Trend Homes | 602-695-5112

Villa Siena serves as both a luxurious award winning events facility and Trend Homes’ office site. The building was designed and built to more closely resemble single family architecture than the typical commercial building. Typical home construction techniques were utilized including wood framing, pitched roofs, byzantine arches, and exterior stucco. Engineering design included grading and drainage design, sewer and water design, and the preparation of required construction documents for the associated infrastructure.

An interesting nuance considered during design was the combination of commercial ADA accessibility requirements and the commercial code’s grading requirements for exterior stucco and wood frame construction. Another challenge involved designing a storm drain system capable of draining a completely internalized open-air courtyard that collected significant amounts of roof runoff. Additionally, the site’s parking was balanced with retention requirements without the use of underground retention structures.