by jhwygirl
That might be just a tad bit of an overstatement, but not by much.
The draft Environmental Impact Statement for the long awaited (and still to be longer) proposed improvements for Russell and South 3rd St. West (from Russell to Reserve) is being unveiled at a public meeting Wednesday, April 16th.
The meeting is being held at the Franklin School Gymnasium at 6 p.m. Franklin School is located at S. 10th and Johnson.
The preferred alternative, while it does incorporate roundabouts, is centered around a 4-lane highway on Russell (from the currently non-existent I-90 connection) to S. 3rd.
Does Missoula need a new I-90 exit? Cutting directly through the center of what is primarily residential development?
I like the fact that it is incorporating roundabouts – but really, why, someone please explain, are 4-lanes needed along Russell all the way to 3rd Street? Shouldn’t the roundabouts solve movement issues?
And how big of a bridge do we want or need over the Clark’s Fork? I mean, can you imagine how huge that thing is going to have to be with 4 lanes, a raised median throughout, and bike lanes and pedestrian walkways? Can you spell U-G-L-Y? Jimminy Crickets!
Wouldn’t a roundabout at Russell & Broadway eliminate the need for a 4-lane highway? I’m guessing the 4-lane effort is to address the bottlenecking of traffic at that location. If a roundabout can solve the bottlenecking at 3rd and Russell – which anyone who lives in the neighborhood can attest to the level of traffic that S. 3rd St. W carries – certainly it can address the load at Russell & Broadway.
But maybe the goal is to slow it down there so it doesn’t get out to Mullan and Reserve (via Mullan off of Broadway) any faster? Because we all know what a joy Mullan and Reserve is during rush hour and any time after 10 a.m.
I mean, really – what is the logic? Because I’m missing it with that huge amount of asphalt for half of the project, stopping abruptly at the very busy intersection of 3rd and Russell.
My neighbors and I have mulled this over for a couple of weeks now – and the only conclusion we’ve come to is that engineers love to build things. Big things.
Call me crazy, but I’d like to see a two lane with planted median (irrigated please!). Roundabouts to keep traffic moving. Bike lanes and sidewalks and a nice 20 minute walk from the Good Food Store to the mixed use development of the old Champion site and a lovely walk or bike ride right into the center of downtown Missoula.
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Pingback on Apr 18th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
[...] Jhwygirl’s dead on in her assessment of the proposed preferred alternative on the Russell Street overhaul in Missoula. Stevens Avenue’s recent facelift should have been a lesson to designers as a target for success. I’m afraid this current proposal will only serve to augment the neighborhood fragmentation often expressed by those who live west of Russell and south of 3rd Street. On the other hand, a well executed road update might encourage a sense of connectivity, helping residents to make the decision to go by foot or bike rather than by car. [...]
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Pingback on Sep 1st, 2008 at 7:45 pm
[...] website had suddenly (very suddenly) been dropped. They had been widely supported. Some called it a “sea of asphalt”, others suggested that its planned could not “be adequately evaluated without concurrent [...]
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Pingback on Sep 12th, 2008 at 6:53 am
[...] HKM unveiled the draft of the EIS back in April and it was not well received. Many thought it was an abrupt reversal of all information that had been both provided to the public and bythe public during the multiple neighborhood meetings held for the project. [...]
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April 16, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Thanks for the links, jhwygirl! It’s an interesting planning process–I participated in scoping workshops on this way back in 2001-2…. I don’t have an opinion on what is “the right answer” except that I agree with you and your neighbors: engineers love to build big things.
I don’t think the 3rd & Russell “project” can be adequately evaluated without concurrent planning for the Reserve corridor and Mullan, without putting the possibility of a Russell/I90 interchange on the table (as far as I know that’s not part of this planning process, which stops just north of Broadway) and without including “non-structural” solutions such as demand-based pricing (e.g. a special license needed to drive in Missoula during high-traffic hours) or City-sponsored financial incentives to employers and stores to get people out of cars.
3rd & Russell along with what’s currently “West Missoula” are already a nightmare, and I don’t see how the preferred alternative for this project would provide much help in the long-term. The work won’t even get done before 2012 at the earliest. Anyway, if you attend tonight’s meeting I’ll be interested in hearing more about it.
April 16, 2008 at 3:34 pm
First the Orange st. Bridge is 4 lanes and is not ugly. I believe the bridge can look very nice. What I favor is a 4 lane from Broadway to right before the GFS/Holiday Gas Station where it can merge into a single lane roundabout at 3rd and Russell and continue as a three lane along Russell to 14th/Mount.
I definately favor roundabouts at 5th, 6th and 14th as well. My concern for a roundabout at Russell and Broadway is that it definately needs to be multi-lane and the safety of a multi-lane roundabout isn’t any safer than what we currently have. The two biggest bottlenecks of this study are Broadway/Russell and 3rd/Russell. Eliminating the need to stop along Russell from Brooks to Broadway could help alot!
I can’t make it tonight but if anyone wants to chime in with any of my thoughts feel free.
April 16, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I’m waiting till I actually see the roundabout at Beckwith in action to make a judgement about these things. Besides, if there are never any red lights, how am I gonna work my iPod safely?
April 16, 2008 at 11:53 pm
During this meeting, there was a bit of obfuscation about the agencies’ new plans for the intersections on Russell….Along with dropping the roundabout plans off of 11th/Russell and 5th/Russell, the biggest change to the preferred alternative will call for a massive signalized intersection at 3rd/Russell with double left turn lanes on perhaps 2 or more legs, which could wind up being up to 23 intersecting lanes total! That would be a sea of asphalt which would rival Mullen/Reserve in its “business as usual” engineering. Imagine crossing that on foot or bike.
Does Missoula really want that in the middle of our urban area? Or anywhere? Based on information from all of the community / citizen committees, workshops and reports from this 3rd/Russell process and all indicators from the Envision Missoula process, I think not.
Also I did not appreciate the THREAT LEVEL RED visual and verbal attempts at inciting fear regarding traffic projections and potential horrendous congestion if it’s not done their way.
The agencies are still looking at questionable traffic projections within a bubble, as if nothing else happening in the world outside of that corridor matters or can have an effect.
JW
April 17, 2008 at 9:02 am
Speaking of threat level red, I’ve always felt that the road was being ignored for as long as possible, so as to make driving it positively miserable, so that when it came time to rebuild it, they could just go the massive route.
So many things could have been done to improve Russell along the way, so as to minimize problems. Starting with the bridge, and congestions north of it at the Broadway intersection. They could have leveled that off years ago with a new bridge.
3rd street could have been been improved at the intersection with Russell and west to Reserve as a nice 3 lane with bike lanes and sidewalks. The city has to pay for this anyways, so why wasn’t it done sooner?
It’s so crazy that the state can spend 5 million studying the Miller creek road system, and decide to do nothing. Yet trying to find any money to do anything on Russell has taken forever. Russell/3rd has been the poor bastard step-son of road systems in Missoula for as long as I’ve lived here.
But turning it into the Barbara Evans Memorial Parkway, take II is just wrong. And with the all the development that’s about to get underway at the Champion Mill and the Intermountain site, it’s just going to get a lot worse–a lot, lot worse before it will get better. This is the usual city/county/state response to development in Missoula: develop first, fix the infrastructure later.
I could laugh if it wasn’t so tragic. Imagine the city building a new police station in the Mill District, then have them try to respond to anything to the west when Russell/3rd is under construction. HaHa.
April 17, 2008 at 10:27 am
I wish the boys form Arizona (you know the one’s throwing their cash around town) would build a NASCAR race track at the old mill sight. After the race, we could pile in the pickup, and with the expanded Russell st.–be at the new Hooters on Reserve in no time flat. A bigger bridge and more lanes is good for business–and it will be fun too!
April 20, 2008 at 11:37 am
White people love roundabouts…