Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Public Work Department

TO:	Charles F. Soules, P.E., Public Works Director
FROM:	Mark Thiel, Assistant Public Works Director
CC:	David Cronin, Steve Lashley, Nick Voss, Mike Perkins, Megan Gilliland, David Woosley, Todd Lohman
DATE:	August 4, 2015
RE:	School crossing control policy – status update & Indian Hills Neighborhood project status updates

In March of 2015 the city became aware of possible issues with its school crossing policy. In April 2015, staff presented an update to the Traffic Safety Commission and to the City Commission on the need to have the policy reviewed and revised. City staff also attended an April 2015 meeting in the Indian Hill’s neighborhood along with representatives from USD 497 and the Lawrence Police Department to gather feedback and input from residents related to traffic calming and school crossing policies.

Since then several groups, to include city staff have worked on the revision to the school crossing policy. Those groups include USD 497 and the Safe Routes to School group.

Public Works Staff also attended a joint city, county and USD 497 governing body meeting on May 27, 2015. Staff answered questions about the current school crossing policy and current status of the work to revise the existing policy. The City of Lawrence Traffic Engineer explained the definition of a school zone and how we currently identify and sign school crossings (see attached memo).

Direction from this meeting was that USD 497 staff and city staff would get a group together to outline a cooperative policy. Since that meeting USD 497 staff has generated a draft policy (attached).

On July 27, 2015 the Safe Routes to School group, city staff, and USD 497 staff meet to discuss the next steps for the policy. They are going to have representatives from each group work on additional policy guidelines and will present back to the group as a whole in August 2015.

Projects Impacting the Indian Hill Neighborhood status –

KDOT’s 31^st Street – this project is scheduled to open 31^st street from O’Connell to Iowa on August 7, 2015. The intersection of 31^st and Louisiana will remain closed for another week while the city project to complete a sanitary sewer and  paving maintenance improvements on Louisiana is completed. Both projects will be completed prior to school starting.

Louisiana Street, Mill & Overlay and patching – This project is complete except for the final section of Louisiana that needs to be overlaid. This section was waiting on a sewer line crossing that was completed last week, which will now allow the overlay project to be completed. This project will be complete by school stating.

Raised Crosswalk and Hawk Signal, 27^th Street and
Naismith Valley Park – Internal city crews are working to complete preparation work for the installation of the raised crosswalk the week of August 10^th. During this week 27^th Street will be closed to all through traffic. 27^th Street will be back open by Monday August 17 by 6:00 a.m. Message boards will be placed at key locations and the neighborhood association was made aware of the closure timeline, as well as our normal media outlets. The HAWK signal poles and equipment are on order and when they arrive they will be installed. This will not require any street closures. In the meantime, the previously installed stop signs at Naismith Valley Park will remain in place. Once the HAWK signal work is completed we will seek Commission direction on the further need for stops signs at this location.

Sidewalk, north side of 27^th Street from Naismith Valley Park to Belle Haven Street – This project started construction and is scheduled to be completed prior to school staring on August 19, 2015.

All of the work in this area was coordinated with the neighborhood and the USD 497 school district.

City Traffic Operations staff are planning on conducting additional traffic count/study on 27^th Street during September / October 2015. Final results will be presented back to the City Commission for further discussion and direction.