Agenda - 03-15-2011- 7b - Laserfiche WebLink

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Attachment 1 5 2010 be ;reconsidered to include in the project a small stretch of sidewalk (approximately miles) from the future pedestrian overpass to Timbers Avenue. The pedestrian overpass is the most important element of the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Action Plan for the Grady Brown Elementary School (and by extension to Cedar Ridge High School). Without it in place, funding requests or grant applications for sidewalks may not be considered viable projects. Orange County is completing a Safe Routes to School Action Plan, with anticipated adoption by local jurisdictions in spring 2011. The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) completed a feasibility study for this project and the Director of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Division recommends removing the project from the TIP based on the lack of supporting pedestrian facilities to connect to the bridge. Orange County Schools Superintendent has committed to the construction of a pedestrian walking path on the school property to provide connection from the current bridge to the Cedar Ridge High School entrance. If a small stretch of sidewalk were constructed from the future pedestrian overpass to Timbers Avenue, an estimated 50-60 Cedar Ridge students could walk safely to school. Student counts, per Orange County Schools, show 126 high school students living within one mile of Cedar Ridge. Most of these students live in one of three neighborhoods just over I-40 from the school: Patriot's Pointe, Colonial Estates, and the Timbers. (Patriot's Pointe is one of the largest apartment complexes in Hillsborough and has the highest density population in the town as well.) The SRTS project has identified a short cut for kids living in Patriot's Pointe and Colonial Estates that makes the walk along Orange Grove Road very short. Construction of a crosswalk on New Grady Brown School Road from Cedar Ridge High to Grady Brown Elementary would provide access to many of the one hundred thirty-six (136) Grady Brown Elementary School students living within a mile of the school. 3. EB-5108, Dairyland Road (SR 1112), Union Chapel Grove Road (SR 1111 to Orange Grove Road (SR 1006), add wide paved shoulders Orange County requests NCDOT to proceed without delay with the feasibility study scheduled in the 2009-2011 TIP. This area experiences high levels of bicycle traffic from Carrboro and Chapel Hill to rural routes. This route is a portion of the number 3 priority listed in Orange County's Priority List for the 2009-2015 TIP for projects outside the MAB. The entire project would connect the urbanized areas of Carrboro and Chapel Hill to Efland and Mebane via Dairyland Road, Orange Grove Road, and Buckhorn Road. The portion from Union Grove Church Road to Orange Grove Road is part of a loop that, along with Old NC 86, has been designated as a North Carolina Scenic Corridor. NCDOT, through the Moving Ahead Program and the Resurfacing Program has provided 2-ft. paved shoulders on Orange Grove Road, improving conditions for cyclists from Dairyland Road to NC 54. Orange County requested this project as a rural project, as most of the route was outside The DCHC MPO planning area. Recently the state approved an expansion of the Metropolitan Area Boundary, which now includes most of this route.