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Thoroughfare-SY 891208THOROUGHFARE ALIGNMENT STUDY FOR SOUTHWESTERN BOULEVARD IN COPPELL, TEXAS Prepared for: Prentiss Properties Limited, Inc. and Santa Fe Pacific Realty Prepared by: DeShazo, Starek & Tang, Inc. 330 Union Station Dallas, Texas (214) 748 -6740. J89310 December 8, 1989 '7 1 ii 6 f THOROUGHFARE ALIGNMENT STUDY FOR SOUTHWESTERN BOULEVARD IN COPPELL, TEXAS Prepared for: Prentiss Properties Limited, Inc. and Santa Fe Pacific Realty Prepared by: DeShazo, Starek & Tang, Inc. 330 Union Station Dallas, Texas (214) 748 -6740. J89310 December 8, 1989 INTRODUCTION Southwestern Boulevard is a collector in west Coppell between Freeport Parkway and Belt Line /Denton Tap Road. Prentiss Properties is proposing a Warehouse /Office commercial development on 328 acres generally bounded by Southwestern Blvd. to the north, Belt Line Road to the east, Cowboy Drive to the south and Freeport Parkway to the west. Santa Fe Pacific Realty is proposing a similar development on 225 acres located between Royal Lane, the St. Louis & Southwestern Railroad tracks, LBJ Freeway and both sides of ��`J Freeway Parkway. These two developments, by virtue of their CCU size and location have a significant impact on the area thoroughfares. Conversely, the alignment and sizes of these thoroughfares) have a significant impact on the site plans of these developments. The location of the Prentiss Properties and Santa FePacific developments are shown in Figure 1. PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to analyze various alignments of Southwestern and Gateway Blvd. utilizing predicted year 2010 traffic with the two developments in place. This will be accomplished in the following steps: o Obtain current City of Coppell Thoroughfare Plan. o Obtain ',current year 2010 traffic projections. o Determine year 2010 base volumes utilizing existing countso thoroughfare plan and year 2010 traffic projections. o Add development traffic to year 2010 base link volumes;. o Determine best alignment based on year 2010 link volumes, impact on site plan, and impact on adjacent intersections. In a companion study, roadway sizing will be based on year 2010 link volumes. In a study to follow, horizontal alignments of roadways built by the developers will be determined through standards set by the Department of Public Works. ALTERNATIVE 4IGNMENTS Four alternative alignments for Southwestern and Gateway Blvd. are being studied. Alternative 1 is the City of Coppell's Thoroughfare Plan alignment, see Figure 2. The alignment first proposed by Prentiss Properties is shown in Figure 3. Alternative 3 is a variation of the original Prentiss alignment. The difference being that as Southwestern approaches Freeport Pkwy. from Belt Line, it continues its westerly direction parallel to the RR tracks rather than veering to the southwest, see Figure 4. Alternative 4 is similar to the Thoroughfare Plan between Royal Ln. and Freeport Pkwy., however, east of Freeport the larger roadway ties into the minor roadway adjacent to the RR tracks, see Figure 5. 3 1►: 1� i �` I �:i 0 �:i �_������ l� ... \� �� �� PROJECTIONS Year 2010 peak hour traffic volume projections for the study area were developed through 4 four -step traffic modeling procedure: 1. Estima a year 2010 24-hour background or "base" volumes for the study area that assume no develop- ments on the Prentiss or Santa Fe properties. 2. Calculate year 2010 peak hour "base" volumes that represent ten percent of the 24 -hour volumes. 3. Calculate year 2010 peak hour volumes that represent traffic generated by the Prentiss and Santa Fe properties. 4. Add thje "base" volumes from step #2 to the site - genera{ed volumes in step #3 to create total year 2010 peak hour traffic volume estimates. This assumes full buildout of the properties in the year 2010 p{er the submitted site plans. Details of t1as procedure are described below. Year 2010 24 -dour Base Voluags Information assembled or this stage of the subarea traffic modeling procedure con isted of: o Available daily traffic counts. DeShazo, Starek & Tang performmed 24 hour machine counts on Royal Ln and Freeporlt Pkwy. south of Bethel Rd., and on Bethel Rd. east agd west of Freeport Pkwy. Manual turning movement counts were performed at the intersection of Belt L ne and Denton Trap Rd. from 7 -9 AM and 4 -6 PM to determine morning and evening peak hour turning movement volumes. 0 • Population and employment estimates, by traffic survey for 1980 and 2010 prepared by the North Central Texas Council,of Governmentsl,(NCTCOG). • Year 20.0 daily traffics volume estimates obtained from the "20{-20 -27" traffic model developed by the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation ( SDHPT) . • Year 200 dily traffic volume estimates obtained from NCTCOG' MTAP (Multi -modal Transportation Analysis Process traffic model{ • Thoroughfare plans for the City of Coppell. Estimated curpent 24 hour traffic volumes are shown in Figure 6, the!,Belt Line /Denton Tap peak hour turning movement counts are shown in Figure 7 . NCTCOG's population and employment estimates for the year 2010 were used in both the SDHPT andINCTCOG traffic models. Estimates for the City of Coppell as'submitted by NOTCOG were as follows: 1986 2010 Z p ulation 10,800 31,700 loyment 2,100 6,800 An examination of the year 2010 traffic volume plots revealed that Prentiss and Santa Fe developments were not included in the employment forecasts. It was therefore appropriate to treat these computer estimates as "base" year 2010 volumes that do not represent the traffic generated by the Prentiss or Santa Fe properties. This was,done in order to generate 4 worst -case forecast scenario. O Cr BELT UNE 0 2- -ODO c� t' J �..' s 37 � T 3 6 1 T 2 330 Zy 67 ti rl6 S� Zs7 II o q �J v TS _ I �J L o l h-G � Piv, /� �G v� of l5c (f � O � ) n c, l� � �� fiErs"LUllb .l � I IN I AL Fo 7�57�* Yo C &5� V �iv� v`�`�- s . li ll t-.._ v I �,��% c:.��� �C -.��� �--, ti��s� ��s J WEIR w -`-, ``. )1� 5,675,560 The Santa Fe Pacific development plan does not specify buildings and usage, but a similar density of warehouse an4 office has been suggested, therefore the traffic generated on the Prentiss Properties site is factored dow� by area on each of the Santa Fe Pacific parcels. Tollaccount for the impact of site generated truck traffic, the warehouse volumes are increased 20 %. One truck is assumed to be equivalent to two passenger cars and warehouse traffic is assumed to be 20% trucks. This increase in average projected daily traffic coupled with the total assumed buildout of the site plans by the year 2010 represent a worst case scenario. I TRIP DISTRIBUTION Alter performing trip generation, the tries resultinrs frnm the proposed ,developments are distributed to the area street system. Figu )re 16 shows the orientations used for distribution.:: Figures 17 through 20 show the development traffic on ea!h alternative alignment, respectively. 71 a l f'ey"ya t ire 4 /y n w►r, ,.�� , ��y . ALIGNMENT CHA*ACTERISTICS Alternative 1 o Providesl,for through movement from Belt Line Rd. to Royal Ln.j o Additionajl collector roadway provides interior 0l ,?g 596 W lam'` wi 9i ici NI ``. r� v 'Lia!r lla% Ao. CA i • 1�-� is ..���� .`� W 13 circulation. • Horizontal alient of Gateway is straighter and would allow higher d sign speeds. • Gateway Blvd n conjunction with Grapevine Creek greatly impair, the ability to develop warehouse -type uses due to it close proximity to the RR tracks, and the need to pr vide RR access would require numerous crossings. • This alternative is costly because of two major crossings of Grlapevine Creek. • Bethel and Gateway form one east /west corridor, and gateway and I. H. 635 form another east /west corridor. In the Bethel/Gateway cor dor the STL & SW RR track* AAL form a major bar rie .,._� ,) • As `presently la ed ut he interior site truck traffic will to d at ay e n with through traffic thereby mpeding he t ugh em_,.er�t: • The close proxi ity of the Gateway /Southwestern intersection to the Gateway /Belt Line intersection l reduces the cap city of Gateway Blvd. Alternative 2: o Provides direct) Line. o More economical) Grapevine Creek) through movement from Royal In. to Belt in that it only has one crossing with o The alignment o Southwestern provides a buffer between the existing la d uses to the north and the proposed future land uses to the south. o The location of Grapevine Creek to the southeast and the RR tracks to the north limit the amount of development in this area thereby increasing the through movement capacity. o The alignment of Southwestern will require only one rail spur crossing between Freeport and Belt Line, and potentially no crossings west of Freeport. 3I o This alignment provides for better utilization of land in developing efficient site development plans. Alternative �: o Providers the most direct route from Belt Line to Royal. o More economical in that it only has one crossing with Grapevi a Creek. o The ali rand ent of Southwestern provides a buffer between the exi ng land uses to the north and the proposed future uses to the south. o Greatly impacts the Santa Fe tract in that it makes the developlient of warehouse uses extremely difficult. o The need to provide RR access would require -numeroug crossings to serve warehouse uses south of the road. Alternative 41: o Provides least capacity of all alternatives and reduces the abil ty to carry through movements from Royal to Belt Lin l. o This typof thoroughfare plan is inefficient in terms Of land development. o In Santa Fe tract numerous rail spur crossings the no ernmost collector would occur. CONCLUSION Due to the detriment to the Santa Fe t and 4 are less) acceptable alternatives. v� act, Alternatives 3 / They ability to develop the land efficient encourage numerous spur frail crossings and in the case of Alternative 4, provides le s roadway capacity capabilities. Summarizing 31 the differences between Alternative 1 and 2, Alternative 2 provides a mo�e acceptable alignment to Alternative 1 due to the followingjreasons: o Provides an alignment that is more conducive to a site developm nt plan. o Provides more capacity to through movements by limiting the amou t of local traffic, particularly truck traffic that would use this street for interior circulation. o Less costly, only requires one creek crossing. o Alternati e 2 in conjunction with the RR tracks provides buffer between the land uses to the north and the p oposed land uses to the south. o Has less mpact on the Denton Tap /Belt Line intersect on due to better distribution of interior site gene ated traffic between Freeport and Belt Line. In conclusion Alternative 2 is the more efficient alignment for Southwestern Blvd. between Royal Ln. and Belt Line Rd. and is the roue supported by Prentiss Properties and Santa Fe Pacific Realty.