A traffic study commissioned by the city of Herculaneum says the roundabout on the west side of the city can handle the additional traffic expected to be generated by a Love’s Travel Stop proposed for the area.
On Monday, Herculaneum officials discussed the traffic study, which the CBB engineering firm completed. A small crowd was on hand for the meeting at Herculaneum City Hall.
The traffic study cost Herculaneum $17,500, City Administrator Jim Kasten said.
The Love’s company plans to build the truck stop on a 28-acre site west of I-55 and north of McNutt Street and Providence Way.
Now that the study is complete and indicates traffic on the roundabout won’t cause an undue burden to the area, Love’s has cleared another hurdle in its quest to build the truck stop, Kasten said.
He said Love’s officials hope to open the truck stop in Herculaneum by the fall of this year.
Some of those who live in the Providence subdivision, which is located near the proposed truck stop, have fought the project, citing concerns not only about increased traffic in the area, but also increased crime and pollution.
“The CBB study just performed definitely shows the roundabout can handle the proposed traffic (the truck stop) will bring to the city for 2023 and beyond,” Kasten said.
According to the traffic study, “all individual intersection approaches and overall intersection operations currently operate at acceptable level of service” under 2023 conditions.
In addition, “the existing roundabout is forecasted to effectively accommodate the proposed traffic associated with the proposed Love’s Travel Stop with minimal impact to the delays at the respective intersections. Furthermore, given the very low crashes per year historically at the roundabout, it is expected that the roundabout will continue to experience low crash numbers.”
During the public comments part of the meeting, Providence subdivision residents disputed the traffic study results, as well as information the city supplied.
For example, some residents said the city has contended that the truck stop would generate about 200 trips an hour at peak times, while Love’s said it would generate about 400 trips an hour at peak times.
CBB representative Shawn White, who attended the meeting, said there was a misunderstanding over what counts as trips, and the numbers from the city and Love’s are actually similar.
She said the city considered anyone who entered and then left the truck stop as one trip, while Love’s counted a trip in and the subsequent trip out as separate trips.
“So, 200 by one source means 400 when it’s in and out,” White said.
Providence resident Carrie Turner, who has spoken against the project at previous city meetings, said she’s still not convinced the Love’s won’t cause a lot of traffic problems.
“I’m in complete shock,” she said. “There’s no way a roundabout can handle a structure like Love’s.
“The whole west side of the highway is going to be a complete nightmare.”
The traffic study was commissioned after a Jan. 17 Board of Aldermen meeting when the aldermen voted 6-0 to approve Love’s requests to build and operate a 24-hour convenience store and gas station there. At the same meeting, the board also approved the company’s site plan for the project, with several conditions, including having the engineering firm review a 2017 traffic study of the area. However, the city went beyond that condition, Kasten said, by having a new study completed rather than merely reviewing the previous one.
Kasten said the traffic study cost more than the $13,500 originally planned because “(CBB) did some extra work we requested.”
He said the board did not need to vote on the traffic study, which would only have affected the project if it had raised traffic concerns.
Kasten said Love’s also is going beyond what is required by paying for road improvements to address future traffic safety concerns as suggested by the traffic study.
“They’re building a right-turn lane from the southbound off ramp of I-55 to McNutt,” he said. “Then, they’re building a second exit lane out of their property into the roundabout. Love’s is paying for all of that.”
Kasten said Herculaneum officials are considering paying for yet another traffic safety measure.
“A third suggestion of the study for future (traffic concerns) is an eastbound lane from Providence into the roundabout,” he said. “That lane would be paid for by the city. The city will look at doing that in the next year or two.”
In addition, Kasten said city officials will lobby the Missouri Department of Transportation to add a second eastbound turn lane from McNutt Street to the northbound on ramp to I-55 to ease potential traffic backups.
The city will ask MoDOT to add that lane as part of the agency’s upcoming I-55 improvement project, which will add lanes to the interstate between Hwy. Z in Pevely and Hwy. 67 south of Festus.
“That is important for the future growth of Herculaneum on the west side to move traffic,” Kasten said. “We will lobby MoDOT to add that while they’re tearing up I-55.”