Jefferson County Public Works is working to make three roads in the northern portion of the county safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Seckman Road in Imperial, from Frisco Hill Road to Seckman Senior High School, Old Hwy. 141 in Fenton, from Fiedler Lane to the St. Louis County line, and Vogel Road, from Arnold city limits to Old Lemay Ferry Road, have been selected for the safety improvements, as part of Phase 1 of the Walk Bike Master Plan.
Plans for the three roads include adding a shared-use path for walking and biking on at least one of the shoulders, complete with enhanced signing, pavement markings and flexible posts to separate pedestrians and cyclists from vehicular traffic.
The Jefferson County Council on March 9 unanimously approved a $720,000 grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to partially fund the projects. Public Works also allocated $180,000 for the required local match for the grant, which will come from the county’s share of a countywide half-cent sales tax for road and bridge improvements.
Also on March 9, the council unanimously approved hiring engineering and consulting firm Crawford, Murphy & Tilly, Inc. (CMT) to design the safety improvements and facilitate an audit of each of the three locations to determine effectiveness once the improvements are implemented.
Public Works Director Jason Jonas said CMT was the highest-qualifying firm out of four bids. Costs to design Phase 1 projects are not to exceed $125,417.96, according to county documents.
Future phases of the master plan are to be announced, Jonas said, but will focus on adding walking and biking paths in other areas of the county.
“On those three roads, we have existing shoulders, and we’re trying to multipurpose them, making them safe enough that pedestrians and cyclists can use them in a far safer manner than they can now,” Jonas said. “I don’t think we really have any shoulders where we’ve multi-purposed them for pedestrian and bicycle use (in the county). It’s very common in other states, in other regions, and in college towns in Missouri. St. Charles County does have a bit of a pedestrian network and uses these types of features. But here locally, it’s nonexistent.”
Jonas expects to go out for bids mid-summer to select a traffic control company to carry out CMT’s designs. He said the work should be done by the fall on all three roads, and then for the next year, the county and CMT will be evaluating the roads’ performance.
In late spring and into the summer next year, the county will organize a series of open houses where residents can comment on the improvements.
“We’ll have a couple of public meetings at the three locations to get public input, see if they like them or if they have any comments to improve them or make tweaks. As we roll these out on other roads, we want to get it right,” Jonas said.
He said DOT’s grant, called Safe Streets and Roads for All, is contingent on the public’s feedback. If the feedback is overwhelmingly negative, the safety improvements will be reversed; if the feedback is positive and the improvements are effective, the improvements will remain in place.
“It was a planning and demonstration grant to be used for pedestrian safety measures on a demonstration level,” he said. “We’re required to evaluate the performance and use over the course of a year. Then if the public likes them and they’re receptive and they work, we can keep them in place.
“We’ve never done these types of pedestrian safety measures, so obviously we would want to do them on a demonstration basis. This grant is just the perfect way to do that.”
Last March, the County Council unanimously approved the first countywide plan for improved pedestrian and cyclist accessibility, called the Walk Bike Master Plan.
Public Works, along with firms SWT Design and CMT, dubbed the Walk Bike Team, worked for nearly a year to create the plan. The team sought public feedback, held open houses to display aspects of the plan and then presented the final 163-page document to the County Council last February.
The Walk Bike Plan will be used to shape the county’s future walking and biking improvement projects, Jonas said, complete with a report of the current state of county corridors, specific routes highlighted for advancements and improvement cost breakdowns.
The plan describes more than 100 priority projects across the county, including proposed shared-use paths for pedestrians and cyclists, sidewalks connecting certain county features and roads best suited for bike routes.
The full plan can be accessed on the county website, jeffcomo.org/630/Walk-Bike-Jefferson-County-Master-Plan.
First up
The first three roads selected for the shared-use paths have frequent pedestrian use or have the opportunity for expanded pedestrian use, and have existing 6-foot shoulders, Jonas said.
Jonas said students frequently walk along Seckman Road’s shoulders to reach the Seckman campus, which includes an elementary, middle and high school.
“We definitely want to get (the shared-use path) on the south part (of Seckman Road), because we have a lot of kids who walk to the schools on that side, from Frisco Hill to the schools, so we definitely want to protect that side,” he said.
On Vogel Road, Jonas said pedestrians could take advantage of a shared-use path connecting new apartment complexes and homes on the western portion of the road to the shopping centers on the eastern portion, which have a Schnucks, Target and Home Depot.
The new path would also help students safely walk to Simpson Elementary School, which is on Vogel Road.
“There is pedestrian activity now (on Vogel Road), I have seen it, but our hope is that we make it safer for more people to be able to utilize that if they need to or want to,” Jonas said.
Improvements made to Old Hwy. 141 would benefit the nearby subdivisions, Jonas said, allowing for more opportunities for physical activity.
Jonas said an edge stripe about a foot wide will be painted on each of the roads. On the stripe, flexible posts will be bolted or adhered to the pavement, creating a buffer between vehicles and pedestrians and cyclists.
“If a car hits (the posts), it won’t hurt the car, and it won’t destroy the post,” Jonas said.
The projects also include enhanced pavement markings and signage alerting motorists that pedestrians and cyclists are also using the road.
Jonas said Public Works is excited to get started on these improvements.
“We’re also very eager and enthusiastic to see what the community thinks about it a year down the road here,” he said.