Transcript Context Sensitive Design - Huntersville, North Carolina

Context Sensitive Solutions
Focus Group Session
Lynn Purnell
Parsons Brinckerhoff
Prosperity Church Road
Corridor
December 8, 2005
Context Sensitive Solutions
Context Sensitive Solutions is a
collaborative, interdisciplinary approach,
that involves all stakeholders to develop a
transportation facility that fits its physical
setting and preserves scenic, aesthetic,
historic and environmental resources, while
maintaining safety and mobility.
FHWA CSD Website Homepage
What is CSS not?
• Not a product; it is a process
• Not just design
• Not easy
What does CSS look like?
• Understand & define the Context
before design begins
• Engage, listen & react to
communities
• Apply flexible designs
How is CSS different?
• Involve multi-disciplinary team early
• Understand valued resources before designing
• Involve stakeholders with open, continuous
communications
• Balance transportation need with community
values
• Employ roadway design that is creative, flexible
and safe
Design Excellence-Standard Practice
Mobility
Safety
Preservation of
Community
Values
Enhancement of
the Natural
Environment
Qualities of Excellence in Design
•Satisfies purpose & need as defined by
stakeholders
•Safe facility for user & community
•In harmony with the community and the
natural & built environment
•Efficient and effective use of resources
•Minimal disruption to the community
•Lasting added value to the community
Every Project has a Context
Define the Context at beginning
• Transportation Context
• Community Context
• Environmental Context
Transportation Context
• Functional Classification
• System Context: regional or local
• Setting: urban, rural, suburban
Community Context
• Demographics: community or
social groups
• Particular characteristics to be
preserved or enhanced
• Historic features that are valued
Environmental Context
• Ecology & wetlands
• Cultural resources, including
historic sites
• Farmland, parkland, etc.
• Noise Receptors
What is Purpose & Need?
• Seek input from
technical team,
public officials,
focus groups &
others.
• Seek consensus
on problems and
needs
Consensus
Consensus does not mean that
everyone agrees, but that groups
and individuals can live with a
proposal.
M-463, Jackson, MS
Project Goals
• Reduce congestion
• Existing 2-lane volumes = 1,900 to
19,900 vpd.
• Projected = 9,600 to 33,300 vpd
• Improve safety (limited sight distance)
M-463 Context
• Commercial
around
interchange
• Suburban
• Rural
• Historic properties
• Scenic viewsheds
• Major growth
potential
M-463 Context Constraints
• Development
close to roadway
• Scenic property
close to roadway
• Historic properties
need to be
avoided
• Historic Church
congregation
objects to visual
impacts of an
“interstate
highway”
M-463 Existing Conditions
Church
• Plan
Silo
• Section
Church
Proposed with DOT Criteria
Church
• Plan
Silo
Lake
• Section
M-463 CSS Objectives
• Save silo and
lake with
narrower footprint
• Reduce visual
impact by hiding
the new lanes
M-463 Design Considerations
• Change the requirement for a 90-ft.
median
• Change design speed
• Accept increased travel time
M-463 Design Considerations
Construct the new lane at a lower
elevation than the existing roadway
M-463 CSS Results
• Preserved view-shed
• Citizens and DOT
accept increased
travel time as a
positive trade-off
• Citizens gain respect
for DOT because it
listened to their
concerns
• Project moves
forward at reduced
cost