Tag: traffic

April SNRA Meeting This Sunday

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Our next Spencer Road Neighborhood Association will be 10:00-11:30am, Sunday, April 28, 2019 at Tompkins Community Action (701 Spencer Road). (The Door is locked, ring doorbell for entry.)

Purpose of meeting:
We want to expand and organize our association for greater effectiveness, and to develop plans to address issues with the Spencer Road/Stone Quarry intersection and the 300 block of Spencer Road.

Agenda: 

SRNA Organization

  • Brainstorming a mission statement (10 min)
  • Are elections necessary? If so, what should the roles, responsibilities, and terms be? (10 min)
  • Request more communication from the city, regular updates on Common Council and BPW meetings, and any items that get sent to other neighborhood organizations. (5 min)

Stone Quarry Intersection Punch List

  • Fixing drainage, painting, signage (5 min)
  • School buses (Where do they/should they run pickup/dropoffs?) (10 min)
  • Mail delivery (Weekday delivery sees mail truck driving on sidewalk and pedestrians forced to walk on street) (20 min)

300 Block of Spencer Road

  • Poor quality of road (15 min)
  • Traffic calming (15 min)
  • Develop dedicated turn-around on 300 block (5 min)

Planning Future Events (5 min total)

  • Spring cleanup is May 4 at 10:00AM, meet on the 400 block
  • The next meeting in May, date TBD, at the Tompkins County Public Library, to evaluate that as a meeting place
  • Summer block party

Upcoming SRNA Meetings

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The South Hill Civic Association and the Spencer Road Neighborhood Association will be having a joint meeting Saturday, February 4th at 9:30am. It will be held at the South Hill Elementary School at 520 Hudson St in Ithaca.  (Please go to the front door of the school and ring the bell to be let in – the door will be closed.)  At the meeting, we will be discussing the Chainworks District, and traffic/sidewalk issues (including the approved plan to dead-end Spencer Rd at the Spencer Rd/Stone Quarry Rd intersection).

The Spencer Road Neighborhood Association will be holding a meeting Sunday, March 19th at 10:00am at Panera (748 South Meadow St in Ithaca) to plan for our spring neighborhood clean-up (tentatively scheduled for May).

Upcoming Area Road Closures

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Starting Monday, November 7th, Stone Quarry Rd will be closed to through traffic from the Spencer Rd/Stone Quarry Rd intersection all the way up to King Rd for storm drain work.  It is anticipated to be closed through November 18th. For concerns and questions, call the City’s Streets & Facilities Division at (607) 272-1718.

The 200 block of Spencer St (the other side of the traffic circle from Spencer Rd) will be closed to through traffic November 7th-10th for water and sewer upgrades. For concerns or questions about this, call the City’s Water and Sewer Division at: (607) 272-1717.

Two Spencer Rd Projects on City’s Agenda For This Week

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Two different Spencer Rd projects will be discussed at City board meetings this week:

  1. On Monday, Oct 24th at 4:45pm, the Board of Public Works will be voting on the proposed changes to the Spencer Rd/Stone Quarry Rd intersection (and other associated changes on the 400 block of Spencer Rd and the Spencer Rd/South Meadow intersection). Unfortunately there does not appear to be detailed information about the proposed plan online, but the short of it is that Spencer Rd would be dead-ended at the Spencer Rd/Stone Quarry Rd intersection and there will be some possible pedestrian improvements on the 400 block of Spencer Rd through the Spencer Rd/South Meadow intersection and along South Meadow St Ext. Here is the meeting’s agenda.
  2. On Tuesday, Oct 25th at 6pm, the Amici House project at 701 Spencer Rd will be discussed by the Planning and Development Board. More information about the project can be seen in the meeting’s agenda (large-size PDF).

Both meetings will be held in the 3rd floor meeting room of Ithaca City Hall (108 E Green St).

Board of Public Works Traffic/Sidewalk Discussion

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As a part of their meeting on Monday, the Board of Public Works will be including a discussion on the three traffic/sidewalk options proposed from the Spencer Road traffic/sidewalk study.

The traffic/sidewalk study directly affects the 400 block of Spencer Rd, South Meadow St Ext, the Spencer Rd/Stone Quarry Rd intersection, and the Spencer Rd/South Meadow intersection.

The meeting will be Monday, October 3rd starting at 4:45pm on the 3rd floor of City Hall (108 E Green St).

The meeting agenda could be viewed online here.

Spencer Road/South Meadow Sidewalk/Traffic Study Public Meeting

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The City of Ithaca Engineering Office has scheduled a third public meeting to review three alternative designs for the Spencer Road Sidewalk and Traffic Study project. The meeting will be held on Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 6pm at the Oasis Fellowship Church at 808 South Meadow Street Extension. City staff will be in attendance to present the three alternatives that were selected at a neighborhood meeting in January. The desired outcome of the meeting is to preview the drawings before they are presented to the Board of Public Works and to provide one way for residents to provide feedback. Residents are also encouraged to provide direct feedback to the Board of Public Works once the project is presented to the Board. The three alternatives include:

  1.  Constructing sidewalk on one or both sides of Spencer Road (between Stone Quarry Road and South Meadow Street Extension) and a sidewalk on South Meadow Street Extension.
  2. Making the block of Spencer Road between Stone Quarry Road and South Meadow Street Extension into a one way street (could be westbound or eastbound), or
  3. Making the block of Spencer Road between Stone Quarry Road and South Meadow Street Extension into a dead end street, and only allowing Stone Quarry Road traffic to go to or from the roundabout at South Albany Street.

The study area covers the portion of Spencer Road from Stone Quarry Road to South Meadow Street Extension, and the extent of South Meadow Street Extension from Spencer Road to Old Elmira Road. The proposed scope of work is to design and construct sidewalks in the project area and to study and recommend possible intersection improvements at the three intersections included in the study area.

For additional information about this meeting, please feel free to contact Tim Logue, Director of Engineering Services at (607) 274-6535 or tlogue@cityofithaca.org.

Upcoming Spencer Road Traffic/Sidewalk Meeting

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The City of Ithaca Engineering Office has scheduled a second public meeting to reengage with the public about the Spencer Road Sidewalk and Traffic Study project. The meeting will be held on Thursday, February 11, 2016 at 6pm at the Oasis Fellowship Church at 808 South Meadow Street Extension. City staff will be in attendance to present a series of sketches and ideas that were developed based on a kick off public meeting a little less than a year ago. The desired outcome of the meeting is to provide feedback to the City, which can be used as direction for the City’s consultant in preparing preliminary design alternatives that can be presented to the City’s Board of Public Works.

The study area covers the portion of Spencer Road from Stone Quarry Road to South Meadow Street Extension, and the extent of South Meadow Street Extension from Spencer Road to Old Elmira Road. The proposed scope of work is to design and construct sidewalks in the project area and to study and recommend possible intersection improvements at the three intersections included in the study area.

Spencer Road Had High Vehicular Crash Rate in 2013

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The Ithaca Voice just ran a piece about the recently released data from the Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council‘s study on vehicular crash rates in Tompkins County.

The section of Spencer Road from the South Meadow St Extension intersection going south to Elmira Rd was ranked 11th for City of Ithaca streets in terms of crash rate (vehicular collisions measured per million vehicles).  This is interesting as the focus of our dialogue with the City about traffic safety improvements has thus far been focused on the north-end of Spencer Rd.

It should be noted that our neighboring street of Old Elmira Road was ranked as having the 8th highest crash rate in the City of Ithaca for 2013 and is ranked 6th in terms of crash severity.

Sidewalk Road Work 400 Block of Spencer Road

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Update (May 6th): They have decided to allow left turns from Stone Quarry onto Spencer Road during this time.  The barriers around the sidewalk work will be moved daily. When the barriers are out, there will be flaggers. When the barriers are in, there will not be flaggers, as motorists ought to be able to use the intersection as usual.

Previously:

Here is the information received from INHS about the implementation of sidewalks along their property at 400-406 Spencer Road, and the subsequent changes to traffic patterns on the street during the sidewalk construction.  (Please note: this will affect the 400 Block of Spencer Road and the Spencer Road/Stone Quarry Road intersection).

Construction of the new sidewalk and curbing will begin May 4th. In order to complete this work a section of Spencer Road will need to be reduced to one lane during daytime working hours Monday May 4th through Friday May 15th from 7:30am to 4:00pm. When work is complete for the day two-way traffic will be restored. In addition, left turns from Stone Quarry Road onto Spencer Road will not be allowed at any time from May 4th through the 15th due to the construction barriers required to keep workers safe. Below is a diagram that shows where the work will occur. The yellow flags represent flagging stations where flaggers will be directing traffic. The thick red line represents a concrete barrier which will not be moved each day but will allow two lanes of traffic to pass. The red dotted line represents moveable barriers which will reduce traffic to one lane during work hours and then moved to allow two lanes of traffic when work is finished for the night. Temporary signage will be installed to inform drivers of these changes to traffic patterns. This work and disruption to traffic will be complete by May 15th. If there is a change to this timing INHS will notify. This plan has been reviewed with the City of Ithaca Traffic Engineer. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Joe Bowes at INHS at 607-277-4500×204.

Spencer Road Sidewalk Work Diagram Source: Memo from INHS: Temporary Changes to Traffic Patterns (pdf).  Contains larger-size diagram shown above.

Clarification: The 400 block of Spencer Road will NOT be a one way road during those hours.  It will be one lane with cars only able to go in one direction at a time.  Flaggers will be at each end of the block coordinating traffic.

Spencer Road Neighborhood Traffic Study and Meeting

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The City – through a neighborhood meeting and mailed questionnaire – will be receiving comments to better understand the needs and priorities of the Spencer Road/Stone Quarry Road neighborhood.

The public outreach meeting is scheduled on Thursday, March 5th, 2015 at 6:00pm, at the Oasis Fellowship Church at 808 South Meadow Street Extension. All are welcome to attend and meet the project team in person. After the results from the questionnaire and the public meeting are compiled, the consultants will prepare alternatives to consider and propose to the City of Ithaca Board of Public Works. The Board will select an alternative to progress to final design.

If you did not received a questionnaire from the City contractor, you can download/print a PDF of the questionnaire by clicking here.

Please send your completed questionnaire to Tim Logue (tlogue@cityofithaca.org) at 108 E. Green Street, Ithaca, NY 14850, no later than March 6th, 2015.