4.  Northeast Area Transportation Study

The Fort Collins City Council created the Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC) for the Northeast Area Transportation Study (NEATS) in December 1991. The Committee’s focus was to develop a comprehensive transportation plan for the northeast area of Fort Collins. The CAC worked with City staff and a consulting team on a number of transportation and multi-modal travel issues, including through truck traffic in the northern portion of the city. This portion of the NEATS project became known as the Northeast (NE) Arterial.

The NEATS project identified several future problems facing this area of the city including increased through traffic, particularly on Riverside Avenue, failure of the Mulberry Street and Riverside Avenue intersection by 2010, and impacts associated with vibration, noise, and air pollution. As a result of numerous land use and traffic demand scenarios, the CAC decided to pursue an arterial-level alternative as opposed to higher capacity freeway/expressway/parkway alternatives. Using the highest intensity growth land use scenario for the year 2010, the project found that associated traffic demand could easily be handled by an arterial roadway design.

Several preliminary arterial street alternatives were examined, including routes along Owl Canyon Road, north of and including Douglas Road, the Vine Drive Corridor, Lemay Avenue, and improvements to the existing Riverside Avenue/Jefferson Street Corridor. Alternatives were examined relative to traffic projections, environmental impact, and cost. Recommended alignments included:

• Owl Canyon Road was eliminated as an alternative because it is 12 miles north of SH 14 (Mulberry Street) and would attract only 2,000 to 4,000 vehicles per day, at a relatively high construction cost. Due to the relatively low number of vehicles attracted to this route and the remote nature of the location, traffic congestion would not be alleviated at the Riverside Avenue and Mulberry Street intersection. Potential environmental problems were identified with connecting the Owl Canyon Road route west to US 287.

• Douglas Road alternatives were forecast to carry between 8,000 and 10,000 vehicles per day, but were rejected for the following reasons:
  
  - Based on the northern location (four miles north of Mulberry Street), only 1,000 to 2,500 vehicles per day would be removed from the Mulberry Street, Riverside Avenue, Jefferson Street, and North College Avenue.

  - The route on Douglas Road would impact numerous existing homes.

  - The routes within two miles north of Douglas Road were circuitous due to numerous lakes and existing homes. Other routes north of this location were deemed more feasible, but would provide less relief to the Fort Collins area.

Three alternatives from the Vine Drive, Lemay Avenue, and Riverside Avenue/Jefferson Street Corridor were carried forward for further analysis. They included:

Alternative 1

• Intersection upgrades along Riverside Avenue and Jefferson Street and between Mulberry Street and North College Avenue.
  
• Relocation of Lemay Avenue 1,000 feet east of its existing alignment with grade separation over Vine Drive and the railroad track.
  
• Estimated cost: $10.4 million.

Alternative 2

• New NE Arterial alignment with railroad grade separation between the Mulberry Street and Riverside Avenue intersection and North College Avenue along a predominantly new alignment south of Vine Drive.
  
• Relocation of Lemay Avenue 1,000 feet east of its existing alignment with grade separation over Vine Drive and the railroad track.
  
• Estimated cost: $17.3 million

Alternative 3

• New NE Arterial alignment with railroad grade separation between the Mulberry Street and Riverside Avenue intersection and North College Avenue along a predominantly new alignment east of Lemay Avenue and north of Vine Drive.
  
• A single railroad grade separation functions as the NE Arterial as well as the relocated Lemay Avenue.
  
• Estimated cost: $14.6 million

The CAC brought forward two differing recommendations regarding the NE Arterial, denoted as the Majority and Minority Views. The Majority View recommended building Alternative 3 and that the City immediately begin studies to determine a specific alignment and right-of-way for a transportation corridor somewhere between Douglas Road and Owl Canyon Road to serve transportation needs after the year 2020. The Minority View recommended building Alternative 1 and that the City immediately begin studies to determine a specific alignment and right-of-way for a transportation corridor somewhere between Douglas Road and Owl Canyon Road to serve transportation needs after the year 2000. Alignment recommendations are shown in Figure 4.

The Majority and Minority Views shared the opinion that ultimately, a northern bypass route would be needed to serve Fort Collins’ transportation needs in the future (beyond 25 years). They differed in that the Majority View felt that the cost of a northern bypass could not be justified at the time based on low forecasted traffic volumes on the proposed facility and the feeling that CDOT would likely not fund the project. They also felt that so few vehicles would use the northern route that existing problems on Mulberry Street, Jefferson Street, Riverside Avenue, and the downtown area would not be improved significantly by constructing the bypass. Finally, they felt that the NE Arterial alignment paralleling Vine Drive would still have utility even after the construction of a northern bypass route.

The Minority View maintained that the ultimate, post-25 year solution should be built sooner, rather than later. As an interim relief, Alternative 1 could be built to offer 8 to 10 years of congestion relief. This temporary relief would force the City and County to build the northern bypass route more quickly than if Alternative 3 (a longer-range fix) were to be constructed. The Minority View also held that Alternatives 2 and 3 would have adverse quality of life impacts on existing neighborhoods.