Division/Church St Corridor Study

For background on what this project is about, read this post.

Expressing Your Opinions to Project Staff
If you have opinions you wish to express to the project staff, you can send them as follows.

If you want to e-mail your comments, send to both of the following:

  • Bruce Gerland, Consultant Project Manager, AECOM: bruce.gerland@aecom.com
  • Scott Schatschneider, Director of Public Works, City of Stevens Point: sschatschneider@stevenspoint.com

If you send through the US Mail, send to:

Bruce Gerland, PE
AECOM
200 Indiana Avenue
Stevens Point, WI 54481

Latest Project Status
On June 16, 2014, the Stevens Point Common Council voted to compete the contracted environmental assessment and 30% design project for the Division/Church corridor. This will effectively restart the process from where it was halted after the November 2013 public meeting.

This was the last public action the city has taken on the Division/Church corridor study. As of April 2016, there is still nothing more recent to report.

The city will eventually need to return focus to the Division/Church corridor study for all the reasons repeatedly identified in project documents (links available below). Whenever that happens, I will update this page with new information about future public meetings or other details about how the process will move forward.

Project Documents
The city webpage for this project can be accessed here. Numerous project documents can be accessed via this page.

Below I list links that should be useful for accessing documents from the city’s webpage for this project. I intend to keep up as the project adds documents and updates its pages, but I may fall behind on occasion. If any of the links below become broken, all documents should be accessible by navigating the links from the main project webpage above.

Here are links to the presentation documents and lists of PDFs from past meetings. The PDF lists contain links to handouts, posters, videos, and other materials that were available at meetings.

  • 1/23/13 Presentation: Overview of project from first public meeting
  • 5/16/13 Presentation: Discussion of preliminary alternatives from second public meeting
  • 10/14/13 Presentation: Project status update from October Board of Public Works meeting
          • 10/14/13 Page of PDF links from October Board of Public Works meeting
          • List of PDFs from all meetings up to and including 10/14/13 (titles starting ‘Round 2’ are from 10/14/13, all others are from earlier meetings)
  • 11/20/13 Presentation: Discussion from third public meeting about project needs, public involvement process, and viability for proposed alternatives
  • 5/12/14 Presentation: Discussion (~6 MB) at May Board of Public Works meeting explaining how exceptions to providing bicycling and walking accommodations fail to apply throughout the Division/Church corridor, other than possibly a limited exception between Main and Clark. (Note: I could not find the PDF I link to here as a stand-alone document on the city website. I extracted it from the agenda packet for the May Common Council meeting on the city website.)

Below are some of the links from these PDF pages that I feel are particularly useful.

The PDFs of detailed alternative designs from the third public meeting in November 2013 seem to have the same content as the PDFs of detailed alternative designs from the October 2013 Board of Public Works meeting. But it is certainly easier to compare the different alternatives at a glance by using the November 2013 PDFs than the October 2013 PDFs.

PPSP Comments to Project Staff
PPSP has sent several e-mails commenting to project staff. Links to copies of these e-mails are listed below (most recent first). Below each link, I summarize the issues I address in that e-mail:

  • 1/4/14 Letter from PPSP to Division/Church Study Project Staff
      • information about how roundabouts impact bicycling and walking traffic
          • indications that one-lane roundabouts seem to work well for people bicycling and walking
          • indications that two-lane roundabouts, such as the one proposed for the intersection with NorthPoint, may compromise safety for people bicycling and walking
          • text of communication with Ald. Wiza on this topic, including discussion based on the following sources:
              • Federal Highway Administration webpage with link
              • Wisconsin Department of Transportation webpages with links
              • Insurance Institute for Highway Safety report with link
              • California Dept of Transportation documents with links
              • Modern Roundabouts 101 document from Kentucky state transportation department with link
              • comments from planning experts from the Wisconsin Bike Fed
              • comments from consultants at Toole Design (who specialize in planning for bicycling and walking as transportation)
  • 12/5/13 Letter from PPSP to Division/Church Study Project Staff
      • comments regarding bicycle accommodations based on 11/20/13 public meeting
          • suggestion for eliminating driveway on east side of Division between Academy and Scholfield
          • preferences between Maria and Fourth
          • preferences for Fourth and Division intersection
          • preferences for Clark/Main area, including proposal for a signed Division St Bicycle Bypass using parallel streets in this area
          • preferences for railroad bridge underpass
          • preferences for area where Patch/Francis crosses Division
  • 10/7/13 Letter from PPSP to Division/Church Study Project Staff
      • comments regarding bicycle accommodations based on 10/3/13 open house at AECOM
          • proposed features benefitting bicycling along the corridor
          • need for bicycle cut-through at Ellis crossing
          • need for buffered bike lane under the railroad bridge
          • need for buffered bike lane between Heffron and south city limits
          • inadequacy of sharrow for accommodating bikes between Main and Clark
          • concern about treatment of intersection at Fourth and Division
          • desire for bike boxes and use of green paint for bike lanes at key locations
  • 6/7/13 Letter from PPSP to Division/Church Study Project Staff
      • specific comments regarding bicycle accommodations based on updates from 5/16/13 public meeting
          • NorthPoint to Academy
          • Academy to Fourth
          • Fourth to Clark
          • Clark to Monroe
          • Monroe to Patch
          • Patch to Heffron
          • Heffron to south city limits
  • 6/1/13 Letter from PPSP to Division/Church Study Project Staff
      • general comments about the updates provided at the 5/16/13 public meeting
  • 2/25/13 Letter from PPSP to Division/Church Study Project Staff
      • suggestions for making more technical information available to the public to enable more informed public input
  • 2/18/13 Letter from PPSP to Division/Church Study Project Staff
      • suggested bicycle accommodations from I-39 ramps to railroad bridge
      • suggested crossing treatments at NorthPoint, Maria, Fourth, Franklin/Briggs/College, Center/Pine/Shaurette, Dixon (at Belts Soft Serve)
  • 2/11/13 Letter from PPSP to Division/Church Study Project Staff
      • suggested bicycle accommodations from southern city limits to Patch St
      • suggested crossing treatments at Francis/Patch, Whiting/Rice, Nebel
  • 2/4/13 Letter from PPSP to Division/Church Study Project Staff
      • comments on bicycle accommodation opportunities provided by this project

PPSP Comments at Public Meetings

Previous PPSP Posts
Below is a list of all previous PPSP posts on this project (most recent first):