By Linda Taaffe

New plans

The Los Altos City Council scrapped the 92-foot roundabout from its list of street improvements last month after consultant reports revealed that there would be a conflict between the traffic device and one driveway in the intersection.

The city initially targeted the Springer-Berry intersection for a roundabout after studies ranked the four-way stop sign at the site unsatisfactory during peak traffic hours. The roundabout was intended to improve the level of service, as well as bicycle and pedestrian safety, according to consultant reports.

Under the new plan, the current stop signs at the four-way intersection, as well as a right-turn lane from Springer onto Berry, will remain intact. Raised islands located in the center of the traffic lanes will divide the crosswalks into two halves at each leg of the intersection, narrowing the pedestrian route and making it possible for pedestrians to negotiate one lane of traffic at a time.

The changes are intended to improve pedestrian safety but will not necessarily improve the traffic level of service, according to city staff.

“The intersection operates relatively well during the majority of the day. Congestion at the intersection … though undesirable, it does serve to limit city cut-through traffic on Springer Road,” according to an April 9 staff report.

The design is similar to the roundabout, minus the circle, said Public Works Director Jim Porter. The roundabout plan included splitter islands, or raised medians at each leg of the intersection intended to provide refuge for pedestrians and slow vehicles entering the circle.

A more significant change in the traffic plan is the 10-foot-wide paved, Class I path for pedestrians and bicycles that will stretch along the south side of Berry Avenue. The path is intended to keep bicyclists off the roadway and eliminate the need to restrict street parking.

The pathway will push the Safe Routes plan to about $640,000, or $90,000 above the grant total. The city could require residents along Berry to cough up some of the cost.

The design requires constructing bulb-outs, or an extended pathway area around power poles, and improvements in the city right-of-way between the street and residents’ homes. These improvements will change the ground level of the right-of-way, requiring modifications to the frontage of some private properties, Porter said. The grant does not cover work on private property. The city or residents will be required to absorb the cost, though the city has not decided yet.

Porter estimated that the improvements could cost each homeowner from less than $3,000 to $10,000. Those costs will not be certain until the project designs are complete.

Timeline

Raised pedestrian medians will replace the controversial roundabout originally planned for the Berry-Springer avenue intersection behind Rancho Shopping Center in Los Altos under a revised traffic plan. The updated plan also includes a 10-foot-wide paved bike path along the south side of Berry.

The changes will cost the city another $20,000 in design fees and are expected to run $90,000 over budget; but without the improvements, the city could risk losing a half million dollar federal “Safe Routes to School” grant, which requires a traffic plan with features that will improve school-related traffic, bicycle and pedestrian safety in the Loyola School area.

Even with the new improvements, the city could lose the Caltrans funding unless city staff scrambles to put the traffic plan in place by next month in order to meet the grant deadline. Caltrans has already granted the city two extensions.

Porter said he was “very concerned. I think it is ambitious to do this in six weeks.”

The street improvements must be ready to start by Sept. 30 to qualify for the grant money.