Boulevard and roundabouts, the new Summit Street
City of Kent, Kent State team up on East Summit Street project
By: Danielle Hess
Kent State University and the City of Kent are working together to decrease traffic congestion on East Summit Street by installing medians and roundabouts.
Jim Bowling, superintendent of engineering and deputy service coordinator for the city, said over $12 million of funding for the East Summit Street project will be distributed between the City of Kent, Kent State, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study (AMATS).
AMATS rates street efficiency on a Level of Service (LOS) scale from “A” to “F,” with “A” being the best and “F” being the worst. The study determined the East Summit Street Corridor to have a LOS of “E.” Bowling said the city estimates the route will have a LOS of “B” when construction is finished.
An 18-foot median will be installed on East Summit Street, starting after the light at the Morris/ East Summit Road intersection, and ending at the Loop/ East Summit Road intersection. Bowling said this could not be accomplished without cooperation between the city and Kent State.
“The beautiful thing about this project is the partnership between the university and the city,” Bowling said. “We absolutely could not fit an 18-foot median if we were restricted from using state land, which is part of the university, to widen the road. We then could solve the congestion problem, but it would be a facility that the university and the city wouldn’t want through campus.”
Bowling said the median would have a “boulevard feel” rather than a “highway feel,” which will include 12 feet of grass, five feet of bike lane and stamped concrete for fire trucks and ambulances to use to pass vehicles in the event of an emergency. He said the median would eliminate the possibility for cars to turn left, which will decrease the amount of traffic build-up along the Summit Street corridor.
“The need for a median is a term called ‘access management,’” Bowling said. “If you imagine a one lane road, and someone wants to turn left, they’re blocking everybody behind them. So with the median, we limit access, which means they can’t turn, and you get a lot more cars through with less congestion. You don’t have that interweaving movement.”
Bowling said the median would also help pedestrians cross the street more efficiently.
“The second thing the median does, besides limiting the possibility of people trying to turn, is it provides a refuge for pedestrians when they are trying to cross the street,” he said. “So, if you look at the plan, we’re adding mid-block crossings in several locations to facilitate pedestrians when crossing.”
Rerouting of traffic
during construction
The second method of traffic congestion prevention will be handled by roundabouts, which will be constructed at the Summit Road/Ted Boyd Drive intersection, and at the East Summit Road/Risman Drive/Campus Center Drive Intersection, Bowling said.
“The roundabouts are designed to make drivers with normal cars slow down to use the circular roundabouts,” Bowling said. “It’s done that way by having an asphalt lane for people to ride on. Next to the asphalt lane, there’s always trucking lanes, which is a stamped, colored different pavement treatment with a small curb. Buses can make it around with no problem.”
Victor Botosan, engineering coordinator and transportation improvement program coordinator at AMATS, said their Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) program is funding $6 million of the East Summit Street project, and the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) is giving $500,000 for sidewalks, bike lanes and other elements aiding pedestrian usage.
Botosan said the City of Kent came to AMATS asking for funding.
“They came to us to request funding, as all of the communities in our area do for Summit and Portage County, and once they fill out applications we rank them based on our funding criteria, then we simply go down the list of top-ranked projects until the funding runs out,” Botosan said. “It’s a good project, and that area has a lot of traffic and a lot of interaction with pedestrians, so it’s definitely something worth funding.”
Construction along the East Summit Street corridor will begin in July or August of 2015, and Bowling said the project would take at least two years to complete.
“We’re not building the project all in one year,” Bowling said. “We’re going to do the east half first, and then when that area is done, we’ll do the west half. The area that we’re not working on, we will maintain as two-way, two lane traffic.”
