Bury the Wires and Tame the Traffic
Working Meeting, May.7, 2003
On Wednesday, May 7, 2003, a meeting was held at the offices of Kimley-Horn and Associates in Herndon, VA, to discuss progress and move into the next phases of the project entitled Preliminary Engineering Services to “Bury the Wires and Tame the Traffic” in Waterford, VA.
Attendees
Loudoun County Department of General Services: Dick Pezzullo and Sheryl Gates
Loudoun County Community Planning Pat Giglio
Waterford Citizens Association Ed Lehmann and Terry Arney
Waterford Elementary School PTO Ann Goode
Waterford Foundation Eric Breitkreutz and Mark Koblos
Kimley-Horn and Associates: John Martin and Scott Mingonet
Handouts
- Meeting Agenda
- Project summary package:
- Project Work Flow chart
- Scope of Services one-page summary and March 6 meeting announcements
- Issues and Concerns for the Village of Waterford – Community Vote
- Issues and Concerns for the Village of Waterford – Team Comments
- 20-Year Visions for the Village of Waterford
- Waterford Citizens’ Core Values
- Preliminary traffic data collection results
- Pavement coring results
- Base mapping developed for project
- Aerial photography
- Photos of Waterford taken for project
Discussion
The meeting began at approximately 9:30 AM with an overview of the handouts and a review of the project’s progress to date. John Martin recapped the citizens’ input from the March 6 meeting, noting the top vote-getting issues. It was mentioned that we need to maintain the goal of understanding the citizenry input within the framework of this project.
John reviewed the handouts with the attendees, noting that data collection is essentially complete. Traffic data has been collected, including speed data. The electrical engineer has been working with Dominion Virginia Power. The civil engineer has completed the base mapping, tying in the aerial photo with a preliminary ground survey. The environmental specialists have completed the tree survey, as well as a walk-through with the Corps of Engineers to verify wetlands. The architectural historian has noted contributing and non-contributing properties. Borings of the asphalt pavement have been performed.
Terry Arney and others raised the question about the article written by Joe Keating, a Waterford resident and columnist for the Loudoun Times-Mirror. In the article, Mr. Keating remarked that half of the borings of asphalt in the Village were taken over areas that had been excavated for the sanitary sewer, which LCSA had installed in the mid 1970’s. The article challenged the validity of some of the cores and noted that the elevation of the roadway surface used to be 2 to 4 feet below what it is today.
The attendees discussed the accuracy of the article and merits of trying to limit any negative news about this project. John committed to performing additional pavement coring, if necessary (and to better determine the subsurface structure, e.g., presence of cobblestones). John also said he would contact Mr. Keating to discuss the article and to request his help in locating new coring locations. Scott indicated that the project report will show the locations of the cores with respect to the existing sanitary sewer.
Mr. Keating mentioned in his article that old photographs show a lower elevation of the roadway. Eric committed to collecting as many of these photos as possible and providing them to the project team.
John and Sheryl related the discussions that were held with VDOT at a meeting at the Leesburg Residency on April 29. One of the criteria for feasibility of the recommendations from this study will be maintainability. VDOT maintenance has had an influence over the recommendations for the US 50 Traffic Calming project east and west of Middleburg. Sheryl noted that we were to meet with the VDOT project manager the following day to discuss the non-standard details that have been developed for that project, to better understand VDOT sensitivities, and to gather any lessons learned that could be applied to the Waterford project.
Mark Koblos remarked that the team’s architectural historian had sent an email to Eric Breitkreutz asking about plans for the mill. Eric had passed the email on to his board members, and the question alarmed some of the members. John said the question was asked at a working meeting of the project team, and that intent of the question was simply to attempt to coordinate any improvements in drainage (in concert with traffic calming measures) with planned improvements to the mill. Mark noted that there are currently no plans to restore the mill to working order. John said he would talk with his team to make sure such questions are first vetted through him and Loudoun County before asking them of the Waterford Foundation.
John reviewed the traffic data collection summary, noting the speed study results. Ed Lehmann requested a copy of the raw data so that his group could note the times of the day of speeding traffic. He remarked that such data is very useful to them in a number of ways.
Ann inquired about the growth of traffic in Loudoun County and whether is affects our traffic calming measures. Scott and John conveyed that the very nature of traffic calming measures provide for steady progression of traffic at low speeds, and growth in traffic volumes do not necessarily need to be a consideration. The study is not considering capacity improvements to handle increases in traffic. John remarked that as traffic grows and with the roads in Waterford having only so much capacity, people will find alternate ways to travel through the area.
Ann said she would be meeting with her PTO group during the next week to discuss walking paths and other issues. She asked if she could get maps similar to the ones used at the workshop. Scott said that he would provide those maps by the end of the week.
Eric said that the groups from Waterford would be meeting on Wednesday, May 21, to discuss the study, in preparation for the design workshop on May 27. The purpose would be to come together to compare notes and discuss each groups’ desires for the project. John asked the Waterford groups what they would need in advance of their combined meeting on May 21. The group discussed the merits of whether or not providing concepts ahead of the design workshop would lead people to draw conclusions prematurely, without context of other concepts and a group discussion. Mark noted that copies of meeting minutes would be good to have.
John then discussed some results of the “engineering studies” phase of the Waterford study. With respect to burying the wires, what has been learned is that the town has single phase power and conversion to 3 phase would be cost prohibitive. Dominion power does not make (or can’t procure) single phase transformers for an underground vault application. Burying the wires is fairly straightforward, but transformers will need to be above ground for the project to be cost effective. The transformers can be shielded from view with vegetation and/or fences and walls. The electrical concept design will show schematics of underground duct bank configurations. Issues with connections to the houses will be discussed in detail on May 12 with the County’s electrical inspectors. John mentioned that for difficult connections or particular owner, there may need to be a financial subsidy for those who can’t afford the conversion from above ground to underground power.
With respect to lighting, designs could range from minimal to historically accurate sets of lights throughout the village. Scott noted that lighting applications could vary from location to location, including pole-mounted lighting along streets, higher lighting at intersections, lower lighting around sidewalks and pedestrian paths. John noted that the Waterford Foundation may need to contract for maintenance of such lights, should they be fixtures that Virginia Power does not maintain.
Traffic calming measures were discussed in general at this meeting. There was general consensus that the measures will be a primary focus of the design workshop on May 27-28.
Wrap Up
The meeting adjourned at approximately 11:00 AM, following a brief wrap up of the issues discussed and a discussion of agenda of the upcoming design workshop. The agenda will include a presentation and a discussion of a variety of concepts for taming the traffic, as well as burying the wires. It is anticipated that consensus will be gained on a preferred set of concepts or groups of concepts that the project team can further refine and begin to develop opinions of probable construction cost.
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