Email to MPO policy board, 4-1-02

Dennis, et. al.,
 
The following pages show 4 Eastern Connector alignments, with a rough approximation of the MCP alignment shown in blue.

A variation of alignment 1 (closest to the City) has been proposed by Paul Grady (and to my knowledge is the only specific alignment that has been proposed). I dont like it for a number of reasons: It impacts both Darden Towe and Pen Parks, too much of the road way is parallel to the river and Meadow Creek (which will increase the amount of runoff that gets in the water). Most importantly, it isolates City neighborhoods from the surrounding parks.

Moving outward, alignment 2 would take the existing Pen Park Rd and extend it in more or less a straight line to meet up with Dorrier rd on the other side of the river. It doesnt break up any of the greens although it may be necessary to do something to keep stray shots off the roadway. Also the topography falls off steeply here on both sides, so a good bit of the roadway - not just the bridge - would have to be elevated. This would be expensive, although one advantage to this is that the trails along the river could be maintained, with the bridge going overhead

Continuing outward, the topo gets better. For alignment 3, bringing the road through the George Rogers Clark property, south of Key West would make for a smaller (and less expensive) bridge. It does become a little more difficult to avoid impacting the golf course.

Further out, alignment 4 is somewhat similar to that proposed in the 1995 CATS plan. This is probably the best alignment from a transportation and environmental point of view. I would expect that the opposition from Key West residents would be similar to what we are hearing from the anti-bypass folks, although the alignment would likely only take a couple of houses and no other parks, schools, etc..

Once we go further out than alignment 4, the floodplain widens and we run into more of Key West. It would be possible to do something in the area around Polo Grounds Rd, but I think that would be too far out to relieve much of the current congestion.

I think that alignments 2 and 3 are worth a serious look. I would be partial to a variation 3 if we could move the holes that get cut off over to the other side of the river and connect with a pedestrian bridge - that could be a real nice addition to the course.

Kevin