To potentially generate more customers for businesses along Watson Road, Crestwood officials realize they have to make access into those locations more convenient.
Such is the motivation behind the city’s recently studied access-management plan, which was done by the traffic and transportation engineering firm Crawford, Bunte, Brammeier, according to Ellen Dailey, the city’s economic development specialist.
“It’s a way to make Watson Road a better place to do business and it takes some time to get it all implemented,” Dailey told the Call. “But the city’s put $10,000 into the plan, and we’re going to keep dedicating staff time to getting grant funds to implementing it.”
While the study shows that most of the business sites along Watson Road have access to traffic signals at intersections, it recognized seven sites that do not and, therefore, need improvement.
Those Watson Road sites are:
Pier 1’s former location.
Mattress Giant.
Firestone/Sherwin Williams
Millennium Building/Guitar Center/Prudential Realty.
9100 Office Building.
9200 Office Building.
Salon Uno.
The study notes that possible ways to increase access into those locations include providing a break in Watson Road’s median to offer greater access, having a two-way left-turn lane instead of raised medians, providing cross access between adjacent businesses to offer connections to an existing traffic signal, allowing for U-turns at existing signals while modifying signal operations and intersection geometrics and removing and/or relocating signalized intersections.
With these recommendations in place from Crawford, Bunte, Brammeier consultants, Dailey said the next step is to gain approval from the Missouri Department of Trans-portation if these proposed changes are to ever occur.
“What I asked for out of the plan was some concrete recommendations,” Dailey said. “Because we don’t own Watson Road, we have to rely on MoDOT approving some of these things. And MoDOT has access-management guidelines that the traffic consultant used when they were putting the recommendations together. So the recommendations that we have in the plan are based on MoDOT’s management guidelines, the purpose of which is to make sure we get these things implemented. And I also asked for cost estimates. So when we’re asking for grant funds, that’s part of the grant-application process for enhancement funds. These funds are available every year where we actually have to put a cost of the project together. So this plan has everything that we need in it to put an application together to EastWest Gateway to get some funds through the federal transportation funding program to implement these things. But unfortunately, it’s not as quick of a process as we’d like.”
Dailey further added that the access-management plan would be incorporated into the city’s streetscape plan.
Those plans will likely be shown at public hearings in the spring so that residents can ask questions and see the proposed changes before any grant applications are submitted.
“The streetscape plan and access plan work together,” Dailey said. “Both of them will be incorporated into the enhancement-fund application, which is coming up in spring in March of ’07. As we get closer to that, we’re actually going to have public meetings for people to come and look at what we’re proposing and to give input before we make any final recommendations in our application.”
With the current access-management plan along Watson Road, these recommendations have been made for Watson Road from Sappington Road to Old Sappington Road:
Because of the close proximity of the eastern drive for the service station to the traffic signal at Sappington Road and substandard spacing between the service station’s drives, it is recommended that the western access drive be closed.
That the Imo’s access drive off Watson Road and Old Sappington Road be closed and that cross access be provided between Imo’s and Barnes & Noble.
Provide a sidewalk along the north side of Watson Road from Sappington Road to Old Sappington Road.
The following access modifications have been recommended along Watson Road from Old Sappington Road to Crestwood Plaza/Schnucks:
Provide access to the new Sappington Square via Old Sappington Road and its existing signal at Watson Road.
Consolidate the four existing curb cuts on Watson Road serving the businesses to one access drive and providing a median break on Watson Road to allow for greater access — left in, right out — at this drive.
Provide cross access with Schnucks to the east.
Provide a sidewalk along the north side of Watson Road from Old Sappington Road to Crestwood Plaza.
The study states that because the south side of Watson Road is targeted to see redevelopment in the future, an interim preferred-access plan is recommended. The study shows that the estimated construction cost for the preferred-access plan with the interim two-way left-turn lane access between Crestwood Plaza/Schnucks and Crest-wood Plaza/Crestview Plaza is $933,000. The recommendations for Watson Road from Crestwood Plaza/Schnucks to Crestwood Plaza/Crestview Plaza are:
Closing the Watson Road access drive to the former Pier 1 site and providing cross access to that site from Schnucks.
Closing the western access drive to Firestone because of substandard spacing between access drives.
Closing the eastern access drive to Sherwin Williams because of substandard spacing between access drives.
Removing part of the Watson Road median to provide access to Firestone, Sherwin Williams, Magna Visual and Mattress Giant.
The study shows that the preferred-access plan’s estimated construction cost with ultimate access preferred with redevelopment between Crestwood Plaza/Schnucks and Crestwood Plaza/Crestview Plaza is $954,000.
Upon the future redevelopment of the former site of Pier 1, Forest View Apartments, Magna Visual, Mattress Giant, a realty company and Crestwood Plaza, the following recommendations then would be made from Crestwood Plaza/Schnucks to Crestwood Plaza/Crestview Plaza:
Close the median opening at Park Crestwood Drive.
Provide access to the redevelopment site through the existing traffic signal at the eastern edge of the site and cross access from Schnucks.
Consolidate the five existing curb cuts on Watson Road serving the area to one or two right in/right out drives.
Incorporate the Firestone site and Sherwin Williams site as outparcels with redevelopment within Crestwood Plaza. That would allow for the removal of two existing access drives to each site on Watson Road.
The study made the following recommendations for Watson Road from Crestwood Plaza/Crestview Plaza to Industrial Park Drive, which would cost an estimated $94,000 with the possibility of a public/private partnership:
Modify existing traffic signals at Crestwood Plaza/Crestview Plaza and Industrial Park Drive to allow for U-turns at signals.
Because of close proximity of the realty access drive to Industrial Park Drive’s traffic signal and substandard spacing between the realty drive and Guitar Center drive, it is recommended that the access drive be closed. The drive would need to be closed to allow for widening on Watson Road required for U-turn movement at the signal. It also is recommended that cross access be provided between the realty site and Guitar Center.
The following recommendations are requested on Wat-son Road from Industrial Park Drive to Pardee Lane:
Modify the existing traffic signal at Pardee Lane to allow for an eastbound U-turn at the signal.
Cross access between the 9109 office building and 9131 office building.
Because of substandard spacing between the access drives serving the south side of Watson Road, it is recommended that the eastern access drive be closed.
The following is recommended on Watson Road from Pardee Lane to Grant Road:
Because of the close proximity of the Salon Uno access drive to the Grant Road traffic signal and the substandard spacing between the salon drives, it is recommended that the eastern access drive be closed.
Provide sidewalk connections between the proposed Grant’s Trail and the existing sidewalk on Watson Road.
