Minutes 07/18/1978 - Laserfiche WebLink

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July 18, 1978 "WHEREAS, Robert W. Wentz, Jr. has served as a City Councilman of Portsmouth for six years (1972-I978)and as Vice Mayor for four years (1974-1978}; and WHEREAS, while serving on the City Council, Mr. Wentz represented the City of Portsmouth as Chairman of the Tidewater Transportation District Commission and Chairman of the Eastern Virginia Health Systems Agency furthering regional cooperation; and WHEREAS, during his dedicated and outstanding service, Mr. Wentz spent many thousands of hours attending meetings, in addition to the regular sessions of the City Council; and WHEREAS, as Vice Mayor, he was delegated the responsibility of administering appointments to Boards and Commissions, for which Portsmouth was recognized on a regional and nationwide basis; and WHEREAS, Mr. Wentz served as a member of the Portsmouth All~%merica City delegation and actively participated in the presentation of material for the winning of that award; and WHERi~S, his devotion and commitment to the general welfare of the City and the citizens was manifest during his term of office by the many projects accomplished by the Council. THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the City of Portsmouth, Virginia, that the valuable contributions to the progress of our City made by Robert W. Wentz, Jr. be acknowledged with sincere gratitude and deep appreciation. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be presented to Mr. Robert W. Wentz, Jr., and that it be made a part of the permanent records of the City Council. Adopted by the Council of the City of Portsmouth, Virginia, at a meeting held on July 18, 1978." Mr. Wentz was unable to be present to receive the resolution. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 78-194 - The following report on the proposed changes in traffic circulation for Hodges Ferry Road and Mayflower Road was presentmd: "As you will recall residents from Mayflower Park and Hodges Manor appeared before City Council at your June 15, 1978 Council meeting in order to protest the placing of a curb median at the intersection of Mayflower Road and the widening of Hodges Ferry Road from Logan Drive to Cherokee Road. As a result of their appearance you requested that I submit a report to Council concerning the issues they raised. In order to understand fully the problems raised it is necessary that we review the transportation network development in this area over the recent years. As you will recall residents of Portsmouth in concert with the City fought for and won the construction of the Greenwood Drive interchange. Our planners, traffic engineers as well as the State's recognized that one byproduct of this new facility would be increased traffic traveling between Airline and Portsmouth Boulevards. In order to accommodate this expected increase the interchange was originally designed to link ~264 with Elmhurst Lane, which would take traffic directly from~the interchange across Airline Boulevard to.Portsmouth Boulevard. However, due to problems in obtaining al/ of the needed rightofway, this concept was dropped and Greenwood Drive was used instead. ~. This change.resulted in a unique problem. The increased traffic is now brought off the interchange in direct line with Hodges Ferry Road as opposed to the larger facility, Elmhurst Lane located a short ways to the east. As expected the change resulted in an increase in traffic on Hodges Ferry Road. After attempting in vain through numerous traffic control techniques to route traffic from Greenwood Drive to Elmhurst Lane, everyone agreed that traffic would continue to use Hodges Ferry Road and therefore it would have to be improved in certain locations in order to safely handle the increased traffic. . Within a few mo.ntks after the opening of the interchange traffic on Hodges Ferry, Mayflower and Leonard Roads increased significantly, so did complaints about the traffic, -~-.'-requests for a signal light at Hodges Ferry Road and Portsmouth Boulevard, and more importantl so did accidents at the intersections of Hodges Ferry and Mayflower Roads at Portsmouth Boulevard. In fact, during the past year the Police Department has investigated sixteen accidents at the above locations, fourteen of which were caused by traffic attempting to turn west on Portsmouth Boulevard from either'Hodges Ferry or 5layflower Road. As a result of theaforementioned, certain changes were considered in the regulation of traffic circulation through' Hodges Manor and Mayflower Park. Each~of these changes and their current status is listed below: (1) Installation of a new traffic signal at Portsmouth Boulevard and Hodges Ferry Road. This change was approved. Traffic conditions at this location exceed~ c-~eria the City uses in making its traffic control determinations. The signal light and related equipment has been purchased and the ligh~ should be installed by the first of August. (August 1, 1978) (2) Provision of a median curb in Portsmouth Boulevard at the intersection with May- flower Road. This change was considered unwarranted. However, a temporary re- striction was considered to coincide with the installation of the new traffic light at Hodges Ferry Road and Portsmouth Boulevard. As a result of the recent