Tag: West Virginia University

Aug. 23—MORGANTOWN — Sometimes you’ve just got to see it to believe it.

So it goes with some members of the Morgantown Monongalia Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board who say they’d like to see under the hood of a plan to close University Avenue to vehicular traffic at Grumbein’s Island — the mesh point of cars and pedestrians between West Virginia University’s Mountainlair and Woodburn Circle.

Its closure is a recommendation of the $500, 000 multiyear microsimulation study undertaken by the MPO and currently being considered for inclusion in the body’s Metropolitan Transportation Plan — a mandatory first step toward eventual implementation.

The plan, as modeled in the study, would reroute the bottom of Falling Run Road through the parking lot at its intersection with University Avenue to connect it directly to the Campus Drive, Stewart Street, University Avenue intersection.

On the other end, a portion of the parking lot next to the West Virginia Junior College would be taken in order to redesign a two-way connection between Willey Street and University /Beechurst.

In short, the traffic driving through Grumbien’s Island to get into or away from downtown would be rerouted down to Beechurst Avenue.

It’s a lot to wrap your head around — and there are skeptics.

“No, ” Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom said when contemplating the additional traffic on Beechurst. “It can’t handle it. Just today it was backed all the way up to the Coliseum …”

Bloom said he’s not against closing Grumbein’s island, but he would struggle to support it without another north /south access into downtown, noting the closure would not only put more cars on Beechurst, it would route traffic away from the city’s business district.

MPO Executive Director Bill Austin responded.

“One of the key issues that I don’t think people realize with Grumbein’s Island is that Grumbein’s Island is part of the problem on Beechurst. It’s a major portion of the problem on Beechurst because it backs up traffic on University Avenue, and when traffic backs up on University Avenue, it backs up all the way onto Mon Boulevard, ” Austin said.

As for rerouting potential customers away from the city’s downtown, Morgantown City Councilor Mark Downs said he also could foresee the opposite occurring.

“We should keep an open mind. Downtown could be less of a pass-through and more of a destination, right ? There’s a lot of traffic that just uses downtown to get from point A to point B. It doesn’t stop anywhere in between, ” he said. “Maybe if we take some of that transient traffic out of the downtown, people use it more as a destination. I’m open to hearing and seeing how the model might demonstrate that.”

Austin went on to say that the microsimulation study that recommends this change is based on real data, not a car count and an estimate.

“The way the model was constructed is we got origin and destination information — real-time information from people who traveled through downtown. You do that with cellphone data, ” Austin said. “It’s real data of people who were traveling through downtown. Then you use those origins and destinations to assign the traffic routes through downtown. We’re getting actual user information to do the modeling rather than just an engineer’s guesswork.”

Ultimately, Austin explained, the answers play out in the modeling.

“It actually shows how the traffic flows when you make these changes, ” he said.

Policy board members said they’d like to see it firsthand.

Morgantown Area Partnership CEO Russ Rogerson was part of the committee that helped steer the two-year study. He said it was clear from the beginning that this project would likely require a higher degree of public interaction and education than any other.

That education should start, Rogerson continued, with policy board members looking at the modeling data and getting an understanding of how the study’s recommendations were arrived at.

There’s time to do so.

Brian Carr, who represents the West Virginia Division of Highways on the board, noted the closure of University Avenue at Grumbein’s Island isn’t likely to happen in the immediate future.

While the project could certainly be expedited, the Metropolitan Transportation Plan the project is being considered for contemplates the area’s transportation system over the next 30 years.

“I agree on the surface that it’s hard to fathom Beechurst and University can carry anything more than they already are. But again, that comes down to the modeling and how it all works out with the changing of the signal timing and whatnot, ” Carr said. “But we’ve got a long way to go before we get into all of that. That’s why it’s all part of the long game.”

Grumbein’s Island was designed by Dr. John Behny Grumbein in the early 1930s.

In 1994, WVU spent $1 million on a project that widened the crosswalk, made College Avenue two ways from the University Avenue intersection, eliminated one northern lane of University Avenue and widened the courtyard in front of the Mountainlair.

A statement provided by WVU indicates the university is ready for another change.

“West Virginia University is looking at ways to increase pedestrian safety and enhance our campus amenities, including opportunities to create additional greenspace for our students, faculty, staff and visitors to enjoy. We are committed to working with state, county and city officials, and support consideration of a reconfiguration for Grumbein’s Island.”