PRELIMINARY TRAFFIC ANALYSIS RESULTS: APS Recreation Complex August 2011

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

BACKGROUND

Albuquerque Public Schools proposes to construct a stadium and other sports facilities on

Arroyo Vista north of Interstate 40, southwest of the intersection of Arroyo Vista and Tierra

Pintada. The sports facilities site is referred to as the “APS Recreation Complex”. The

proposed Stadium project is essentially Phase I of the “APS Recreation Complex”, and the

focus of this study. A vicinity map is attached as labeled Error! Reference source not found..

The “APS Recreation Complex” facility will consist of a 7,000-seat football stadium, an adjacent

soccer field with a track that seats 2,600 people, soccer fields in drainage facilities, and tennis

courts. Future plans include baseball fields to the east of the soccer field. The facility is not

anticipated to be used for practice sessions as those will be conducted at each individual

school. As the competitions are only held during specific times of the year, the traffic analysis to

the site will consider the activities as “special events”.

Additionally, the City of Albuquerque is strongly considering a “City Regional Park” facility

at the west edge of the “APS Recreation Complex.”

SCOPING SESSION

A “scoping session” was held with the City of Albuquerque and NMDOT transportation

staff. The scope of the study was determined to be the “study event” as described below, and

further identified 6 intersections for study and analysis (see attached Figure 2).

STUDY “EVENT”

The event held at the Stadium with the largest attendance is expected to be certain varsity

football games. This event became the “study event” of the traffic impact study. The study

event is the “large attendance football game”, represented by an attendance of 3,500 people.

Based on attendance figures provided by APS athletics, for the 2009 and 2010 APS varsity

football seasons, the largest attendance was approximately 4,500 people, with an average for

varsity football games of 1,498.

EXTREME INFREQUENCY OF “STUDY EVENT”

As stated, the analysis considered the impacts of a large attendance football game event.

Based on attendance data provided by APS Athletics, only five (5) varsity football games in the

last two (2009 & 2010) football seasons had attendance greater than that studied in this report.

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Other sporting events to be held at the “APS Recreation Complex” have attendance that is very

low compared to varsity football game attendance.

As games will be played at three (3) stadiums after construction of this new Westside

Stadium (Wilson, Milne and the proposed), the situation suggests that only one (1) game per

year per stadium will have the level of attendance studied in this report.

This study utilized weekday evening “off peak” hour traffic levels, corresponding to the times

that the games are actually played. This means that the peak hour of the event lags the typical

peak hour of the adjacent street system. Additionally, roughly one-third of the high attendance

varsity games are on Saturdays (i.e., substantially further away from typical peak hour conditions

of a weekday).

These factors reveal the extreme infrequency of the large varsity game (the “study event”).

TRIP GENERATION COMPARISON w/PREVIOUS LAND USES OF MASTER PLAN

As a result of the proposed construction of the “City Regional Park” and “APS

Recreational Complex”, the average daily trips for these parcels will be reduced significantly

from the development alternatives permitted by their approved zoning, with most events

happening on Friday evenings, Saturdays and occasionally Sundays. Further, both the “City

Regional Park” and “APS Recreation Complex” will not have significant everyday activities

during the peak commuting hours. Activities at both locations are expected to be “off-peak” and

on weekends, when traffic volumes are generally much lower than during the typical traffic peak

hours. Indeed, even the trip component during typical peak hour, of both facilities, is expected

to be relatively small compared to approved zoning uses.

A comparison of the expected daily traffic was performed, with estimates of trip generation

for the possible Master Plan land uses vs the proposed Stadium, for the same area. In

summary, the total daily trips decrease up to 23,995 trips per day, or an over 98% reduction

in daily trips. It can be seen that there will be a significant reduction in daily trips with the

change in use of the sites.

A comparable numeric reduction in peak hour trips is expected, due to operation and

scheduling of events at the Stadium and City Regional Park compared to the typical peak hour

(this result is reflected in the Summary of Results section below).

“OFF PEAK” CONDITIONS

Due to the nature of the events to be held at the Stadium, atypical hours of analysis are

required, as the varsity football games are scheduled outside the typical commute day AM/PM

peak hour, meaning that the study event is “off-peak”. Varsity football games are held

PRELIMINARY TRAFFIC ANALYSIS RESULTS: APS Recreation Complex August 2011

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Thursday and Friday evenings at 7:00 PM and Saturday afternoons at 1:30 PM. The typical

peak hour for the metro area ends by 6:00 PM and Saturday afternoon traffic volumes are also

much lower than the typical commute day PM peak hour. For the large attendance football

game evaluated in this report, 60% of the PM peak hour will be used as the base condition for

traffic volumes. This 60% value has been selected and used in prior studies for this athletic

complex. The weekday evening game would be the worst case scenario since the large majority

of attendees would be arriving between 6:30 and 7:00 PM, after the PM peak hour.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS

LOCAL STEET NETWORK

The primary traffic analysis results indicate the following:

1. Under today’s existing roadway conditions (ie, no Stadium), traffic operations on the 6

study intersections in the vicinity of the proposed Stadium operate at acceptable levels of

service in the study’s “off peak hour”.

2. In 2015, under today’s conditions (ie, no Stadium), these same 6 intersections continue to

operate at acceptable levels of service in the “off-peak hour”.

3. With the Stadium in place and the local street roadway network improvements listed

below, all intersections in whole will continue to operate satisfactorily at acceptable levels

of service.

The analysis assumed that local adjacent roadway network improvements to Arroyo

Vista and Tierra Pintada would be in place prior to the opening of the Stadium. These

improvements have been agreed to by all parties and are depicted on the attached Figure 3.

These include:

The completion of Arroyo Vista as a six-lane roadway north from Ladera to Tierra

Pintada.

Two lanes minimum will be constructed west of Tierra Pintada along the Stadium

parcel frontage to the west entrance to the Stadium.

The Tierra Pintada crossing of the Mirehaven Arroyo will be constructed, connecting Arroyo Vista to Unser (2 lanes minimum).

Traffic signals will be constructed at the intersections of Arroyo Vista & Ladera and Arroyo Vista & Tierra Pintada.

Minor street movements at Arroyo Vista & Ladera and Arroyo Vista & Tierra Pintada would

operate unacceptably if the traffic signals are not constructed.

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INTERSTATE SYSTEM

The I40 Interstate ramp and weave operations were also analyzed, as proscribed in the

scoping session. This analysis found that, without the Stadium in place, today’s existing I-40

westbound 2011 PM “peak hour“ weave segment between Unser and 98th Street/Arroyo Vista

operates at an unacceptable level of service (LOS F). This is an existing deficiency that exists

regardless of the construction of the APS Stadium. In fact, in this same reach, the study event’s

“off peak” hour analysis shows only a 4% (2 mph) reduction in speed.

These results point out that the APS Stadium project makes no appreciable impact to the

Interstate’s deficiencies and should not be held responsible for improving an existing deficient

condition on the interstate.

The NMDOT is aware of the typical “peak hour” congestion in the area, however, there has

been no decision made on corrective approaches moving forward. Further, the TVN

neighborhood has contacted the DOT seeking remedies. APS will continue to work with the

Neighborhood to ask that the DOT address the known Interstate deficiency.