About 75 people turned out for questions & answers plus a presentation of the TIGER grant by Jeff Lebsack, PE, Project Engineer for Hatch Mott MacDonald. Jeff's team has helped Olean develop a vision to restore vitality, vibrancy, pedestrian safety and property value to North Union Street.
Click this image to see Jeff's presentation. Highlights include the following:
1. Many Olean businesses and institutions contributed to our winning TIGER application by writing letters of support for this project. (It's a myth that businesses don't support this restoration make-over - they do!)
2. A great deal of public input went into the selection of a design concept. There were public meetings, focus groups and technical input for experts, first responders and specialty road users such as Dresser Rand. Four generalized concepts were vetted in order to produce the concept that went into our TIGER application.
3. The TIGER Grant is a GRANT, not a loan.
4. The TIGER award is based upon a Benefits Analysis that included:
- Improved safety. North Union is currently 4.6-times more dangerous than roads like it.
- Efficiency. Seven traffic lights create congestion and delay. Roundabouts will smooth the flow.
- Ecology. Green-scape and smooth traffic will help the environment
- Economy. An efficient, walkable, complete street will improve property values
5. We need to spend money to fix the infrastructure of North Union Street anyway. Why not use the TIGER grant to defray these costs? But... We cannot simply replace the water and sewer lines and put the street back the way it was because that would deny the Benefits stipulated in the TIGER Benefits / Cost Analysis. We have to build an efficient, traffic-calmed, walkable, complete street in order to comply with the TIGER.
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