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Summary Minutes:Special City Commission Meeting January 14,2016 City of Sunny Isles Beach,Florida
<br /> Study Analysis for the Government Center Expansion Project, and will be presented to the
<br /> Commission by Salman Rathore of the Corradino Group.
<br /> Public Speakers: Salman Rathore; Gabriella Blagerman
<br /> Salman Rathore, Project Manager, Traffic Engineer with the Corradino Group gave a
<br /> PowerPoint presentation on the Government Center Expansion Project, Traffic Impact
<br /> Analysis,and the Share Parking Analysis. The purpose of the Study is to analyze the current
<br /> and future traffic impacts that the project will have on the roadways and intersections,and to
<br /> make sure we have enough capacity for the infrastructure concern to be able to handle the
<br /> extra project traffic. The report is still in draft and we will continue to make changes as we
<br /> get comments and feedback, and do different reviews, before finalizing the report.
<br /> Mr. Rathore said this is a Mixed-Use Project with an elementary school, a middle school,
<br /> general office building, performing arts, civic center, a fitness center and a senior facility.
<br /> Before they started working on the Project,the Parking Impact Study or the Shared Parking
<br /> Analysis, they wanted to make sure they understood it, and the different issues. They met
<br /> with City staff and the Architect and discussed the project in general,what are different land
<br /> users, different shared parking users, etc. They met with the Police to discuss the school
<br /> traffic, the routing, the bottlenecks, different man-power required going into the field,
<br /> eventually that seven (7) Police Officers are present during the arrival time and during the
<br /> departure time. Also three (3) Cross Guards are present to help the kids cross the street.
<br /> They met with the School Principal so that they would have a better understanding of the
<br /> current and future school enrollment. They discussed issues such as drop-off and pick-up,
<br /> the timings,and also they got an idea of how many students use buses out of the total current
<br /> • enrollment. There are three (3) buses being utilized for about 250 to 300 students out of
<br /> about 2,000 of the total enrollment. They met with the Miami Dade County School Board
<br /> about the Project but the main purpose was to discuss the staggering option of arrivals and
<br /> departures for the middle school. That was important as that gave them an idea of what the
<br /> real issues are after they met with the different stakeholders.
<br /> Mr. Rathore said on the Traffic Analysis, they began by collecting data. They collected
<br /> intersection volume counts,the analysis included a total of 11 intersections with 3 signalized
<br /> and 8 un-signalized intersections. All were collected in the vicinity of the project and during
<br /> morning and midday peaks. He showed a map with all those intersections that can be located
<br /> by numbers, Collins Avenue and 178th Street,North Bay Road, 170th St. etc. As part of the
<br /> traffic analysis they always start from existing conditions. Current impact of traffic on the
<br /> network, delays, congestion,bottleneck, in spite of the existing conditions,he went out into
<br /> the field and spent about half a day with Police Officers. They looked at the arrivals and
<br /> departures,how the queues are developed,how the Police are managing the pedestrians,the
<br /> traffic,in the morning,and midday during the departure time. One thing that is important to
<br /> note is that the presence of Police Officers and Crossing Guards is absolutely important.
<br /> Without their presence there would have been a mess out there to manage traffic and
<br /> pedestrians from a safety perspective. In the morning the traffic is dispersed between 25 to
<br /> 30 minutes. In the midday it was a little longer, perhaps parents were coming in, dropping
<br /> off, waiting for their kids, forming queues, picking up their kids and so during that time it
<br /> took longer, between 40 and 45 minutes. Still it wasn't that bad due to the Police and
<br /> Crossing Guards presence,direction and guidance. Out of the eleven(11)intersections that
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