City Engineer Edward Kemp gives a presentation on the first draft for a potential access management policy for Starkville at the Board of Aldermen Work Session Friday afternoon. (Photo by Faith Lifer, SDN)
The Starkville Board of Aldermen will consider adopting an access management policy for Starkville roadways during Tuesday’s board meeting.
City Engineer Edward Kemp gave a presentation on a “first draft” of the city’s potential policy during the work session Friday afternoon. While Starkville has been using the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s policy as a guide for the past few years, the Starkville policy would formalize the process, while also making changes to the policy to make it unique to Starkville.
“I see this as kind of the starting point of the conversation,” Kemp said. “I think there’s a lot of policy decisions that goes into this if the board chooses to pursue the access management. What I have prepared today is just a first stab at it.”
Kemp said access management is important because it aims to improve transportation safety and efficiency.
“It increases pedestrian safety, it increases efficiency of the corridor, it reduces congestion— I think all of those ideas are always things that our community will appreciate,” Kemp said.
Access management, as defined by the Transportation Research Board, is the systematic control of the location, spacing, design and operation of driveways, median openings, interchanges and street connections to a roadway. Although Starkville may not necessarily have median openings or interchanges, Kemp notes Starkville does have a lot of roadways.
“Access management is trying to find the balance between access and safety,” Kemp said. “We have a lot of roadways, we have a lot of roadways that are already at capacity in some situations and unfortunately we have a lot of roadways where there is a lot of access.”
Kemp emphasized access management is a balance between providing the traveling public enough access, while also maintaining safety for those traveling.
“Like I said, there is a balance there between providing adequate, proper access to businesses and also safety,” Kemp said. “As one goes up, the other goes down— it goes both ways— and so it’s trying to find that middle ground, that middle point where the balance is right.”
Access management will also allow for more orderly and proactive development on Starkville.
“As growth occurs, there will be more people (traveling) in those corridors which increases the potential for crashes and conflicts,” Kemp said. “It’s all about investing in your infrastructure. You want to make sure that the infrastructure that’s installed, we’re getting the most useful life out of it that we can… And you do that by using the right materials, the right installation methods.”
“We’re experiencing some infrastructure that was installed less than 15 years ago that’s already failing and so it’s very difficult,” Kemp added. “Those infrastructure dollars are very hard to come by and so we obviously want to be more proactive on the front end because that work gets installed to try to prevent the replacement of that until much further down the road.”
POLICY ROUGH DRAFT
• Curb Cut Distance to Intersection — 125 feet
• Driveway Spacing Width — 200 feet
• Curb Cut Distance to Lot Line — 12.5 feet
• Curb Cut Offset Distance to Opposite of Street Access — 125 feet
• One-Way Access Width —16-foot maximum
• Two-Way Access Width — 30-foot maximum