33rd and Cornhusker Improvement Project - Community Involvement

Welcome!

This public meeting was held to solicit public feedback and comments on the project’s purpose and need, and the RTSD’s adjusted preliminary preferred alternative. The project was seeking feedback related to whether the preliminary preferred alternative would meet a project purpose of improving connectivity and reducing delay for pedestrians, bicyclists and bus transit within the project area.

Use the information below to understand the reasoning for the design features of the Railroad Transportation Safety District’s (RTSD) preliminary preferred alternative.

The Purpose for This Project Includes:

1. Improve safety along the rail corridor between N. 27th and N. 48th streets by eliminating or reducing the potential conflict points between trains and other transportation modes (vehicles, pedestrians, and bicyclists).
2. Reduce delay for motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists crossing the rail corridor, including rerouting of emergency response vehicles due to crossings blocked by trains.
3. Accommodate existing and future traffic (Year 2040) to reduce congestion along roadways crossing the rail corridor.
4. Improve mobility across the rail corridor in northern Lincoln, including public safety response times.
5. Improve multimodal connectivity in northern Lincoln for vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, and bus transit.

Focusing on reducing delay and improving multimodal connectivity for pedestrians and bicyclists within the study area, the need for the project includes:

• Facilities for and connectivity between alternative travel modes (bus, bicycle, and pedestrian) do not meet the existing or future (2040) community needs, as identified in the Lincoln/Lancaster County Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Long Range Transportation Plan.
• The existing at-grade crossings of N. 33rd Street and Adams Street at the railroad tracks have no provisions for pedestrians or bicycles despite close proximity to attractors such as the Murdock Trail, Fleming Fields, University of Nebraska – Lincoln (UNL) East Campus, and Nebraska Innovation Campus.
• StarTran currently has no bus routes that cross the rail corridor at grade on N. 33rd Street, Adams Street, or N. 44th Street due to the unpredictability of delays caused by trains.

• Existing Conditions: Learn more about the existing conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists in the project area.

  Existing Conditions 

• Previous Preliminary Preferred Alternative: View the previous preliminary preferred alternative presented in June 2020.

  Alternative as Presented in June 2020 

• Current RTSD Preliminary Preferred Alternative: View RTSD’s current preliminary preferred alternative to address the project purpose and need for pedestrians and bicyclists in the project area. The differences between the alternative presented in June 2020 and the current preliminary preferred alternative are highlighted. The first map shows the overall project area, the second map shows the west project area near N. 33rd Street and Cornhusker Highway. The third map shows the east project area near N. 44th Street and Cornhusker Highway.

  Current Preliminary Preferred Alternative 

• What the Area Would Look Like in the Future: 3-D images of the project area have been created to help better understand the proposed improvements. These are for visualization purposes only.

  3-D Images 

• Process and Schedule: The project is currently in the Environmental Analysis and Preliminary Engineering phase. A public hearing on the draft Environmental Assessment is anticipated in Fall 2022.

  Process and Schedule 

The comment period for this public meeting is closed. If you have questions or comments about the project, please contact the project team.

Welcome!

Thank you for your interest in the proposed N. 33rd Street and Cornhusker Highway transportation project!

• Use this information sheet as your guide to the public information meeting materials. Links to all of the open house meeting stations are available below.

  Meeting Handouts 

• NEPA is the National Environmental Policy Act. It requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions.

  NEPA 

• During the planning phase in 2018, the project advisory committee and the community developed a list of community goals for the subarea plan. Several goals are related to the transportation project and were used to create additional transportation alternative concepts.

  Project History 

• Using the Tier 0 / Tier 1 screening criteria, the following alternatives have been considered and dismissed. Below each of the alternatives is the numbered criteria for which it was dismissed.

  Considered & Dismissed Alternatives 

• Currently, there are eight remaining alternatives under examination.

  • No Action (or “do nothing”)
  • Four alternatives currently recommended each have features in common with the main difference being how Adams Street traffic is handled.
    • Alternative 1B
    • Alternative 1D
    • Alternative 1E
    • Alternative Modified PEL C
  • Three alternatives currently not recommended as reasonable based on cost
    • Alternative 12B
    • Alternative 14
    • Alternative 15A

  The numbered circles on the alternatives represent an arbitrary numbering system used to identify potentially impacted properties which are described in list form.

  Each of the remaining alternatives will be evaluated based on the Tier 2 screening criteria, public and agency input, and environmental impacts, and will be weighed against the transportation needs of the project to select a preferred alternative.

  Remaining Alternatives Station Posters  Remaining Alternatives  Not Recommended Alternatives 

• Average Daily Traffic and Level of Service

  Average Daily Traffic Posters  Level of Service Posters 

• Public comments were collected through July 12, 2019.

  Public Comment Station Poster  Comment Form