Olive Harvey College Traffic Impact Study

Regina Webster & Associates was retained by The Architects Enterprise Ltd. to perform a traffic study that examined the impact of a proposed new entrance to the property site off of 103rd Street. The impact study was performed according to the requirements of the permitting process of the Illinois Department of Transportation. The purpose of the study was to determine what, if any, adverse impact would occur as a result of the proposed new access point (and associated additional 120 parking spaces). Data were collected using twenty-four hour machine counts and manual turning-movement counts at the main college entrance on Woodlawn Avenue and nearby intersections to determine the peak hours of College traffic. The number of trips attributable to the proposed development was determined based on counts taken at the driveway, and the directional distribution of trips from student, faculty and staff rosters and/or from existing counts at Woodlawn Avenue was determined from the collected data. Trips were reassigned to the proposed entrance to develop traffic projections for traffic accessing the site. RWA estimated future college traffic volumes from expected growth rates. From the collected manual count data, RWA analyzed the existing intersection capacity, added future development traffic to existing background traffic, and performed capacity analyses at the intersection to identify traffic impacts. RWA also analyzed the capacity at the proposed entrance and 103rd Street, and the weaving impacts in the acceleration lane between the Dan Ryan Exit Ramp and the proposed drive on 103rd Street. The RWA study also assessed need for an acceleration lane west of the proposed drive.