August 21, 2005
A partnering meeting with DelDOT was held on July 6, 2005.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss DelDOT TIS reviews in consideration
of the review procedures that have been implemented within the last year. The meeting was attended by six ACEC-DE firm
representatives, a representative of DelDOT in charge of the TIS reviews, and
additional ACEC-DE firm representatives from McCormick Taylor &
Associates (MTA), the firm reviewing
TIS on behalf of DelDOT. The following were discussed:
1. DelDOT
and MTA explained that MTA has staff working out of DelDOT’s office on the
reviews of the traffic counts and preliminary TIS. MTA has staff working out of
their office on the reviews of the final TIS. DelDOT has hired an additional
staff member to help with the TIS reviews. The TIS are reviewed by the DelDOT
engineering consultant prior to the issuance of review letters by DelDOT.
Required information of TIS that
has been found during reviews to be lacking is evaluation of roads with respect
to AASHTO, MUTCD, and DelDOT standards, information on pedestrian and bicycle
facilities, and information on DelDOT projects that could affect the TIS study
area. The lack of pedestrian/ bicycle information and DelDOT project
information can most likely be attributed to difficulty in obtaining this
information from DelDOT. It was suggested that written records of all
correspondence be provided in the report including requests for such
information from DelDOT.
2. TIS
scopes have been established by DelDOT with input from the local jurisdiction,
depending on their TIS requirements, and the TIS engineer. In accordance with
the forthcoming revised DelDOT Rules and Regulations for Subdivision Streets
and State Highway Access that is currently in draft form, the TIS scopes may be
initially determined in draft by the TIS engineer for review and consideration
by DelDOT.
3. DelDOT
TIS review report recommendations for road improvements were discussed with
respect to the basis for such recommendations. There does not appear to be a
clear code requirement or policy, other than traffic operations level of
service standards, that sets forth a basis for road improvement requirements.
Road improvement recommendations contained in the DelDOT TIS review letters
have in many cases been made based on engineering judgment. It was discussed
that policy for such road improvement recommendations may be warranted to
establish an understanding of road improvement requirements.
4. MTA distributed general guidelines for
Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) and Highway Capacity Software (HCS) analysis of
roads. The guidelines include explanations of the appropriate parameters for
use in the capacity and level of service analysis. The guidelines were
discussed.
If
the recipients of these minutes have any additions or corrections to the
minutes, please notify the author.
Tim Anderson, P.E.
ACEC-DE
Cc: Todd Sammons-
DelDOT
Mark Luszcz-
MTA
Attending ACEC-DE member firms-
Karins and Associates, Landmark Engineering, Century Engineering, Pennoni
Associates
ACEC-DE Executive Committee