Consider Improvements to Crosswalk at Armstrong Blvd and 161st Ave

In 2011 Anoka County installed, at the City of Ramsey's request, a pedestrian crosswalk at the intersection of Armstrong Blvd and 161st Ave. The crosswalk is signed and marked appropriately to current standards.  Central Park is located on the northeast corner of the intersection.  This park is home to organized sporting events and a large playground and picnic area that is frequented by families from the surrounding neighborhoods.  The parking lots are also used during Game Fair which draws close to 50,000 people over the two weekend event.  The city, with the county's permission, extended our trail system through their ROW, which entailed extending a culvert and connecting our trail system to the crosswalk.  This gave pedestrians a safer area to wait at when using the crosswalk.  The west side of the crosswalk has no such area.  The crosswalk basically ends in the grass in the county ROW.   

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PW will contact Anoka County Highway and ask permission to extend the crosswalk on the west side and connect it to 161st Ave.  Another point of concern is the lack of compliance by motorists.  It seems to be better during Game Fair when there is a large number of people in the area, but on the average day most motorists drive through the signs when 1-2 people are waiting.  The city added small warning signs to the crosswalk reminding pedestrians to use caution when using the crosswalk.  Basically stating that even though you are in a marked crosswalk there is no guarantee that the cars will stop to let you cross.  A resident in the area would like to see the city install flashing lights to the crosswalk that could be activated by the pedestrians.  This would hopefully warn motorists that the crosswalk was being actively used at this time.  The system that would work best in this situation would be  solar powered signs coupled with an activation button located on the posts. These systems are effective than standard crosswalk signage, but expensive running in excess of $3,00-5,000 per location.  It also has to be taken into consideration that this is a county maintained crosswalk and would be their decision to invest in the lighting system or not.

Additional paving and culvert extension would be covered under General Fund Budget -Cost Center 0311
Possible signage improvements could be covered by Anoka County Highway or General Fund Budget Cost Center 0260 

Staff recommendation is to work with  Anoka County to extend the pavement and culvert on the west side of Armstrong Blvd to provide a paved surface for pedestrians to use.  Staff also recommends because of the low volume usage of the crosswalk on an average day to leave the current crosswalk signage in place.

Motion to accept staff recommendation to work with  Anoka County to extend the pavement and culvert on the west side of Armstrong Blvd to provide a paved surface for pedestrians to use. Staff also recommends because of the low volume usage of the crosswalk on an average day to leave the current crosswalk signage in place.
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Motion to reject staff recommendation and choose an alternative based on committee discussion