2022 01 18 City Council

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PROJECT B:  HISTORIC DOWNTOWN TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES 
(HDTA) 
B.1:  Concept Scoping for Design 
Assumptions: Consultant is building on work completed in a prior study. Primarily the City of Athens Community 
Mobility Plan (July 2021) but clarifying the outcomes of this work and refining the project definition to move forward 
into design. The focus on this task is ground-truthing this past work for design and construction feasibility and 
establishing priorities for actual project delivery to match available funding and identify potential funding sources. 
The Client will provide previous plans and available data (i.e., GIS files, traffic data).  
1.1.  Review Existing Conditions and Plans 
Downtown plans have been outlined in the Downtown Streetscape Initiative and Experience Master Plan 
and refined in the recently adopted Mobility Plan. In our work with Athens and TDOT and in this national 
climate, we know that funding is continually becoming more available for those communities ready to take 
advantage of it. Given the size and population of the City of Athens, many of its Downtown roads 
experience low to moderate traffic volumes. From a multimodal standpoint, the downtown area has limited 
infrastructure suited to walking and biking with discontinuous sidewalk connectivity and even fewer 
accommodations for bicycles. 
The City of Athens Mobility Plan and the Downtown Master Plan have both identified a need to transform 
the downtown area to a more friendly destination for all modes of transportation, specifically pedestrians 
and bicycles. Improvement concepts, such as traffic calming, roadway re -classifications, safety 
improvements for pedestrian facilities, expanded connectivity within and conne ctions beyond the 
downtown area will all contribute to “extending the Friendly City” to all road users. These plans are geared 
towards improving mobility, but with an overarching emphasis on safety and accessibility for other road 
users for the currently “overdriven” downtown area. 
1.2. Identifying, Prioritizing and Phasing Recommendations for Downtown Transportation 
Improvements Projects 
Building off the recommendations contained in the City of Athens Mobility Plan and the Downtown Master 
Plan, the Stantec team will work in partnership with City of Athens staff and closely with stakeholders to 
develop a prioritized implementation plan for improvements in Downtown. This Phase will at minimum take 
the following factors and steps into account: 
• Complete due diligence to understand design/construction implications (utility, survey, etc.)  
• Define projects individually and establish planning level construction costs and order of 
difficulty to implement 
• Prepare a methodology to identify priority locations, including using the Goals from the 
Mobility Plan 
• Ensure that priority locations are integrated with other Downtown plans such as new 
development proposals or other infrastructure improvements 
• Identify potential funding sources (TDOT, MPO, Federal, Other grant  programs) and match 
locations/improvements to eligibility for funding sources 
• Assess likelihood and timeframe of obtaining outside funding 
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