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Community Design + Architecture (CD+A) worked with Fehr & Peers Associates (FPA) to develop the conceptual design for a roundabout at the intersection of East 14th Street and Hesperian Boulevard in San Leandro. The Consultants were asked to conduct an urban design and transportation analysis that would compare the roundabout approach with a set of intersection improvement alternatives developed by a previous study. The Hesperian Boulevard intersection coincides with the southern boundary of the East 14th Street South Area, for which CD+A and FPA (under a separate contract) had just developed a redesign proposal that included a raised center median and enhanced pedestrian crossings on East 14th Street. The roundabout project therefore offered the opportunity to not only include these design elements in the layout for the traffic circle but to also to create a second schematic design approach that combined some of the standard intersection improvements considered in the previous study with the redesign proposed for the East 14th Street South Area. Both design alternatives included the closure of a short segment of Hesperian Boulevard to allow for the redevelopment of a triangular parcel that is currently cut off by surrounding streets into a landscaped open space.
The urban design and traffic analysis eventually concluded that the introduction of a roundabout in this location would create a number of access problems for surrounding land uses that could not be sufficiently mitigated. In addition, city staff had concerns over compatibility of the amount of truck traffic on East 14th Street with the relatively tight layout of the two-lane roundabout. Staff therefore opted to pursue a combination of improvements from both of the studies. The project was funded by the Alameda County Transportation Improvement Authority (ACTIA).
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