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The City of Dallas plans to improve the SW Levens St and E Ellendale Ave intersection, currently a stop-control intersection. Improvement needs include high queues during AM and PM peak periods, limited bicycle facilities, outdated pedestrian facilities, limited water quality infrastructure, and safety concerns. The intersection is of high importance to the community as it is a part of the designated truck route flowing through the city which provides access to the nearby elementary school, retirement village, and neighborhoods. The project team’s goals throughout the design process were to increase the safety and efficiency of the intersection while minimizing the footprint and cost of the project. The team consists of three transportation engineers that focused on the roadway design and two water resource engineers that worked on stormwater infrastructure design. 

The final design for the intersection improvements centers around a roundabout. The implementation of a roundabout will increase the traffic capacity of the intersection while also increasing safety. Queuing will also be alleviated by allowing the continuous flow of vehicles through the intersection. Safety will improve because roundabouts reduce conflict points and cause traffic to slow down while still maintaining flow. The proposed design will include bike lanes and new sidewalks to accommodate multi-modal transportation. Planter strips will be placed around the roundabout to serve as a barrier between traffic and pedestrians. These planters will also function as water quality devices, stormwater facilities, and increase the aesthetic appeal of the site. The capacity of the planter strips was designed to handle a hundred-year storm and includes a catch basin as a factor of safety to ensure that all runoff will be captured. This includes perforated pipe underneath the planter strips for the ability to remove any excess water from the site as needed. Overall the final design construction cost is larger than other alternatives, however low maintenance costs in the long run provide the city with a reliable solution.

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