David Duggins answers: "The scope of work is the entire downtown street grid."

Yesterday, in the wake of the city's announcement of a street study consultancy with Jeff Speck, the Courier-Journal's Grace Schneider wrote about the pivotal Board of Public Works meeting Tuesday, highlighting comments made by David Duggins during the session. One in particular was significant.

"Duggins said the city would not implement any recommendations that would reduce traffic capacity."

Using this as a jumping-off point, I asked four questions of Duggins, e-mailing them to him. He responded promptly yesterday afternoon. The questions were:

1. If "the city would not implement any recommendations that would reduce traffic capacity," what's the point of bringing Speck in?

2. Grace Schneider wrote, "Speck tweeted Tuesday morning that he’s excited to work in New Albany and that his work “won’t be a ‘traffic study.’ But traffic will be studied.” Didn't the mayor insist there had to be a traffic study before considering any modifications?

3. Customarily we'd be hearing John Rosenbarger comment publicly on these matters. Who is riding point for city government when it comes to the Speck study?

4. Most of us have known about it for a while, but was Grace's article the first mention of the $2.5 million in federal money available to implement the recommendations (assuming the aforementioned and disturbing disclaimer that they don't reduce traffic capacity)?

Here are Duggins's answers. It strikes me as curious that John Rosenbarger's name isn't explicitly mentioned; perhaps now that he's achieved the culmination of his planning career by implementing a Main Street project designed to increase the value of his Main Street home at the piddling expense of reducing the value of mine and others on the Interstate Thru Highways otherwise known as Spring and Elm, he'll step graciously (read: the fuck) out of the way and let progress come to other areas of the city north of his mailbox, absent his malignant backroom influence.

A boy can dream. In New Albany, it's often all we have.

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Roger,

I am happy to answer questions you have, and I am glad to clarify Grace's understanding of my comments. Also please ask me to clarify any item that you may be unclear about before posting.

Grace did not quote me accurately or ask a follow-up question to clarify her understanding of the plan. I said that Speck would not make recommendations that reduce the total current capacity of the grid. His recommendations will re-direct traffic flow and patterns throughout the entire grid. So to be more clear traffic may be reduced on a certain street but increased on a less used street. The scope of work is the entire downtown street grid.

The Comprehensive Traffic Corridor Plan is a combination of Speck's planning and recommendations for the corridor, with information provided by the study portion completed by Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates (Engineering Firm). The Mayor is looking at forming a local advisory group to help coordinate and gather information that will be used in the plan. The Mayor has stayed consistent in the message that the corridor will be affected, and that we need expert analysis and recommendations to make any changes and how to proceed.

Mayor Gahan is the obvious leader of this project, but will be helped by myself and the rest of the Redevelopment Staff.

The Federal Aid project is the 2.5 million that was mentioned, and can be used for corridor improvements including traffic calming, striping, medians, turn lanes, and traffic signals.