The Seal Beach City Council amended a contract with Willdan Engineering to have the traffic consulting firm prepare plans to improve the College Park West entrance at the council’s Monday, Jan. 10 meeting.
The vote was 4-0. District 2 Councilman David Sloan recused himself from the vote to avoid the appearance of impropriety.
Sloan lives in College Park West. City Attorney said there was no conflict of interest.
He said Sloan did not want to go through the process of getting clearance from the California Fair Political Practices Commission.
“For many years ingress and egress to the College Park West Community has been negatively impacted by traffic using the westbound on/off ramp for SR 22,” said the staff report by Sean Crumby, director of Public Works.
“The intersection is located at College Park Drive and the SR 22 westbound Studebaker Road on/off ramp in the city of Long Beach,” Crumby wrote.
The report said the off-ramp is controlled by CalTrans.
“As residents of Seal Beach and Long Beach exit from College Park Drive, which terminates at the SR 22 off-ramp, the residents must stop until it is safe to proceed,” Crumby wrote.
The report said the off-ramp and College Park Drive form a “T” intersection.
“At various times of the day, including the morning, noon and evening peak hours, vehicles must wait an inordinate amount of time to exit from these residential areas due to the continuous stream of vehicles coming on and off the freeway,” Crumby wrote.
However, Long Beach residents have an another exit available through their housing tact. “The city of Long Beach restricts access for Seal Beach residents to this alternative during the most critical times by way of a right turn prohibition at Salida Avenue,” Crumby wrote.
In 2009, College Park West residents and Seal Beach staff met to discuss four options proposed by Willdan Engineering to improve the intersection. Crumby told the City Council last week that CPW residents preferred installing a traffic signal at the intersection of the freeway ramps and College Park Drive.
In April 2010, the Seal Beach City Council passed a resolution in favor of the traffic signal option.
However, Crumby said CalTrans and Long Beach city officials were “adamantly opposed” to the traffic signal option.
“In fact, they are both in favor of Option 2 from the city of Seal Beach traffic studies,” Crumby wrote in his staff report.
According to the staff report, option two would modify the intersection to create an acceleration lane on the westbound on-ramp a free-right turn lane from College Park Drive to the off-ramp and provide a left turn lane from the on-ramp onto College Park Drive.
Crumby told the council that CalTrans has agreed to contribute $250,000 toward the project.
Staff recommended increasing the existing contract with Willdan by $115,900. Of that figure, $15,900 will go to a study that CalTrans may require. If CalTrans does not require the study, the fee paid to Willday will be reduced to $100,000.
The council adopted a resolution selecting Option 2 from the 2009 Willdan presentation to College Park West residents. The council also amended the contract with Willdan.
