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HomeMy WebLinkAbout3.3.4 Traffic StudyLevel 2 Auxiliary Turn Lane Assessment For Oil and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5 Garfield County, Colorado September 2009 PREPARED FOR: Williams Production RMT 1058 County Road 215 Parachute, CO 81635 970-263-2574 Contact: Bryan Hotard PREPARED BY: Drexel, Barrell & Co. 1350 17th Street, Suite 210 Denver, CO 80202 720-214-0955 Contact: Ann Bowers, PE, PTOE Drexel Sorrell Project Number: D 1049 Transportation Impact Study Oil and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5 Table of Contents 1.0 Project Description 3 2.0 Existing Conditions 4 3.0 Project Generated Traffic and Trip Distribution 7 4.0 Total Traffic Projections 10 5.0 Recommendations 12 6.0 Conclusions 13 Tables and Figures Figure 1: 2009 Existing Traffic Count 6 Figure 2: Project -Generated Traffic Assignment 9 Figure 3: 2010 Total Traffic Volumes 11 Table 1: Anticipated Site Generated Traffic During the Fracing Process 7 Appendices Traffic Counts (Made by Cutting Edge Traffic dated 9/15/2009 - 9/16/2009) Background Information Site Traffic Estimates Provide by Williams 1.0 Project Description This Auxiliary Turn Lane Assessment examines the effects of project -generated traffic on the roadway system for a Williams Production well pad site taking access from Garfield County Road 309. This location is designated by Williams as Oil and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5. This analysis includes impacts for the projected build -out Year 2010. This site is a parcel located north and west of County Road 309 within Garfield County. This site currently has a single access approximately 1.5 miles from the start of County Road 309. This is expected to remain the sole access for the proposed production facilities. Vicinity and Zoning Map for the Well Site: (Not to scale) Oil and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5, 01049 Page 3 H:\D 1049\Reports\Tratric\D 1049 TIS.doc September 2009 2.0 Existing Conditions The roadways within the vicinity of the project are detailed below: County Road 309 (Rullison-Parachute Road): This two-lane, generally east - west roadway travels between Battlement Mesa Parkway and County Road 323. County Road 323 then provides access to Interstate 70, Exit 81. CR 309 runs to the south of the oil and gas operation area, and is the primary access for this facility to the public roadway system. The posted speed limit is 35 mph. Oil and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5, D1049 Page 4 H:\D 1049\Reports\Traffic\D 1049 TIS.doc September 2009 2.1 Existing Traffic Volumes Existing directional traffic volumes were collected on County Road 309 near the existing site access. These counts were collected on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 through Wednesday, September 16th. The two day average at this location was 453 vehicles per day. The resulting AM and PM weekday peak hour traffic at this location can be seen in Figure 1. 011 and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5, 01049 Page 5 HAD 1049 \ Reports \ Traffic \ D1049 TlS.doc September 2009 Figure J: Year 2009 Existing Traffic Volumes Drexel, Barrell & Co. 1800 38th Street 3 5 71h Street 1350 17th Street, Suite 210 123 N 71h Street 6513 W 41h Street 2955 Villoge Drive, Suite 12 Boulder. CO 80301 Colorodo Springs, CO 80905 Denver, CO 80202 Grund Junction, CO 61501 Greeley, CO 80634 Steamboat 5prinas, CO 80488 NORTH (NTS LEGEND: AM / PM )turning movement counts) XX / YY Turning Movements Oil and Gas Operationol Area GV 82-5 Garfield County, Colorodo September 22. 2039 3.0 Project Generated Traffic and Trip Distribution 3.1 Trip Generation As this type of development does not conform to any published Institute of Transportation land use types, Williams Production was asked to assist in determining the traffic impact that this site would be expected to add to the existing roadway system. The data as provided by Williams can be seen in the Appendix. There are two phases of development that would be expected to have impacts on fhe roadway system. The first would be the initial drilling of the sixteen wells on the site. The second is fhe fracing process typical of production wells in this region. In many situations, the fracing process is typically the more traffic intensive portion of the production process, primarily due to the large amounts of water needed to perform this task. However, this operational area has access to on-site water; therefore the drilling portion of well development is likely to be the more traffic intensive. Per estimates from Williams, the drilling of sixteen wells would be expected to generate a total of 2,724 one-way trips over the course of a 160 day period. The fracing process for these same wells would be expected to generate a total of 2,048 one-way trips over the course of an additional 160 days. Averaged, the drilling process is assumed to generate 17 (rips per day, while the fracing process will generate 13 trips per day. Given this, the remaining analysis will focus on the traffic generated by the drilling process rather than the subsequent tracing phase. The following Table 1 illustrates the expected trips generated during this process on a typical day: Table 1 - Anticipated Site Generated Traffic During the Drilling Process Trips per AM Peak Hour Trips PM Peak Hour Trips Day In Out In Out Rig Crew 4 1 1 1 1 Drill Bit/Tool Delivery 2 1 Mechanics 1 1 Water Truck 6 1 1 1 1 Fuel Truck 2 1 1 Cement Trucks 2 1 1 Total 17 5 2 2 5 There are likely to be days, such as when drilling rigs are being moved, when trip generation may be significantly higher. However, these periods should not be representative of typical conditions expected at the site. Oit and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5, D1049 Page 7 HAD 1049\Reports \ Traffic \D 1049 AS.doc September 2009 3.2 Project Trip Distribution Per conversation with Williams, it is expected that all traffic related to this site will come from and go to the east on County Road 309, avoiding travel through the Town of Parachute. 3.3 Project Trip Assignment The anticipated assignment of peak hour project -generated traffic onto the existing roadway network is illustrated in Figure 2. Oil and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5, D1049 Page 8 H \D 1049\Reports\Traffic\D 1049 TIS.doc September 2009 Figure 2: Site -Generated Traffic Volumes r, Drexel, Barrell & Co. 1800 38th Street 3 S 7th Street 1350 17th Street, Suite 210 123 IJ 71h Street 6513 W 4th Street 2955 Village Drive, Suite 14 Boulder, CO 80301 Colorado Springs, CO 80905 Denver, CO 80202 Grand Junction, CO 81501 Greeley. CO 80634 Steamboat Springs, CO 80438 NORTH (NTS LEGEND : AM / PM )turning movement counts) XX / YY Turning Movements f ro. Oil and Gas Operational Area GV 82-5 Garfield County, Colorado September 22, 2009 4.0 Total Traffic Projections The existing peak hour traffic volumes were added to the project -generated traffic to develop total traffic volumes. The Year 2010 Total traffic volumes are shown in Figure 3. Or! and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5, D W49 Page 10 H:\D 1049\Reports\Traffic\DI049 TIS.doc September 2009 Figure 3: Year 2010 Total Traffic Volumes —v— Drexel, Barrell & Co. 1800 381h Street 3 5 71h Street 1350 17th Street. Suite 210 123 N 71h Slreel 6513 W 4th Street 2955 Villoge Drive. Suite 14 Boulder, CO 80301 Colorado Springs, CO 80905 Denver, CO 80202 Grand Junction. CO 81501 Greeley. CO 80634 Steamboat Springs, CO 80488 NORTH (NTS LEGEND: AM / PM turning movement counts) XX / YY Turning Movements f r' Oil and Gas Operational Area GV B25 Garfield County, Colorado September 22, 2009 5.0 Recommendations 5.1 Auxiliary Turn Lane Analysis It does not appear that either the County has specific criteria for when an auxiliary turn lane is required. Without specific criteria, it is common practice to compare projected volumes to the criteria laid out in Section 3 of the State of Colorado's State Highway Access Code, 2002 (Access Code). While the criteria of this Code are primarily intended for roadways of regional or statewide significance, it can provide some general guidance on the desirability of turn lanes at a given location. As can be seen in Figure 2, the highest expected hourly inbound traffic volume at the proposed site access is 5 vph. Assuming that the most applicable assignment of County Road 309 within the Access Code would be Rural Highway (R -B) with a speed limit of 35 mph, the left turn lane warrant criteria for this access is 10 vph. Given that all Williams traffic is expected to come from the east, no inbound left turning vehicles are expected. The warrant for a right turn lane is 25 vph. The highest anticipated peak hour usage of this movement is 5 vph. From a strictly volume perspective, no turn lanes should be needed. The Access Code also includes a methodology of analysis that factors the effect of heavy vehicles at an access point (Section 2.3(4)(e)) in which each heavy vehicle should be treated as 3 passenger cars. Considering a theoretical 100% heavy vehicle percentage, the right turn would not be expected to observe more than 5 x 3 = 15 passenger car equivalents during the peak hour. As this is the only anticipated inbound movement, no turn lanes should be required at the site access. 6.0 Conclusions The proposed site access should function well under typical operating conditions without any capacity improvements to County Road 309. This development would be expected to contribute a small increase in traffic on County Road 309. Over the two days of counting, County Road 309 experienced an average of 435 vehicles per day. An addition of 17 vehicles per day as projected for this site would constitute a 3.9% increase in traffic volume. The transportation network in the vicinity of Oil and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5 can accommodate the addition of project -generated traffic. Oil and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5, D 1049 Page 13 H:\D1049\Reports\Traffic\D1049 PS. doc September 2009 Appendix: Traffic Counts Tuesday September 15, 2009 through Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 County Road 309 Near Existing Site Access Oil and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5, D1049 Page 14 HAD! 049 \ Reports \Traffic \D 1049 TIS.doc September 2009 Navjoy Consulting Services, Inc. Page 1 1385 S Colorado Blvd Suite A-707 Denver, CO 80222 Site Code: 2 303-502-7343 Station ID: 2 CR 309 Start 15 -Sep -0 Time Tue EB WB Total 12:00 AM 1 1 2 01:00 1 1 2 02:00 1 0 1 03:00 2 2 4 04:00 1 7 8 05:00 15 1 16 06:00 7 9 16 07:00 14 11 25 08:00 13 15 28 09:00 15 8 23 10:00 14 8 22 11:00 12 23 35 12:00 PM 8 15 23 01:00 18 19 37 02:00 11 10 21 03:00 11 26 37 04:00 14 26 40 05:00 10 15 25 06:00 5 18 23 07:00 7 10 17 08:00 2 7 9 09:00 4 3 7 10:00 2 4 6 11:00 2 3 5 Total 190 242 432 Percent 44.0% 56.0% AM Peak 05:00 11:00 11:00 Vol. 15 23 35 PM Peak 13:00 15:00 16:00 Vol. 18 26 40 Navjoy Consulting Services, Inc. Page 2 1385 S Colorado Blvd Suite A-707 Denver, CO 80222 Site Code: 2 303-502-7343 Station ID: 2 CR 309 Start 16 -Sep -0 Time Wed EB WB Total 12:00 AM 0 0 0 01:00 0 0 0 02:00 1 1 2 03:00 3 2 5 04:00 2 0 2 05:00 12 0 12 06:00 2 6 8 07:00 13 9 22 08:00 20 15 35 09:00 11 15 26 10:00 17 16 33 11:00 11 11 22 12:00 PM 16 17 33 01:00 13 18 31 02:00 18 29 47 03:00 12 22 34 04:00 13 32 45 05:00 9 23 32 06:00 5 24 29 07:00 10 7 17 08:00 4 17 21 09:00 4 8 12 10:00 0 3 3 11:00 0 2 2 Total 196 277 473 Percent 41.4% 58.6% AM Peak 08:00 10:00 08:00 Vol. 20 16 35 PM Peak 14:00 16:00 14:00 Vol. 18 32 47 Grand 386 519 Total 905 Percent 42.7% 57.3% ADT Not Calculated Appendix: Background Information Site Traffic Estimates Provide by Williams Oil and Gas Operation Area GV 82-5, D 1049 Page 15 H:\D 1049\Reports\Traffic\D 1049 T1S.doc September 2009 DavolopmonL P 5 v 2 h 5 5 3 P. 5 00 2ā‘ go 9 E 911 8 E Q Q< sf c e• 9 e o _3 e 3 ga R 1-4 evvmmani burls Il Twang and opera