Albuquerque Public Schools proposes to construct a stadium and other sports facilities on Arroyo Vista north of Interstate 40, southwest of the intersection of Arroyo Vista and Tierra Pintada. The sports facilities site is referred to as the “APS Recreation Complex”. The proposed Stadium project is essentially Phase I of the “APS Recreation Complex”, and the focus of this study. A vicinity map is attached as labeled Figure 1. The “APS Recreation Complex” facility will consist of a 7,000-seat football stadium, an adjacent soccer field with a track that seats 2,600 people, soccer fields in drainage facilities, and tennis courts. Future plans include baseball fields to the east of the soccer field. The facility is not anticipated to be used for practice sessions as those will be conducted at each individual school. As the competitions are only held during specific times of the year, the traffic analysis to the site will consider the activities as “special events”.
Additionally, the City of Albuquerque is strongly considering a “City Regional Park” facility at the west edge of the “APS Recreation Complex.”
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APS Stadium Traffic Analysis Study Results Executive Sumamry August 2011
1. PRELIMINARY TRAFFIC ANALYSIS RESULTS: APS Recreation Complex August 2011
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
BACKGROUND
Albuquerque Public Schools proposes to construct a stadium and other sports facilities on
Arroyo Vista north of Interstate 40, southwest of the intersection of Arroyo Vista and Tierra
Pintada. The sports facilities site is referred to as the “APS Recreation Complex”. The
proposed Stadium project is essentially Phase I of the “APS Recreation Complex”, and the
focus of this study. A vicinity map is attached as labeled Error! Reference source not found..
The “APS Recreation Complex” facility will consist of a 7,000-seat football stadium, an adjacent
soccer field with a track that seats 2,600 people, soccer fields in drainage facilities, and tennis
courts. Future plans include baseball fields to the east of the soccer field. The facility is not
anticipated to be used for practice sessions as those will be conducted at each individual
school. As the competitions are only held during specific times of the year, the traffic analysis to
the site will consider the activities as “special events”.
Additionally, the City of Albuquerque is strongly considering a “City Regional Park” facility
at the west edge of the “APS Recreation Complex.”
SCOPING SESSION
A “scoping session” was held with the City of Albuquerque and NMDOT transportation
staff. The scope of the study was determined to be the “study event” as described below, and
further identified 6 intersections for study and analysis (see attached Figure 2).
STUDY “EVENT”
The event held at the Stadium with the largest attendance is expected to be certain varsity
football games. This event became the “study event” of the traffic impact study. The study
event is the “large attendance football game”, represented by an attendance of 3,500 people.
Based on attendance figures provided by APS athletics, for the 2009 and 2010 APS varsity
football seasons, the largest attendance was approximately 4,500 people, with an average for
varsity football games of 1,498.
EXTREME INFREQUENCY OF “STUDY EVENT”
As stated, the analysis considered the impacts of a large attendance football game event.
Based on attendance data provided by APS Athletics, only five (5) varsity football games in the
last two (2009 & 2010) football seasons had attendance greater than that studied in this report.
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2. PRELIMINARY TRAFFIC ANALYSIS RESULTS: APS Recreation Complex August 2011
Other sporting events to be held at the “APS Recreation Complex” have attendance that is very
low compared to varsity football game attendance.
As games will be played at three (3) stadiums after construction of this new Westside
Stadium (Wilson, Milne and the proposed), the situation suggests that only one (1) game per
year per stadium will have the level of attendance studied in this report.
This study utilized weekday evening “off peak” hour traffic levels, corresponding to the times
that the games are actually played. This means that the peak hour of the event lags the typical
peak hour of the adjacent street system. Additionally, roughly one-third of the high attendance
varsity games are on Saturdays (i.e., substantially further away from typical peak hour conditions
of a weekday).
These factors reveal the extreme infrequency of the large varsity game (the “study event”).
TRIP GENERATION COMPARISON w/PREVIOUS LAND USES OF MASTER PLAN
As a result of the proposed construction of the “City Regional Park” and “APS
Recreational Complex”, the average daily trips for these parcels will be reduced significantly
from the development alternatives permitted by their approved zoning, with most events
happening on Friday evenings, Saturdays and occasionally Sundays. Further, both the “City
Regional Park” and “APS Recreation Complex” will not have significant everyday activities
during the peak commuting hours. Activities at both locations are expected to be “off-peak” and
on weekends, when traffic volumes are generally much lower than during the typical traffic peak
hours. Indeed, even the trip component during typical peak hour, of both facilities, is expected
to be relatively small compared to approved zoning uses.
A comparison of the expected daily traffic was performed, with estimates of trip generation
for the possible Master Plan land uses vs the proposed Stadium, for the same area. In
summary, the total daily trips decrease up to 23,995 trips per day, or an over 98% reduction
in daily trips. It can be seen that there will be a significant reduction in daily trips with the
change in use of the sites.
A comparable numeric reduction in peak hour trips is expected, due to operation and
scheduling of events at the Stadium and City Regional Park compared to the typical peak hour
(this result is reflected in the Summary of Results section below).
“OFF PEAK” CONDITIONS
Due to the nature of the events to be held at the Stadium, atypical hours of analysis are
required, as the varsity football games are scheduled outside the typical commute day AM/PM
peak hour, meaning that the study event is “off-peak”. Varsity football games are held
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3. PRELIMINARY TRAFFIC ANALYSIS RESULTS: APS Recreation Complex August 2011
Thursday and Friday evenings at 7:00 PM and Saturday afternoons at 1:30 PM. The typical
peak hour for the metro area ends by 6:00 PM and Saturday afternoon traffic volumes are also
much lower than the typical commute day PM peak hour. For the large attendance football
game evaluated in this report, 60% of the PM peak hour will be used as the base condition for
traffic volumes. This 60% value has been selected and used in prior studies for this athletic
complex. The weekday evening game would be the worst case scenario since the large majority
of attendees would be arriving between 6:30 and 7:00 PM, after the PM peak hour.
SUMMARY OF RESULTS
LOCAL STEET NETWORK
The primary traffic analysis results indicate the following:
1. Under today’s existing roadway conditions (ie, no Stadium), traffic operations on the 6
study intersections in the vicinity of the proposed Stadium operate at acceptable levels of
service in the study’s “off peak hour”.
2. In 2015, under today’s conditions (ie, no Stadium), these same 6 intersections continue to
operate at acceptable levels of service in the “off-peak hour”.
3. With the Stadium in place and the local street roadway network improvements listed
below, all intersections in whole will continue to operate satisfactorily at acceptable levels
of service.
The analysis assumed that local adjacent roadway network improvements to Arroyo
Vista and Tierra Pintada would be in place prior to the opening of the Stadium. These
improvements have been agreed to by all parties and are depicted on the attached Figure 3.
These include:
The completion of Arroyo Vista as a six-lane roadway north from Ladera to Tierra
Pintada.
Two lanes minimum will be constructed west of Tierra Pintada along the Stadium
parcel frontage to the west entrance to the Stadium.
The Tierra Pintada crossing of the Mirehaven Arroyo will be constructed, connecting
Arroyo Vista to Unser (2 lanes minimum).
Traffic signals will be constructed at the intersections of Arroyo Vista & Ladera and
Arroyo Vista & Tierra Pintada.
Minor street movements at Arroyo Vista & Ladera and Arroyo Vista & Tierra Pintada would
operate unacceptably if the traffic signals are not constructed.
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4. PRELIMINARY TRAFFIC ANALYSIS RESULTS: APS Recreation Complex August 2011
INTERSTATE SYSTEM
The I40 Interstate ramp and weave operations were also analyzed, as proscribed in the
scoping session. This analysis found that, without the Stadium in place, today’s existing I-40
westbound 2011 PM “peak hour“ weave segment between Unser and 98th Street/Arroyo Vista
operates at an unacceptable level of service (LOS F). This is an existing deficiency that exists
regardless of the construction of the APS Stadium. In fact, in this same reach, the study event’s
“off peak” hour analysis shows only a 4% (2 mph) reduction in speed.
These results point out that the APS Stadium project makes no appreciable impact to the
Interstate’s deficiencies and should not be held responsible for improving an existing deficient
condition on the interstate.
The NMDOT is aware of the typical “peak hour” congestion in the area, however, there has
been no decision made on corrective approaches moving forward. Further, the TVN
neighborhood has contacted the DOT seeking remedies. APS will continue to work with the
Neighborhood to ask that the DOT address the known Interstate deficiency.
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