Opening of Proposals - Safe Roads to School Kennedy School - Volkert, Inc.

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05 City of South Bend, Indiana | Safe Routes to School (SRTS) – Kennedy Academy | February 14, 2023 GENERAL PROJECT APPROACH GENERAL PROJECT APPROACH Volkert is excited for the opportunity to work alongside the City of South Bend to make it safer and easier for children to walk and bicycle to school. Our collaborative approach to this project will ultimately enhance the safety and health of the community for years to come. Nationally, statistics have shown that as traffic volumes around schools have increased, parents/guardians have felt less and less comfortable about letting their children walk or ride bicycles to school. More and more parents/guardians have begun driving their kids to school. In fact, it is estimated that 85% of children’s trips to school are made by car or school bus. Vehicular trips add to traffic issues surrounding schools and create long lines of traffic in school drop-off zones. Other drivers in the vicinity can become agitated and drive aggressively. This cycle continues until very few parents/guardians feel comfortable letting their children walk or bike to school, even if they live close by. Walking and biking to school helps children feel more connected to their community and increases their confidence that school is a safe place for learning. Bicycling and walking to school helps establish a healthy, active lifestyle from an early age. Generally, increased physical activity among school-aged children contributes to their improved personal health. The goal of this project is to enhance the safety of students traveling to and from school and increase the number of students walking or bicycling to school. This will be accomplished by identifying challenges that prevent students from doing so safely and identifying solutions to these challenges. Our approach to this project is summarized as follows: • Volkert will work with the City of South Bend, local school district officials and MACOG staff to identify major obstacles and conflict areas children may encounter while walking or biking to school. • On-site review of current traffic patterns for pickup/drop off locations and how that affects bike/pedestrian flow. • Correspond with school staff as needed. • Examine short, medium, and long-term engineering solutions to improve pedestrian and bicycle traffic flow within the project boundaries. Incorporate enhancements that can be implemented with the available federal funding/local match that utilize existing right-of-way as much as possible. • Prioritize implementation of recommended improvements based on what can be accomplished within the federal-aid project and what could be implemented later as additional funding/resources become available. • Develop detailed cost estimates for improvements. • Develop graphics and/or maps to highlight improvements within the project boundary. These graphics/maps can then be utilized by the school, as needed, to provide up to date/useful information to parents/guardians and students. • Upon concurrence of the routes to be included within this project, Volkert will prepare the required Environmental Document and construction plans for implementation of the overall project vision. Volkert is ready and has ample capacity to get started immediately upon notice to proceed. We have researched the project area and believe that we have a thorough understanding of the design constraints and objectives needed to successfully deliver for the City of South Bend. We have successfully completed similar projects in other areas of the state and are ready to design this project within the existing constraints and provide all deliverables so that the schedule and federal timeline will be met. We believe after review of our team, key staff, project approach, and relevant past projects you will agree we are uniquely qualified. Volkert is very interested in this project for the City of South Bend! Thank you for your consideration. Roger and Freemont: Curb ramps missing – not connected to the street curb, apparent low point at the curb.