Proposal would reroute Clemens Road
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published July 16, 2008

A recently completed traffic study proposes rerouting Clemens Road near Crocker Road to reduce the likelihood of gridlock during rush hours.

The 51-page study, done by the Akron-based engineering firm URS Group, was commissioned and paid for by Cuyahoga Community College in connection with that institution’s plans to build a new Westlake campus.

However, the study concluded that the rerouting of Clemens Road would be necessary even if the campus never gets built.

Tri-C plans to buy 32.9 acres of vacant land at the corner of Bradley and Clemens roads to establish a Westshore campus. The planned development of the 150,000-square-foot campus will take place in three phases, according to the traffic study. The first phase, consisting of a 65,000-square-foot building, will be completed by 2010. Additional phases will be completed by 2014 and 2018, respectively.

Westlake City Council members reviewed the traffic study at a committee-of-the-whole meeting July 2. For the Tri-C campus to go forward, council must pass an ordinance allowing educational facilities to be built in the city’s industrial district.

The biggest concern the city has about the proposed campus is its effect on traffic, Council President Michael Killeen said.

“It’s a complex issue,” Killeen said.

The study examined three critical intersections — Crocker and Clemens roads, Bradley and Clemens roads, and Bradley and Detroit roads. Of these three, the Crocker-Clemens intersection is the most complex, Killeen said.

The study proposes moving Clemens Road to the north, thereby spreading traffic out more evenly between the Crocker-Clemens intersection and the on-off ramps at Crocker and I-90.

The existing sections of Clemens that intersect with Crocker would remain and become one-way streets, west and east respectively.

In addition to spreading the traffic out more, this new configuration would allow for better timing of the traffic lights along Crocker Road, said Westlake Planning and Economic Development Director Bob Parry.

Parry said the city has a limited opportunity to reroute Clemens Road at Crocker now because vacant land currently exists north of the Westlake Holiday Inn.

City Engineer Bob Kelly, like the traffic study, said the rerouting will have to be done “sooner or later,” regardless of whether the Tri-C campus is built.

The study also calls for adding eastbound and westbound left turn lanes on Clemens Road at Bradley Road. Tri-C has agreed to pay for these lanes, said Craig Fulton, the college’s executive vice president of finance and business services.

Fulton told council members that his institution has heard their concerns about traffic “loud and clear.”

“We’ve listened to what you wanted and tried to meet you 100 percent of the way on that,” Fulton said.

In addition to paying for new turning lanes at Clemens and Bradley, Fulton said Tri-C is willing to adjust class schedules at the new campus to relieve traffic problems.

East and westbound through lanes should also be added on Detroit Road at Bradley Road, the study stated. Additional lanes on Detroit are already under consideration. (See story on page 8.)

Like the rerouting of Clemens Road, the last two recommendations are necessary for adequate traffic flow regardless of whether the new campus is constructed, the study states.

The only recommended modification specific to the new campus is the addition of east and west turning lanes at the Bradley-Clemens intersection.

Total funding for all the traffic improvements will be around $7 million, Kelly said.

Mayor Dennis Clough, who has expressed support for the proposed campus, said no funding has been secured for the recommended improvements. He said the city will look to funding from the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency and the state as well as the city’s own capital budget.

Clough said that without roadway improvements, traffic problems in the city’s northwest sector will develop in coming years, caused either by the new Tri-C campus or some other development.

Access to the proposed campus will be via driveways from Clemens Road, according to the traffic study. Tri-C has agreed to Westlake’s demands that it not build a through road to Just Imagine Drive in Avon, Fulton said. Council members discussed but did not reach any conclusion on whether they would require Tri-C to hand over a reserve strip of property to guarantee that a through road to Just Imagine Drive is never built.

Such a through road would further aggravate Westlake’s traffic problems, Killeen told West Life. However, Killeen left open the possibility that a driveway to a parking lot on the campus could connect to Just Imagine Drive.