Saddle Creek Road included in plan

WORLD-HERALD EXCLUSIVE

Saddle Creek Road's future path between Leavenworth and Dodge Streets will be determined over the next couple of years with options ranging from no change to moving it west.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center and the City of Omaha hope to address traffic, flooding and other concerns and possibly give the medical center room to expand through a $40 million to $50 million improvement project.

Saddle Creek Road is among several projects in the metro area's four-year plan to improve streets and highways. The Metro Area Planning Agency recently unveiled the long-term plan and is seeking public comment on it.

An engineering firm now will consider several options for Saddle Creek and eventually make a recommendation to the Nebraska Department of Roads and the Federal Highway Administration.

The study will determine how many area properties would be affected, if any. The option of moving Saddle Creek west prompted considerable public discussion three years ago when a preliminary study commissioned by UNMC, the city and Destination Midtown suggested that up to 50 properties could be affected.

The city's primary interest in the Saddle Creek project is improving the cumbersome, confusing interchange at Dodge and Saddle Creek and addressing flooding problems nearby.

Besides those problems, UNMC also hopes to move Saddle Creek roughly a block to the west for expansion, UNMC Chancellor Harold Maurer said this week.

“The medical center is really landlocked here, and our goal is to try to provide for future growth. ...We need to move Saddle Creek,” he said.

Maurer said he hopes to build two more research buildings west of Durham Research Center and Durham Research Center II. Those two buildings rise just east of Saddle Creek and were completed in 2003 and 2009, respectively. Seven hundred people work in those buildings, including scientists who have more than $212 million in research grants.

Alternatives for Saddle Creek include no change; improvements to Saddle Creek without moving the road; moving it slightly west; and moving it west by roughly a block.

The feasibility study for the project estimates the cost of rebuilding the Saddle Creek-Dodge interchange at about $10 million. Improvements to Saddle Creek would cost about $35 million, whether it remained in its current location or was moved slightly west to allow for a wider road. Creating a new Saddle Creek about a block to the west would cost about $40 million with the additional expense in acquisition of properties, right of way and other costs.

The feasibility study, drawn up by the HDR engineering and architecture firm and other consultants, suggests that the $40 million to $50 million could come from UNMC and the federal government as well as city bonds and private developers. The feasibility study was completed last fall. HDR also will oversee the environmental assessment over the next two years.

Ken Hansen, UNMC's assistant vice chancellor of facilities, said HDR is required by law to give state and federal governments an objective recommendation. “We will have considerable input, along with the city,” Hansen said.

Bob Stubbe, city public works director, said residents, businesses and federal agencies also will have input during the next couple of years.

UNMC and the city hope the interchange at Saddle Creek Road and Dodge Street is improved to make it easier for walkers, bicyclists and drivers to navigate.

One man rode his bicycle this week across Saddle Creek at nearby Douglas Street over the lunch hour. The man, 42-year-old William Hoover, looked north at the Saddle Creek-Dodge interchange. The interchange includes a bridge over Saddle Creek and no street lights for walkers to get across Dodge.

“That's like the Bermuda Triangle,” Hoover said. “You don't even want to try to negotiate it. It's just too dangerous.”

Water also tends to pool under the bridge and just south of it on Saddle Creek.

Stubbe said moving a portion of Saddle Creek west would be a plus because it would straighten out the gentle curves along the approximately five-block stretch between Leavenworth and Dodge. Stubbe declined, however, to say that he prefers that alternative.

“We've got a lot of work to do before we decide whether we're on board or not,” he said.

The assessment also will examine what needs to be done to improve traffic capacity at Saddle Creek and Dodge and reduce accident rates at Farnam Street and Saddle Creek.

Joel Brodd, owner of Strictly GI Military Surplus at 620 S. Saddle Creek Road, said he worries that his business will have to relocate.

“I'm afraid it would,” Brodd said. “I've never heard for sure what the intentions are.”

World-Herald staff writer Jeffrey Robb contributed to this report.

Contact the writer:

444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com

« Metro/Region

Share