Traffic Access Study And Parking Design For The Federal Reserve Bank Of Dallas, Dallas, Texas

The client requested the services of DeShazo, Tang & Associates, Inc. (DT&A) to evaluate modifications to the existing vehicular site access and design a parking facility at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas (FRBD).

There were two scenarios that were evaluated in this study. They included:

• Access to Visitor and Staff Parking on Pearl Street - This analysis evaluated the proposed reversal of traffic flow in the visitor parking lot and the proposed construction and conceptual design of a garage ingress location on Thomas Avenue.
• Closure of Leonard Street - This analysis and conceptual design considered the enhancement of site security by closure of Leonard Street to public access.

DT&A determined that due to the site configuration, pedestrians traveling from the visitor parking lot must cross inbound traffic at the southernmost (inbound) driveway. Due to visibility limitations, an unsafe vehicle/pedestrian conflict was created here. Additionally, transport vehicles such as taxis and small buses tended to discharge passengers in this location due to the proximity to the main entrance, congesting inbound traffic flow.

As a result of the existing Pearl Street access conditions, the following modifications were proposed

• Reversing the flow through the visitor parking lot from counter-clockwise to clockwise thereby switching the Pearl Street driveway directions.
• Constructing a major parking garage entrance on Thomas Avenue in conjunction with reversing the garage ramps directions to be consistent with the reversed flow through the visitor parking lot. Also, modifying the traffic flow within the first level of the parking garage to function in concert with the garage ramps.