Master Plan / Infrastructure Studies
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City of Austin, North Burnet/Gateway Area Planning and Transportation Study
The City of Austin retained the services of Carter & Burgess (C&B) project team to conduct a transportation and urban design study for the North Burnet / Gateway corridor. Specifically, the study area is generally bounded by Research Boulevard, Metric Boulevard, Braker Lane, Mopac, and Park Bend (approximately 1,300 acres). Raymond Chan & Associates, Inc. (RC&A) was responsible for identifying existing utility and estimating future utility requirements for the study area. RC&A’s task include coordination with Austin Area Utility Coordination Committee to obtain and review available utility data, delineate known utilities on City of Austin GIS base map, review proposed improvements provided "by others", review future development scenarios, coordinate with utility companies and entities on issues related to the proposed improvements, establish potential regional detention pond locations, prepare memorandum documenting methodology and findings, Quality Assurance/Quality Control, address review comments and assist C&B in preparing final plan.
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City of Austin, Transit Oriented District (TOD) Planning Project
Phase 1 - MLK Boulevard Neighborhood Center TOD, Lamar Blvd. Neighborhood Center TOD and Saltillo Plaza Neighborhood Center TOD
In response to future commuter rail service connecting the cities of Austin and Leander, Austin has made a commitment towards focusing growth around transit facilities by supporting Transit-Oriented Development. Under guidance from the City of Austin Departments of Neighborhood Planning and Zoning and Public Works and from Capital Metro, the purpose of this effort is to develop and implement the Station Area Planning (SAP) project, to meet the following objectives:
Improve the quality of life for those living and working in the Urban Commuter Rail and the Rapid Bus Transit Station Areas (see exhibit).
Establish pedestrian and transit-friendly land use plans, policies, strategies and development standards and urban design guidelines that can help lead to early implementation of TOD in the station areas.
Raymond Chan & Associates, Inc. (RC&A) principal role for this project is to identify the existing utility and whether the existing utility infrastructure has sufficient capacity to serve the future TOD development in the three study areas (Areas 3, 4, and 5 in exhibit). The utility information included water, wastewater, storm drain, electric and gas. RC&A coordinated with utility entities and collected utility information from each entity. RC&A then delineated the utility information on the City of Austin GIS base map. Upon receiving future land use concepts for each of the three station areas, RC&A coordinated with the City of Austin staff to determine the potential utility requirements for these areas. RC&A then identified potential future utility improvements to meet the TOD development.
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City of Smithville Stormwater Master Plan - Smithville, Texas
(Individual experience of Mr. Tom Curran)
The project was designed to demonstrate how small cities can manage their storm water through developing partnerships and implementing cost effective controls to provide safe conveyance of stormwater and enhancing the quality of the stormwater prior to discharge. As the project manager and design engineer, Mr. Curran wrote the grant application to EPA under Section 319 of the Clean Water Program and implemented the project to satisfy grant requirements (included acquisition of digital ortho-photography and one-foot topography for the entire city, as the city of Smithville did not have topographic mapping). He worked with the Texas A&M Capstone Engineering Program to provide civil engineering students the opportunity to work on a real-world situation and served as an adjunct professor for the class teaching hydraulics, hydrology, and about non-point source pollution. Mr. Curran designed a best management practice to remedy a severely eroded area and to provide permanent stormwater quality enhancement and implemented a stormwater monitoring program utilizing automated sampling equipment. The BMP demonstrated a high capability of removing NPS pollutants from the receiving water. He also developed a regional master plan, authored the master plan report, and presented it to the City Council for adoption. The city adopted the plan and issued bonds to fund the proposed city-wide drainage improvements.
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City of Georgetown Watershed Master Plan & Drainage Criteria Manual - Georgetown, Texas
Develop regional watershed master plan and floodplain delineation for eleven (11) watersheds. Project encompasses the City limits and ETJ and includes field inventory of all stream crossings. Utilizing the BOSS RMS (River Modeling System) model, delineated the floodplain for over 70 stream miles of channel within the study area. Based upon the hydrologic and hydraulic models and resulting floodplain delineation, developed a master plan for watersheds that includes channel modifications, culvert expansions, regional detention ponds, acquisition of property, flood warning systems, and drainage ordinances. Additionally, Raymond Chan & Associates, Inc. staff developed a new Drainage Criteria Manual (DCM) for the City of Georgetown. A review of current City of Georgetown Subdivision Regulations and Construction Standards, as wells as the Austin DCM, was performed during the development of the new DCM. Concurrent with the development of the DCM, the City of Georgetown also began developing a new Unified Development Code (UDC).
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