Meeting on highway design project planned

The first public meeting of the Town of Amherst Context-Sensitive Highway Design Project will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 23, at Amherst Main Library at Audubon, 350 John James Audubon Parkway.

At this meeting, draft cross-sections for a variety of roadway corridor types throughout the town will be presented for public review and input. The draft cross-sections and associated report are available for review online at www.amherst.ny.us, as well as in the Amherst Planning Department and town libraries.

The Town of Amherst recently initiated the Context Sensitive Highway Design Project, a joint project with the New York State Department of Transportation to study and formulate "context-sensitive" guidance that could be applied by the State and Erie County to the design of future highway construction projects in the town. The project is a key recommendation of the Town's Bicentennial Comprehensive Plan.

Context-sensitive highway design is an approach to transportation planning that emphasizes collaboration to develop transportation improvements appropriate to local conditions. The project is anticipated to produce a hierarchy of roadway character types within the town that appropriately "fit" with the surrounding land uses along these roadway corridors, such as residential neighborhoods, older commercial districts, newer commercial strips, office parks and mixed-use corridors.

Updates, current project information and technical products are available on the town's Web site at www. amherst. ny. us.