The Kleingers Group has seen continued growth for its landscape architecture group. To help support the growing demand for these services, Kleingers recently hired Mike Slagle, PLA, ASLA who will serve as an Assistant Project Manager from our West Chester office.

After receiving his degree in landscape architecture from the University of Kentucky, Mike worked for a local firm nearby in Lexington, KY prior to moving to South Carolina where he worked for an international design firm who employs over 20,000 people. When asked what drew him to Kleingers, he responded “Kleingers is comfortably sized, large enough to take on a variety of large scale high-end projects, yet small enough to gain experience through a gamut of projects.”

Mike is a licensed landscape architect in South Carolina and is looking to add Ohio to his list. He brings a wide variety of experience from prominent design projects, such as a historic Level 1 property renovation, which included renovations of garden space at the governor’s mansion to providing landscape design for a 6,000 acre mixed-use development. The branded requirements for this neighborhood required designed greenspace for anyone within a 5-minute walking distance across the property. He is also skilled in projects that include signage design, roundabouts, roadway improvements, master planning and construction administration.

Mike’s wife is a pediatrician, who recently began her fellowship with Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center. As they looked to relocate to the area to be closer to family, Mike found the position at The Kleingers Group to be a good fit in his search for a new job.

“I was drawn to Kleingers’ mantra of ‘doing the right thing,’ where it is important to provide quality work,” Mike said. “All of which seems to be a core value lacking in today’s world,” he continued.

Mike is an avid golfer, enjoys hiking, a self-proclaimed bourbon enthusiast and HUGE Dave Matthews Band fan. Mike grew up a DMB fan as the band got their start near his hometown in Virginia. Mike and his wife are expecting their first child next month.

Case Study: Wilmington Pike and Feedwire Road Roadway and Intersection Improvements

Construction was recently completed on the multi-phase project which took a major intersection within Montgomery County from 3-lanes to 9-lanes at the largest point. Already a highly traveled area in the county, a new adjacent development was driving the need for improvements at a large scale. The project area is populated with many retail establishments, restaurants, and homes.  All of these stakeholders would be impacted by the development that included Costco, Kroger Marketplace, Cabella’s, and additional outparcels with smaller retail and restaurant space.

The Kleingers Group worked closely with the City of Centerville, homeowners, business owners, and other stakeholders to ensure the design would meet increased traffic capacity needs, accommodate pedestrians, and help keep area businesses operational.

Below are examples of things to consider when planning your next large-scale complete-streets, roadway design project.

Minimizing the Impacts on Businesses Through Design

Maintenance of traffic (MOT) in any roadway project can make or break the businesses affected during construction. Kleingers found challenges throughout the three phases of the project but worked to address or even predict each one.

Number one, the entire project scope (all 3 phases) was designed early in the process to ensure that each end of the project would have the least impact on the right-of-way, and ultimately the existing businesses along with the design. Creating this initial master plan allowed our engineers to create a design that provided no disruption to the area businesses. For some businesses, losing parking spaces could mean closing their doors. Because of Kleingers’ universal look early in the design process, no parking stalls were affected during construction or lost after completion of the project. Kleingers’ worked with the city to help predict future phases and affected areas to ultimately help save money.

Speaking of saving money, and resources, Kleingers’ carefully coordinated plans to help save on temporary paving costs by salvaging pavement from other phases of the project. The salvaged pavement was used to reduce construction costs where temporary pavement was needed for maintaining 2-lanes of traffic.

Not only was the area already highly populated, but the thoroughfare was an important route for nearby hospitals and other emergency crews. Kleingers coordinated with local hospitals, the city, and its emergency services departments to ensure 2-lanes would remain operational during the life of construction so that emergency crews could operate, business as usual.

More than Just Roadway Improvements – Complete Streets

Complete streets are defined as ‘streets for everyone’ and ‘a means to make it easy to cross the street, walk to shops, and bicycle to work.’ The Wilmington Pike and Feedwire Road project was designed to address safety for all travelers beyond motorists, including pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders.

With traditional sidewalks provided on one side, 8-foot wide meandering paved trails, and a concrete bus stop for Dayton RTA riders, the project was challenged with not only creating the means for safety but also creative drainage solutions.

Our traffic engineers took into account ADA and pedestrian safety when designing for three traffic signals along with the project. The design provided key elements such as voice-activated pedestrian push buttons that are timed and integrated with the signal system; ADA curb ramps; and landscape mounds along with the development which obstructs headlights that beam into on-coming traffic. The project also incorporates a pull-off bus stop for Dayton RTA riders along with ADA access and a gazebo that protects transit riders. All of these elements working together provide safe access for pedestrians and bicyclists in the area.

The city looked to Kleingers to help find the balance of economics when comparing adding more right-of-way (ROW) costs or providing environmental and water quality structures to address drainage design. Typically, on most projects where adding more ROW to a project has little impact on local businesses or homeowners, the simple solution is to create larger ditches to handle drainage runoff. In this particular project where the project was constrained by several existing businesses, the cost-effective solution to drainage was to add water quality structures. In doing so, the designers were able to also address environmental concerns while maintaining precious ROW.

The Loon – Designing Safe ‘Out-Of-The-Box’ Solutions for U-Turns

Roadway engineers are continually looking for ways to improve vehicular and pedestrian safety. A rare, ‘out-of-the-box solution for drivers who want to safely cross or make a U-turn on a divided roadway is through the use of a ‘Loon through-turn’ design. So, what is a loon? The loon is pavement that is constructed outside of the normal traffic lane within the right-of-way space. This additional area allows vehicles, especially larger ones, to safely make a U-turn on a roadway divided by a median.

Where lanes were widened to accommodate the increase in traffic, a median was created to provide safer access for those who live along this stretch of road. The installation of the loon helps those who have headed northbound access their homes on the other side of the new median without the safety implications of crossing large amounts of oncoming traffic.

Predicting Construction Conflicts in A 3-Phase Project

Often, unforeseen construction issues are a leading contributor to increased construction costs during a project. Kleingers considered all aspects of construction coordination between project phases when designing the roadway improvements, such as drainage, utility coordination, elevation changes with a neighboring development project, and much more.

The Kleingers’ team was able to provide contractors with finished elevations for coordination of major utilities, including water mains, gas mains, and power distribution lines. By telling contractors exactly where to locate lines, even in areas that had not been graded for elevations, those utility contractors could be on-site once during the life of the project without additionally impacting the schedule later in construction. It also meant that site contractors would have to grade the site less and fewer materials would be required, ultimately saving time and money.

By working alongside the designers for the adjacent site development project, The Kleingers Group could provide regular updates on a continuous basis. Adjusting for site elevation, drainage, and utility changes during the project’s design phase. This allowed Kleingers to maintain continuous control of the project while in the field. This extra coordination helped Kleingers quickly accommodate for construction surprises in the field, helping to alleviate downtime on the project.

In summary, a successful large-scale complete street project will require close coordination among all stakeholders during the design phases to mitigate common budget and schedule busting events.

Lynne and Ryan, members of Kleingers’ Landscape Architecture Studio, are on hand for the tree installation.

In celebration of 2017 World Landscape Architecture Month (WLAM), The Kleingers Group generated an online social media campaign to raise awareness for the landscape architecture profession. The campaign gave social media followers the opportunity to vote for their favorite community park designed by Kleingers’ landscape architects. The park with the most votes would receive a shade tree donated by the Kleingers Group. During the month-long landscape architecture celebration, the campaign reached over 10,000 people online and Miller Ecological Park in Lebanon, Ohio was selected to receive the donated tree from Kleingers.

The Miller Ecological Park consists of many sustainable features including a permeable parking lot, bioswales, and many diverse plantings to attract birds and wildlife. Many projects within the park have been donated such as bird boxes, a wildlife blind, an informational kiosk, benches and bleachers, a maintained walking/running trail, bridges, and a gaga pit.

“The City is very thankful for the donation of a beautiful tree in Miller Ecological Park, by Kleingers, as we continue to work on enhancing the park’s natural environment.”
– Scott Brunka, Deputy City Manager, City of Lebanon

The Kleingers Group remains astounded by the level of support each community fostered during our small campaign. We can only hope this effort will inspire others to give back within their own communities. Thank you to all who voted, donated, and celebrated #WLAM17 with us. We look forward to celebrating again next year!

To learn more about the profession and Landscape Architecture Month, visit https://www.asla.org/contentdetail.aspx?id=45783.

The Kleingers Group officially opened its newest office in Louisville in May. The new office will be led by Louisville Market Manager, Patrick Warnement, PE, LEED AP BD+C. After researching several geographic markets, we felt Louisville is a great fit for us. We are excited to build upon our existing Northern Kentucky and Louisville project portfolio.

Patrick is a civil engineer who has experience working on various site development projects across multiple markets such as industrial, office buildings, healthcare facilities, retail, and senior living facilities. Most recently, Patrick served in the role of Project Manager in our Cincinnati office where he led his site development team and served as a primary point of contact for clients that include architects, developers, and facility owners.

Patrick will be supported by a large network of Kleingers employees who bring expertise in transportation engineering, landscape architecture, land surveying, and 3D laser scanning. We will also be exploring ways to grow our Louisville presence through local personnel new hires and possible acquisitions.

“We are ready to provide Patrick with a lot of support, including business development, project support, and staffing (when the time comes),” says Jim Kleingers President/CEO. “We are grateful that Patrick is willing to undertake this incredible opportunity to build a new market. He has proven skills in building new relationships that will be important for successful business development opportunities.”

Born and raised in Toledo, Patrick has also lived in D.C. and Virginia over the course of his career. Patrick is an Ohio University graduate twice-over, graduating with both a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and a Masters of Business Administration. He loves baseball and is excited to plant his roots in a town known for its baseball heritage and he is doubly excited that his hometown Mudhens regularly plays the Bats.

Patrick and his wife are looking forward to their new opportunities in Louisville. You might even find them in the crowd at the upcoming “Bourbon & Beyond Festival” in September. The event combines all of Patrick’s favorites – music, food, AND bourbon!