Commercial Gate

  • Published
Ellsworth AFB, S.D. --  The Commander's Action Line is a forum for the Ellsworth community to make suggestions or voice concerns about Ellsworth directly to Col. Mark Weatherington, 28th Bomb Wing commander. 

QUESTION 

Sir,

I write regarding the closure of the Commercial Gate and its effects on the base population. Until recently I was under the impression that the closure was because of a repair being in work that limited the gate's traffic flow. After a while I began calling the base operator once in a while, each time the person on the other line not knowing when it may be reopened. Well, the other day I asked someone at the Main Gate as I came through and was informed that there are no plans to reopen the gate to POVs.
If that is incorrect, then please disregard the remainder of this message and forgive me for a waste of your time.

If the information I received is true then I have a few points I'd like to make about the affect it can have on personnel, the base, and the environment. The format I've chosen is a walkthrough of how I found my data and the data itself is at the end.

I began by determining a good central point to reference on base that represents the 'hub' of traffic flow. Most of whom I've spoken to about it seem to agree that the intersection of Coolidge and N. Ellsworth falls between most off-base personnel and their commute to work. It is also very close to most other places that people may drive to base to get to for shopping, appointments, etc.

Having established a central point, I determined the amount of people who live off base and stand to benefit from the Commercial Gate's more direct route. I began with the total number of off-base-dwelling personnel: 4140. Making up that number is 2601 Active Duty, 777 Appropriated Civilians, and 762 Contract/Private Civilians. Next is where I had to be creative, the best I could do to estimate the percentage of that number of people living closer to the Commercial gate is look at the population ratio of Box Elder and the Rapid City area. Using that ratio and rounding the percentage conservatively I came up with a hypothetical 85%, or 3519 people.

Next was establishing and calculating the routes, I established the intersection of Commercial Gate Dr. and Hwy. 14 as the starting point for the comparison, meaning the point where the 2 different routes takes effect on the 85%'s commutes. From there it was easy to determine the two routes; the first being a left turn onto Commercial Gate Road and straight to the 'hub', the second is to continue on Hwy. 14, taking N. Ellsworth Road to the Main Gate, to Davis Drive, and finally Ellsworth Street to the 'hub.'

While the routes appear to be negligibly different in length, the devil is in the details. The Commercial Gate route is 2.4 miles and the Main Gate route is 3.2, but looking a little closer reveals that the former route is a straight shot and the latter also has a 4-way stop, a 1-way stop, and a roundabout. I'll spare you details but it's well-known that a stop sign or two can bring down mileage substantially in most vehicles. Stop signs, without even factoring in traffic conditions, average at least a 10-second increase on the total time of a commute.

This brings me to time, calculating the time each route would take was done by using posted speed limits and distances they covered. The calculations ended up 4:12 for the Commercial Gate route and 5:31 for the Main Gate Route, but with stop signs and the roundabout applied very conservatively the Main Gate time raises to 5:55. I'd like to point out that I completely left out the time it will take to actually pass through the gates, there are just too many variables that can decide how long that takes.

But time spent is not quite as harmful to really anyone as what the closure could be costing base personnel. To estimate that cost, I kept things very simple, opting to underestimate in order to be confident that the actual numbers can only be higher than what I predicted. It's very obvious to most people that mileage will suffer more on the Main Gate route than the other because of the stop signs and the extra distance. I did not factor that in, however, because it's next to impossible to estimate. The way the costs were estimated was by simply multiplying the 3,519 people by the .8 extra miles, which came to 2,815.2 miles! That is how many extra miles are driven if all those people go to base just once! Next, the average mileage of cars being driven on the road today seems to be between 18 and 20 mpg, based off of several different studies I was able to find. So again, airing on the conservative side, I went with an average of 20 just to be safe. Dividing 2,815.2 by 20 came out with 140.76 gallons! At the average price per gallon of gas, that translates to around $492.23 of extra cost shared by each of those people commuting to base just once.

From those numbers, let's say that all of those people come to base 5 times per week. That would mean every month there would be an extra 3096.72 gallons of gasoline burned and $10,829.22 spent. And for a year those numbers multiply to 37,160.64 gallons and $129,950.76!

Sir, my main reason for putting this together revolves around my suspicion of the Commercial Gate being closed to POVs because of staffing/budget reasons. And so if that is the case then I wish only to point out that by restricting that gate, the savings may be coming out of the pockets of base personnel. If my estimates are somewhat accurate, 2 Airmen could be assigned to that gate to deal with POVs and come well under $10,829.22 per month to pay them. Thank you for your time, and if it is decided that this will be worth looking into I would be glad to gather more accurate data to refine these findings.


Col. Mark Weatherington
Col. Mark
Weatherington		   RESPONSE

Wow -- great analysis, but your suspicion is flat wrong. Closing the Bismarck Gate immediately followed the damage to the commercial vehicle search area, as well as discussions with our community partners in Box Elder and an overall concern for traffic management around base. Before receiving your note, I had already directed the re-opening of the gate to inbound POV traffic due to the pending change to traffic flow when Antelope Ridge (the former Centennial Housing area) can no longer directly access the gate.

We will continue to assess traffic flow and other considerations as the summer progresses, and further changes may be required.