Technical Advisory Committee Meeting Wright Office Complex, Suite 1, 9601 Wright Dr., Midland, TX May 7, Minutes

Transcription

1 Technical Advisory Committee Meeting Wright Office Complex, Suite 1, 9601 Wright Dr., Midland, TX May 7, 2015 Minutes Technical Advisory Committee Voting Members Present: Randy Brinlee Director of Planning, City of Odessa Gary Law, P.E. Director of TP&D, TXDOT Odessa District David Peck Project Manager, Ector County Public Works Cameron Walker, AICP Executive Director, MOTOR MPO Chad Windham, P.E. Director of Operations, TXDOT Odessa District Matt Carr, P.E. City Engineer, City of Midland Mike Pacelli, P.E. Traffic Engineer, City of Midland Eddie Landrum GIS Manager, City of Odessa *Proxy Melanie Freeman, P.E. Dunaway Associates, Midland County Technical Advisory Committee Voting Members Not Present: Hal Feldman Traffic Coordinator, City of Odessa Nanette Stephens Director of Service Development & Outreach, MOUTD/EZ-Rider Vacant Martin County Others in Attendance: Robert Ornelas Rina Bale Lynn Taylor Joe Clark Advance Planning Engineer, TxDOT Odessa District Mobility Manager, MOTOR MPO Administrative Planning Assistant, MOTOR MPO TxDOT MPO Coordinator (Via Conference Call) Agenda Item 1. Call Meeting to Order Cameron Walker called the meeting to order. He informed everyone that Hal Feldman would not be in attendance but that Hal sent in a letter appointing Eddie Landrum as his proxy. 2. Introductions There was no need for introductions. MOTOR MPO Technical Advisory Committee Meeting May 7, 2015 Page 1

2 3. Approval of TAC minutes for March 6 and March 10, 2015 Cameron asked the TAC to review the two sets of minutes up for approval; he then asked for a motion to approve. David Peck motioned to approve both sets of minutes, Chad Windham seconded the motion. Cameron asked for any comments. Hearing none he called for a vote and the vote was unanimous. 4. Discuss Policy Board and TAC Training opportunity Cameron started the item by reminding those in attendance that at the April 13, 2015 Policy Board meeting there was a lot of discussion about amendments to the MTP and the need to revisit the importance placed on the IH 20 corridor. The Policy Board has indicated an interest in reviewing and possibly amending sections of the document. Cameron acknowledged all the hard work that was put into the document by the TAC. Instead of having the staff and TAC come back with their amendments to the project list the Policy Board has scheduled a visioning session as suggested by Judge Redford. A letter was sent in January to TxDOT Odessa District requesting that Bill Frawley conduct a policy board training and feel he is the best choice for the workshop. One of the visioning session topics will be what should MOTOR MPO strive to accomplish. Due to scheduling we are looking at the week of the 22 nd of June and most likely the 24 th in order to not conflict with Tuesday city council meetings. The TAC members are invited to attend the session. Cameron asked if the TAC had any comments. Melanie Freeman asked what the training was going to cover and if it was going to be MPO basics or if we would go into the different ways MPOs prioritize their projects. Cameron said this session would be more of the second option and cover items like how can we be more creative with our financing, how do we include more of our local projects along with the IH 20 projects and issues such as those. Melanie said that was great. Matt Carr asked about the funding of an IH 20 study that was discussed around the time the original project list was put together. Gary Law informed everyone that the scoping and internal kickoff meeting was held recently. The $5 million study would use previous studies as its base and create a coordinated plan for all member entities to use as their agreed vision for the IH 20 corridor. TxDOT Odessa District also requested that the IH 20 consultants complete an implementation plan. The consultant will be CH2MHill and the project will be managed by Roger Beall (TxDOT) in Austin. The consultants have been asked to reach out to a number of entities and create a steering committee of about 15 to 20 community leaders to represent the broad sections of the MPO. These members could then be available for discussions covering the different issues which will be brought to the table. Matt continued by stating that the reason he was bringing this up was that at the time this was coming up during the MTP preparation, the hope of IH 20 getting state wide recognition as a corridor of interest may have skewed IH 20 importance and why we placed so much emphasis on the IH 20 corridor. Gary added that another product they will receive from the consultant will be technical documentation on the various resource areas. These would be used as Planning and Environmental Linkages documents once projects rise up to the level of MOTOR MPO Technical Advisory Committee Meeting May 7, 2015 Page 2

3 support to move forward and can be used to advance that effort. Cameron asked if there have been suggestions that funding for IH 20 projects might be available outside of MOTOR MPO? Gary replied that he did not know of any at this point. However corridors can rise to the level of state and national significance. Once that occurs, there can be an effort by the Highway Commission to use some of its discretionary funding to build the roadway. That has been seen on IH 69 and on some of the ports around Corpus Christi and Houston. Is IH 20 about to rise to that level? Gary felt he could not answer that. Cameron welcomed Chairman Love to the meeting. Matt asked if one of the outcomes of the visioning meeting would be to reorder the priority project listing and Cameron answered yes, if that is what the board directed us to do. Gary asked if a fair synopsis would be that this would be a facilitated workshop to develop a broad understanding of project selection development with the end state being an agreed vision for the MPO. Cameron agreed with that summation. Someone asked if it would be at the MOTOR MPO offices. Cameron replied that we were looking at having the session at ATMOS Energy. Cameron asked if there were any other comments. Hearing none he continued with the agenda. 5. MPO Staff Reports a. Update on the status of the TIP and MTP Amendments The TIP and MTP Amendments are complete. The Policy Board approved both amended documents at their April 14 th meeting. The staff followed up with TXDOT Austin and worked with Lori Morel to complete input the changes in the new electronic system. Now that staff has gone through the training and the process we should be better capable of handling future amendments to the STIP. Gary added that this is a state wide effort to let MPOs be in the driver s seat of STIP management. In the past all things had to be handled through the Districts. This is a huge success and he congratulated the team for the effort. b. Update on the Travel Demand Model MOTOR staff has been advised that in the near future TxDOT Austin will begin the travel demand model development for the MOTOR MPO. Cameron believes that we have the oldest travel demand model in the state with a 2002 base year. We are a priority and we expect the model to be completed by the middle or latter part of There are already two elements underway that will become part of the model: one part is a household survey which is being done by a consultant group out of Kansas City. It was sent to 2000 people within the Metropolitan Area Boundary. With about 1900 responses they are almost done. Matt responded that he had received a survey. Cameron asked him to elaborate on the questionnaire. Matt gave a sampling of the questions asked. The other component of the data gathering for the model is a commercial vehicle study. Cameron wrote a letter to James Koch requesting TxDOT assistance with the travel demand model and the analysis of demographics MOTOR MPO Technical Advisory Committee Meeting May 7, 2015 Page 3

4 within our boundary because MOTOR does not have the funds to contract that part of the modeling effort. And finally the letter asks that staff be trained to manage the model. Mike Pacelli added that when the City of Midland did a study on the north side of Loop 250 they had the consultant, Kimley Horn, use the model and they updated the analysis zones for the portion of the Midland being analyzed. Mike suggested getting this information to the travel demand model consultants so they can review what Kimley Horn did. They may be able to integrate some of the information. Cameron asked for the extent of the study. Mike explained it was from Fairgrounds to Holiday Hill north of Loop 250. Cameron thanked Mike for the input and stated that he would put the consultants in contact with each other as soon as TxDOT Austin identified the TDM consultant. Joe Clark mentioned that once the consultants are on board there will be here a lot to discuss including the TAZs, demographic data, and network updates so MOTOR will see and hear a lot from the consultants once this begins. c. Update on Freight Plan work Cameron thanked everyone for their assistance on this work. It was completed and sent to Robert Ornelas to submit to TxDOT Austin for inclusion in the statewide freight plan. Cameron gave a quick recap of what was added and Lorrine added additional details. d. Update on TIGER and TAP funding opportunities Cameron informed everyone that there were no MOTOR MPO member agency applications submitted for TIGER Grant funds. The deadline was May 4 th. However, for the Transportation Alternatives Program, the City of Midland has applied for approximately $1.6 million to build a trail system around Midland College and with a small portion extending east toward A Street. Midland staff received City Council authorization to submit the application and pay the 20% local match. Cameron gave them kudos for submitting the application realizing that grant funding is not guaranteed. Gary stated that their application may not be complete because they need a resolution from the MOTOR MPO Policy Board supporting the effort and their intention to add the project to their TIP if they are selected. Gary added that the application is disqualified if it does not include that resolution. Cameron thanked Gary for the information and said that he had been in contact with Laurie Williams. She asked Cameron for a letter stating that MOTOR would amend the TIP if the grant is funded. Gary stated that the letter had to come from the Policy Board. Cameron asked if the TIP is amended after they are selected. Gary said yes because the TIP cannot be amended without the funds in hand. The Policy Board resolution should state that any application that is brought forward within the MPO boundary, the MPO has to provide notice that if selected it will be added to the TIP. There was some confusion about the timeline for when the resolution from the MPO has to be submitted. Others who attended the TAP workshop stated that their recollection supports the process Laurie followed, and that a letter from the MPO director had to be included in the application. Joe Clark asked who the district s TAP coordinator was. Gary answered Kelly Williams, bicycle MOTOR MPO Technical Advisory Committee Meeting May 7, 2015 Page 4

5 coordinator. It is being managed from Public Transportation Division under the bicycle pedestrian coordinator. 6. Agency Project Reports: a. TxDOT Odessa District - Gary informed every one of the scheduled SH 191 public meeting, being a second meeting for the development of the western corridor from Loop 338 to SH 349/FM Open house is at 5:30 p.m. with the public meeting starting at 6:00 p.m. at the Odessa District Offices. TxDOT Odessa District has coordinated with consultants to complete the PS&E for the South John Ben Sheppard to get that ready to let as soon as funding and right-of-way are secured. The IH 20/CR 1250 project involves negotiation with the consultant to get the planning effort done, that would be the IJAR, interstate access justification request that goes to the Feds for approval. TxDOT has signed a contract with a surveying consultant to update the survey of the northwest quadrant of Odessa Loop 338 and US 385 from that point around to Yukon. They finished surveying in February at Fairgrounds and Loop 250. They turned the survey over to the City for signal design and sent it off to Lubbock District which has agreed to begin work on developing an overpass. Signals at 1788 between airport and IH20 were lower than the engineers estimate. They are looking at a June letting schedule with $60 to 70 million in projects. The commitment from the Odessa District is that whatever money is identified will be let within the timeframe that the Commission and Administration outline. They are on track to let about $235 million in the Odessa District which is a 250% increase in workload. Gary is confident in the team can complete the effort. Chad added that the four ramp jobs that Odessa District let at the same time was awarded to two contractors. Odessa District had a meeting with both contractors last week. They are looking at September/October as a start date. They are still looking at phasing changes so that all four aren t affecting the Interstate at the same time. Cameron asked which four. Chad replied West County Road, Loop 338 on the east side of Odessa, FM 1788 and Loop 250 on the west side of Midland. Cameron commented that he had looked at the 1788 and the Loop 250 on the press release and that the bids looked higher than he expected. Gary said they were 25% to 30% above engineering estimates. Mike asked if there was an update on the Lamesa Road Bridge. Chad replied that is was open. Matt asked MOTOR MPO Technical Advisory Committee Meeting May 7, 2015 Page 5

6 about the Tank Farm Road overpass, Odessa District replied that the project was contracted. b. City of Midland Environmental Clearance on Fairgrounds Rd. They have substantially completed the PS&E. Currently working on completing the Bid package and taking it to TxDOT Odessa District to be let in July. Public Meeting that evening at Midland Freshman to inform landowners of the former Window pane area of street projects. Cameron asked if they were doing all of them and Matt said they were doing many as they could with the resources they were able to gather. c. County of Midland The County is continuing work at the intersection of CR 1130 and FM 307. TxDOT Odessa District has a project to install signals and intersection lighting. They have been working with TxDOT Odessa District to work on the reconfiguration to add additional benefit to the intersection. They will be adding some dedicated turn lanes and islands. Chad stated the project would be a let in the middle of May with construction to begin in August. The County s goal is to complete the intersection work in time for TxDOT s project. Melanie s next task is to set up an overall schedule of county road maintenance. d. City of Odessa The City is continuing with the University Avenue widening. Hal is at a meeting related to that. Ready to begin street aesthetics project on 87 th St & 385 East. Cameron asked Randy how the Comprehensive Plan was coming along. Randy explained that initial review meeting will be late June or early July. Cameron mentioned a Monday morning meeting to look at an early draft of the Midland Comprehensive Thoroughfare Plan. Cameron asked if there was an interest within the TAC to review the draft thoroughfare plans. Everyone agreed and it was decided to place the item on the June agenda. e. County of Ector They continue to work on their CERTZ projects. The first project bid for Moss Rd. came in 35% over the engineers estimate. County will either approve or reject the bid at their next meeting. They held public workshop to revisit their county road project list and see which roads could be done in house. f. EZ Rider No report was given 7. Discuss future meeting dates and the need for additional meetings MOTOR MPO Technical Advisory Committee Meeting May 7, 2015 Page 6

7 Cameron began with the next TAC Meeting: Thursday, June 4, 2015 at 8:30 a.m. He asked everyone to reserve the Wednesday, June 24, 2015 for the Visioning Meeting with a five hour time frame possibly from 10 to 3PM. The next Policy Board meeting is Monday, May 18 and the June meeting will be on the 15 th. Cameron let everyone know that the draft UPWP would be presented at the June TAC meeting and the draft thoroughfare plans for Odessa and Midland will also be discussed. 8. Adjourn Cameron entertained a motion to adjourn the meeting. David motioned, Mike seconded the motion. Cameron called for a vote and the vote was unanimous. Meeting was adjourned at 9:50 a.m. MOTOR MPO Technical Advisory Committee Meeting May 7, 2015 Page 7