Chairman Rebert called the meeting to order at 1:35 p.m.

Transcription

1 READING AREA TRANSPORTATION STUDY MINUTES OF THE COORDINATING COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON JANUARY 19, 2017 IN THE BERKS COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION CONFERENCE ROOM ON THE FOURTEENTH FLOOR OF THE BERKS COUNTY SERVICES CENTER ATTENDANCE COORDINATING COMMITTEE Michael Rebert, PennDOT 5-0, Chair * Kerry Fields, PennDOT 5-0 for Ray Green Kevin S. Barnhardt, County of Berks Donna Reed, City of Reading James Mason, Berks County Planning Commission Dave Kilmer, SCTA/BARTA COORDINATING COMMITTEE MEMBERS NOT ATTENDING Tony Sacco, 1 st Class Townships (Cumru Township) Joseph E. Rudderow, III, 2 nd Class Townships (Maidencreek Township) Stephen H. Price, Boroughs (Wernersville) Randall Swan, Reading Regional Airport Authority *Tie-breaking Vote only OTHERS Shannon Rossman, Berks County Planning Commission Alan D. Piper, Berks County Planning Commission Michael Golembiewski, Berks County Planning Commission Devon Hain, Berks County Planning Commission Regina Zdradzinski, Berks County Planning Commission David Berryman, Berks County Planning Commission Tom Gombar, Senator Schwank Andrea Bernet, Rep. Caltagirone John Slifko, City of Reading Carol Riley, AIM Felix Colon, AIM Terri Chase, AIM Glenn Clark, AIM 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Rebert called the meeting to order at 1:35 p.m. 1

2 2. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF COORDINATING COMMITTEE MINUTES OF NOVEMBER 17, 2016 Chairman Rebert asked if there were any questions or comments to the November 17, 2016 Coordinating Committee Meeting minutes. MOTION: Mr. Mason made a motion to approve the November 17, 2016 Coordinating Committee Meeting minutes. Commissioner Barnhardt seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. 3. BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR Ms. Reed stated that there are businesses located in downtown Reading who are concerned how work on the Penn Street Bridge will impact businesses. She asked if there is any way to install signs directing people to these businesses. Chairman Rebert stated that it would be difficult to call out every business. He will check with PennDOT s construction department. Ms. Reed said that there is a concern regarding city eateries in the 300 and 500 blocks of Penn Street. Mr. Piper stated that the website for Reading Bridges will be updated. The only access that will be cutoff to downtown Reading is the westbound US 422 ramp to Penn Street. Ms. Reed said that is what the concern is. She said to help the business community as a whole is the right thing to do. Mr. Piper stated that the detour will direct traffic to exit westbound US 422 at Lancaster Avenue and then proceed up 5 th Street. Chairman Rebert asked if there were to be any new message boards. Mr. Piper said as far as he knows there are no regular message boards scheduled for this project just static signs. Chairman Rebert stated that, as for putting signage up, it is a matter of what do you put and where do you put it. Commissioner Barnhardt stated that the local person will come across the Penn Street Bridge. The infrequent traveler will take the detour coming from Pottstown area and get off on the Bingaman Street Bridge and travel up 5 th Street. The concern is that the businesses in the blocks of Penn Street will get missed. A sign should be placed at 5 th and Penn Streets. Mr. Piper said either there or on the city end of the Bingaman Street Bridge. Chairman Rebert stated that signs can be placed at both spots. It is difficult to put business names on the signs. The Department will think about this situation and let the board know. Ms. Riley stated that coming off of the Bingaman Street Bridge onto Lancaster Avenue; the signs for Rt. 10 are covered with brush. Chairman Rebert said that he sent the information to their maintenance department and had not received any information that the situation was taken care of. He will check into the matter. 2

3 4. ELECTION OF OFFICERS Mr. Piper stated that the current slate of officers was re-nominated at the last meeting. The District Executive was re-nominated as Chairman and Mr. James Mason was re-nominated as vice-chairman. MOTION: Commissioner Barnhardt made a motion to re-elect the current slate of officers. Ms. Reed seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. 5. PENNDOT REQUESTED AMENDMENTS/MODIFICATIONS TO FFY 2017 TIP Ms. Fields gave an update on Amendments/Modifications to FFY Highway TIP from October 27, 2016 through December 29, Amendments There were no Amendments during this period. Administrative Actions There were 14 Administrative Actions impacting the Reading TIP. One of these added funding required to allow the Sinking Spring and Boyertown TAP projects to advance to advertising for bids. The balance involved reallocating funds within existing projects to account for changing needs. There were 2 Administrative Actions impacting the Interstate TIP. Both of these involved reallocating funds within existing projects. 6. UPDATE ON RATS PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PROCESS/LIMITED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY PLAN Mr. Golembiewski stated that there are updates underway on these two documents. It was decided after public input during the Federal Certification Review that we were going to use a more publically involved process. Mr. Golembiewski gave a general schedule of tasks that need to be performed with rough guidelines on when they will be performed. There is flexibility built into this with the exception of the May and July dates. We want to have these documents adopted at the July 2017 Coordinating Committee Meeting. We are working backwards from this ultimate goal date. There is a draft survey, mailing lists and invitations to a community forum being prepared. Mr. Golembiewski stated that he met with Abilities in Motion s Consumer Action Group that meets monthly. They are a very willing partner to help us with this process. 3

4 7. UPDATE ON CRITICAL URBAN AND CRITICAL RURAL FREIGHT CORRIDORS SUBMISSION Mr. Piper stated that we were asked to submit proposed links known as Critical Urban or Critical Rural Freight Corridors within the community for consideration by PennDOT as additions to the National Highway Freight Network (NHFN). The No. 1 priority corridor, assuming the unmodified interim network, picks up the West Shore Bypass (Rt. 422) where Lancaster Avenue branches off and continues north to Rt. 222 then follows US 222 to the Lehigh County line. This connects to three separate corridors that were recommended by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission the continuation of Rt. 222 to I-78; Rt. 100 between I-78 and Rt. 222; and Schantz Road from Rt. 222 to Rt Mr. Piper stated that the No. 2 corridor was the Rt. 6l Corridor from Rt. 12 north to the Schuylkill County line. Mr. Piper stated that the No. 3 corridor was the Warren Street Bypass (Rt. 12) extending from the interchange with Rts. 222/422 east to 11 th Street. That corridor is a major collector of truck traffic between the City of Reading and either Rt. 6l (Muhlenberg Township) or Rts. 222/422. The No. 4 priority was the US 222 South Corridor extending from Rt. 12 to the Lancaster County line. The Lancaster MPO is recommending the entire US 222 corridor from the City of Lancaster past the connection to the PA Turnpike and up to the Berks County line. At this point, many of the MPO s have submitted their recommendations to the state. Within the next few weeks, the state will start reviewing them and making their final recommendations and decisions on what actually gets included in the NHFN. The recommendations from the state will be submitted to FHWA. Mr. Piper stated that there is no direct allocation of funding that comes along with this designation. However, by being included in the expanded National Multimodal Freight Network, roads on that system may be eligible to use the federal freight dollars that are allocated to Pennsylvania, based on priorities in the State Freight Plan. There is still discussion in Central Office on how those freight dollars may be allocated. This network is required to be identified as a part of the development of the state plan.. Mr. Piper stated that he is 100% certain that we will not get all of these requests because there is a limit on the amount of miles the state is allowed to add state wide. It is in the range of approximately 300 miles to the rural portion and approximately 140 miles to the urban system. The MPO asked for approximately 50 miles total for the recommended corridors. We still have to work with PennDOT and FHWA to make corrections to the interim system. We discussed before why this current connection uses Lancaster Avenue and Rt. 724 to travel to the Sinking Spring rather than using the bypass to back to Rt The other 4

5 correction needed is that there is no actual connection shown between I-176 and the PA Turnpike. The corridors tee off where the old I-176 went over the turnpike but doesn t include the new connector. He doesn t think this is a real issue in terms of changing miles. Commissioner Barnhardt asked if this could potentially leverage additional freight money from the federal government for US 222 North. Mr. Piper said yes. Commissioner Barnhardt asked if these arteries involve any other planning besides the freight aspect of it. Mr. Piper stated that basic improvements are being looked at on the Rt. 61 Corridor from Leesport to just north of Shoemakersville. At some point we would like to do the same to the rest of the corridor extending to Schuylkill County. The US 422 West Shore Bypass will be subject to whatever comes out of our reconstruction initiative, which will require lots of money. After the West Shore Bypass is completed, we plan to look at similar improvements to the Warren Street Bypass as well. The West Shore Bypass is the oldest highway in Berks County that has not been brought up to current standards. In terms of investment, Mr. Piper does not see a short term need to address US 222 South at this time, which is our No. 4 priority. Mr. Colon asked if there were any projects regarding city roads. Mr. Piper said there were no additional routes recommended for the priority corridors but that Chairman Rebert and his staff have a few projects through our TIP. They include repaving Bingaman Street, Washington Street, Perkiomen Avenue and others are under design. There is also a County Maintenance Program, which does a lot of paving. There are so many projects, in terms of their impact to the community, it would be impossible if everything were to be addressed at one time. PennDOT met with the city to figure out how they can work and start doing those projects in a way that causes the least impact to the community. Chairman Rebert has been in contact with Rep. Caltagirone and Senator Schwank. If it wouldn t have been for them, none of this would be getting done at this time. The Department did put together a priority list for the next five years. Chairman Rebert will get this information to Mr. Colon. He said the curb ramps will be completed first. Resurfacing will take place this summer where the curb ramps were done last year. Mr. Colon stated that AIM is working with the Public Works Department regarding the sidewalks that belong to the residents. 8. UPDATE ON MPO COORDINATION AND PLANNING AREA REFORM FINAL RULE Mr. Piper stated that the Department of Transportation has issued a final rule related to the Metropolitan Planning Organization Coordination and Planning Area Reform. A summary of that is included in the packets. It does not make the rule go away, but adds some improvements. It reinforces that the plan must include the entire urban area and areas that expect to become urbanized within twenty years. Mr. Piper stated that, in order to accomplish that, it acknowledges that MPO s may need to adjust their boundaries, consider mergers or designate ways to coordinate with other MPO s to create unified plans and products. An exception that is included is that certain MPO s can continue to generate separate planning projects if it is approved by the governor of that state. The biggest change is the fact that the original 5

6 proposed regulation would have gone into effect for 2018 and would have required adjustments at that point and then additional adjustments following the 2020 Census. The implementation date of this rule has been delayed until not later than two years after the date of the Census Bureau s release of the qualifying urban areas following the 2020 Census, which would mean about 2023 or There are at least five years before these rules would take effect. Mr. Piper stated that, within a week of receiving the final rule, a notice was received from Congressman Dent s office. He intends to work to revoke the rule. He is not the only person out there that has said that. It will remain to be seen as to whether or not this is something we will ultimately need to work towards. Mr. Piper stated that the best advantage we have in Pennsylvania is that we are one of the more coordinated states in terms of communication between both the state and the surrounding MPO s. Each MPO already has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with each of the surrounding MPO s. 9. UPDATE ON IMPLEMENTATION OF PENNDOT CONNECTS POLICY Mr. Piper stated that, under this PennDOT Connects policy, prior to a project kicking off its design process, there are other areas that are designated for discussion between PennDOT, municipalities and planning partners. Safety, bicycle and pedestrian issues, storm water, transit and other issues are listed. These discussions should occur up front to see what can and cannot be accommodated into a project as it moves through the design phase in order to generate a better project for the community. Technically, there are no extra dollars that are specifically made available to develop the expanded scope of the project. There is no new money being found to address any of these issues that are identified through this process. All costs are coming out of the same pot of money other projects come from. This may reduce the total number of projects built slightly. But hopefully, we are developing projects that are of greater value to the communities we are delivering to. Mr. Piper stated that this is a new process to PennDOT, the MPO and the municipalities. The municipalities received information through the LTAP Program letting them know that PennDOT will be starting an educational program for municipalities to help them understand how this process is going to work. We are soon expecting to have PennDOT announce training sessions for the Department and MPO staff. Eventually, we will have meetings with the community. Chairman Rebert stated that District 5-0 has 58 new projects between Reading and the Lehigh Valley. We will be reaching out to all effected municipalities with this TIP. Mr. Piper stated that the guidance that we received from PennDOT notes that a municipality s request should not be just wish list projects. They should be consistent with development plans and any of the planning tools that have already been generated in the community. They should be documented issues in your community as planned-based recommendations. 6

7 10. UPDATE ON TRANSPORTATION ALTERNATIVES PROGRAM Mr. Piper explained the TAP handout of projects in Berks County. He stated that the first page consists of the status of current projects and was updated in December There are a few projects located in the City of Reading. Mr. Piper stated that the ongoing work on the lower half of Penn Street is the Street Lighting project was awarded as a TAP project using earmarked funding. It is partially through construction and is awaiting completion. The City had to solicit a new construction inspector for this project. The agreement is still not finalized. The second project is the Reading Crosswalks, which was going to address both 2 nd & Penn Streets and 3 rd & Penn Streets. 2 nd & Penn Streets is now involved in the Penn Street Bridge project and is not going to happen as part of the TAP project. 3 rd & Penn Streets is still awaiting agreement with both the contractor and a new construction inspector. Public Works has an inspector selected but no agreement yet. Mr. Piper stated that the Rockland Street project is not going to move forward. He has formally requested a letter from Mr. Johnson regarding this issue in order to free up those dollars in order to re-allocate them for other uses within the program. Mr. Piper stated that the last three were carry-over projects that were not yet started. The Boyertown project needs approximately $50,000 to reach the current estimate to allow the project to be advertised. With the transfer, the funds are now in place but their let date was delayed within the next couple of weeks. The project needs to be advertised and will then go out for bids. Two remaining projects that have not been awarded are the Lancaster Avenue Crosswalks and the Sinking Spring/Penn Avenue project located in the western end of Sinking Spring Borough. Both projects have been advertised and bids were opened last week. Unfortunately, both of these projects came in for more than the grant amount. We will need to see how these two projects come into play with the dollars that are available and whether we can match that or if it will fall back onto the project sponsors to match the overages. We are trying to make sure the project sponsors do not undercut the costs of a project while putting the projects together. Mr. Kilmer asked if the Rockland Street project funding has been shifted. Mr. Piper stated that it is being looked into but has not yet happened. In order to cover those two projects, we are actually using dollars in the TIP that were allocated for new TAP projects. We are actually borrowing ahead to make sure the old projects get done to remove them from the books. Mr. Piper stated that there is a need to have good scopes of work developed and for the projects to be actively managed to get them to construction within the time frame and avoid letting the cost of the project continue to grow. 7

8 Mr. Piper stated that there was a solicitation made last year for the current TAP cycle. We made two recommendations locally using local TAP dollars. The No. 1 priority was for Reading s 18 th Wonder project for pedestrian modifications, storm water improvements in the 18 th Ward section of the City for a grant of approximately $446,000 out of a $657,000 total project. There was a large local match and non-federal match involved in this using local dollars and other proposed grants. Mr. Piper stated that, after that project was funded, the remaining $105,000 in local TAP funds were applied to the Birdsboro Sidewalks and ADA Ramps project. Three other projects were forwarded to the state for their consideration: the Reading-Schuylkill River Trail project, which is closing a gap in the Schuylkill River Trail from RACC to the Buttonwood Street Bridge ($900,000); the balance of the Birdsboro funding ($216,000) to be considered; and also the county s request for $1 million to rehabilitate Wiley s Metal Truss Bridge to use it as a bicycle/pedestrian facility. Mr. Piper noted that the state made an announcement of the approved projects just after the beginning of the year. Funding was approved for the Schuylkill River Trail project and the balance of $216,000 was approved for the Birdsboro Sidewalks Replacement and ADA Ramps project. Funding was not approved for the Wiley s Bridge project at this time. Mr. Piper stated that PennDOT has a consultant project manager that is in charge of meeting with the project sponsors and letting them know what the process is that they will need to follow to implement the projects. The first meeting is scheduled with Birdsboro Borough. Meetings have not yet been scheduled to meet with the City. Staff participates in these kick-off meetings so we are aware of what is happening and give us leverage in understanding the issues involved with the Department and the municipality in terms of their ability to meet those commitments. We will be a lot more hands-on as a liaison between the municipality and the Department to keep those projects moving. We receive project status reports on a quarterly basis. We have been using these as quarterly updates but have not used them as a tool to intervene. The next round is currently scheduled to open in late fall this year with applications required to be submitted after the beginning of PennDOT is looking to possibly advance this to start the selection process sooner. One of the problems resulting from taking so long to announce the projects in the current cycle is the fact that they are already several months into the intended implementation period for those new projects. It makes it more difficult for the Department and the sponsors to be able to implement their projects within the recommended time frame. They recognize it was their delay in announcing the start of the program, so they will not be quite as hard on a drop-dead deadline on the back end of these projects that were delayed. Mr. Piper stated that we will look at the dollars that are available for this program and where we had to push dollars forward. We may not allocate the full amount of our dollars when we get to the next cycle. Part of the money may be spent already. 8

9 In response to a question related to Wiley s Bridge, Mr. Piper stated that the Department is in the process of creating a Metal Truss Bridge Management Program. We were asked to schedule a meeting with the Department and the County with regard to another metal truss bridge near Christmas Village. This was targeted on their list because of the historical significance of the Tulpehocken Creek Valley. They assumed that Wiley s Metal Truss Bridge was receiving funding. The goal is to see if there are opportunities within the state to set aside money that could be drawn from a state-wide pool to help maintain or preserve the remaining metal truss bridges throughout the state. Ms. Reed asked if there are any historical groups to work with. Mr. Piper stated that they work through the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission who is involved in that process from the beginning. He intends to use this program as a spring board on how to address Wiley s. He said there are only five metal truss bridges left in Berks County. They are: Wiley s Bridge; Zettlemoyer s Bridge; Eagle Road Bridge; Garman Road; and the one near Christmas Village. Mr. Piper said that all five of those bridges are county owned. Mr. Piper stated that the goal will be to see what opportunities are available to preserve the metal truss bridges. Ms. Reed asked if those bridges will be prioritized in preference. Mr. Piper said that will not happen since we need to upgrade other structurally deficient bridges on the higher networks to meet our asset management goals. He said that that Berks County is working with Greenwich Township now regarding Zettlemoyer s, which will be staying but turned over to the township. Ms. Reed asked if there have been any outreach from any of foundations offering funding. Commissioner Barnhardt stated that right now the County does not want to do anything with Wiley s while we re-evaluate our next steps. Mr. Piper noted that bridges have been made available to third parties using the FHWA and the PA Historic and Museum Commission anytime a metal truss bridge comes up for replacement. To date, we have had some interest but no takers. 11. COMMUTER SERVICES UPDATE Mr. Boyer was unable to attend today s meeting. Mr. Piper stated that the first meeting of the ReadingBridge.net was held last week to begin making updates. The timing for the reopening of the Buttonwood Street Bridge was discussed and it is still on track for the end of April There will be a brief transition between that and work on the Penn Street Bridge as the detour for the Buttonwood Street Bridge is removed and the roadways are returned to their original configurations, lane markings and signals put back to where they were. This will then roll into the implementation of the next phase of work on the Penn Street Bridge, which involves closing the ramp, restricting inbound traffic and establishing the detours. Mr. Piper stated that the information on the website will be updated. Ways of getting information out to the community are being looked at. We want to involve the downtown businesses, especially the entertainment venues that are bringing in large quantities of people in from out of town. There is some directional signage already incorporated for the Santander Arena. The Police Department has been directly involved with the construction progress meetings relating to traffic. Commissioner Barnhardt stated that Ms. Linda 9

10 Kelleher will be coordinating a meeting with the Penn Street business owners sometime in March Mr. Piper stated that the Reading and West Reading merchants will be provided with updates. Mr. Piper stated that an idea came up regarding a potential co-branded ReadingBridges.net/Commuter Services billboard located between Lancaster Avenue and Penn Street directing them to the webpage or information. This would happen a month prior to the initiation of the detours and would cost approximately $2, PENNDOT UPDATE ON MAJOR PROJECTS Chairman Rebert gave an update on the Major Projects. (See Attachment). A question was raised of the need for BARTA to run shuttle buses during the Penn Street Bridge project. Mr. Piper stated that shuttle bus service from the VF Outlets parking lot was started when the Buttonwood Street Bridge was first closed. There was virtually no ridership there and it was discontinued. Would it make sense to do something like that in this corridor? BARTA already have the buses running from the Perkiomen Avenue, Birdsboro, and Shelbourne Square Park-N-Ride routes. Maybe these bus routes should be promoted more heavily. 13. OTHER BUSINESS Mr. Kilmer stated that the street area between N. 11 th & Berne Street is down to dirt and plays havoc on the bus suspensions. He asked if that area is on the schedule to get repaved. Chairman Rebert said he doesn t know. Ms. Reed said she will check with the City of Reading for a paving schedule. Mr. Piper stated that there is an LTAP Program brochure in the packets. There are four courses that we are offering locally in There has been a lot of support from the Berks County municipalities that are participating in these programs. It started out slow and grown quickly over the course of the year. Ms. Riley said there are no bus stop signs at some areas. Mr. Kilmer stated that the signs and poles were bought a few years ago. They were never installed, but they will start working on that soon. Mr. Clark said that on 10 th and Robeson Street bus stop, there is hardly any light. Bus drivers tell him that they cannot see him and he should stand in the street. 10

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