good morning everyone Wednesday May 29th 10 a.m. we're in our council work session
room good morning for our mobility committee meeting after determining that
a quorum is present we will begin this meeting at approximately 10 a.m. so
first thing on the agenda is citizens comments for the agenda item do we have
any citizens comments no comments so we'll go to number two items for
individual consideration a MC 2 4 - 0 1 3 consider approval of the minutes of
April 24th 2024 can we get a motion for approval I move approval all right all
in favor say all right so the minutes of the April 24 2024 meeting has been
approved on to be MC 2 4 - 0 1 4 receive a report and hold a discussion
regarding the city of Denton's transportation mobility project status
report good morning everybody so this is our second time through for some of y'all
so we'll go fairly quickly on the some of these items and you'll just as you
know stop me when you I got a question so we're still working on the funding
for all of these projects here some of its in place and some of it is committed
for future and some of them are projects that we need to still work on getting
funding for so we'll start with 35 North so text that has made the determination
to cut the yellow project into two segments because they're it's
approaching with a total dollar amount where if they don't break it into two
contracts they'll let them at the same time but if they don't let they if they
don't break them into two projects it's right now it's at 471 and they think by
next year it'll be around 500 million and anything that's 500 million above
has to go through what we call value engineering and typically what happens
on value engineering is it gets more expensive so they're gonna break it into
into two still let it on the same time frame but two different two different
projects that's really the only news on that project have a question can you
will you please let us know the distance from what point to what point for the
yellow section absolutely soon as they break it they'll get a new CSJ for it
and we'll start tracking that project and that's from for 77 77 North to 455
where we're building the interchange at 455 now with a 455 project from the high
school out to western part of the county
and then what about the other purple stuff so those are all the purple the
purple I don't know which one's purple okay the purple is the one that's being
done with 455 the 08 one is a section north to I forget the limits but that's
the project that's probably gonna go first of the three the purple ones
already going it'll go blue green yellow okay and that's just because yellow has
all of this all these utilities to relocate and we're a little bit further
behind on these then than these and the good news is is we're pretty much with
the city didn't stuff on track for y'all's utility so the critical path or
other other projects other utilities the merge as you know let April 4th it came
in at 500 let's see 500 and 88 million just 18% over the district put in half
the Delta and then the Commission put in the other half so they ordered the
project there were only two bidders that's how much works going on in the
region and the bid said that if you you can't bid more than 56 months for this
project and both bidders bid 56 months so that's four and a half years and
there's you can see out there they're starting to put their SW 3p walls up
fences up for stormwater prevention and it'll just steadily get worse until it
gets better mayhill job we've got a June 2025 let that's on track the reason
we're not moving it into 2024 is because our cat cat two dollars are set for the
25 timeframe calendar year so we can't move it up but what basically happened
is about the time y'all get done with mayhill in Colorado and everybody settles
for a couple of months we're going to come in and start tearing stuff up and
what we're going to do is I'm going to propose that we use regional toll
revenue funds or RTR funds to connect the two projects so right now this
project ends right about the quick trip driveway and then y'all's project stops
pretty much just past Colorado and there's that leaveout section that's
pretty desperate so we think it's a pretty good candidate project for toll
revenue funds and we're gonna propose that if we get it y'all will have the
privilege of building it and y'all your staffs used RTR funds before name they
know all the processes involved with that because they're not federal dollars
and they're not state dollars they're they're just somewhere in the nebulous
yes sir I was just gonna ask where that comes from okay so back in 2003 2004
2005 2006 the region were given tools and not money to do the state was to do
projects and so we were given what they call CDA's comprehensive development
agreements and the ability to do toll roads toll manage lanes etc North Texas
took 7 billion dollars they were given and put 21 billion dollars projects on
the ground by using the CDA process which used Centra to build both 635 East
and the North Town Express and then they led a design-build project for 35 all
that money came from tolling a 121 from Denton to Collin County so it dips down
into Dallas so NTTA paid the region 3.2 billion dollars for the rights to that
project for 52 years that money went to the state's fund six but it was can only
be spent it's in a separate care it can only be spent in the Dallas and Fort
Worth area because we're the ones paying the tolls so it was split up didn't
Dallas and Collin split 2.4 billion dollars based on the revenue they were
going to generate off the toll management I'm off the toll road didn't
kind of got 1.6 billion Dallas got 400 million and then Collin County got 900
million but the Collin County hadn't built 121 yet ours was already open to
traffic so they had to use 600 of the 900 to build the road so they netted out
300 we still had 1/6 and that was in the good days when we had interest rates
right and so for from 2006 to 2010 it's slow it's a hard it's hard to spend
money on roads to be honest with you it takes a long time and so for a long time
there Denton County's RTR funds were generating about 4 million dollars in
interest payments per month so we built the DCTA train we built 35 we did all
the free roads we got Mayhill Bonnie Bray was a part of that project and those
dollars are allocated to counties by their percentage of how they generate
the revenue off the toll road 800 million of the 3.2 was divided up to the
counties by the number of toll tag users they have in their county so Collin and
Dallas can have the most of the toll tag users at the time so they got most of
the 800 million so those toll those dollars are called regional toll revenue
RTR and they're in the in the account in Austin but they're sub allocated to the
Dallas and Fort Worth district and then sub allocated in those districts to the
counties I did that with one breath it's just I'm just asking you to guess if you
don't know roughly how much money is in the account now for Denton so that is an
excellent question so in 2014 they stopped giving us updates because they
changed a new accounting system and so I've got documentation from Austin that
says there's 3 billion dollars in there still but they don't account for
encumbrances right so like we've got 10 million sitting on 377 in the Argyle
section they don't count that they they think it's still available but it's not
because it's encumbered the region thinks that Denton County has about 150
million plus or minus and the reason they don't know for sure is because when
we did I-35 from 635 to 380 Dallas County didn't participate they would had
nothing no skin in the game but Texas still needed to acquire right away in
the Dallas County area so Denton County lent text dot X amount of dollars and it
was in the millions to allocate those to those various areas for right away
acquisition with the intent is as they close those out because we would get
reimbursed those those dollars we lent them so that's taken a long time we got
a about a year and a half ago a tranche of about 200 million back and although I
can't see the accounting COG said I owed him 70 million for something and so I
got netted down to 130 but we're working on trying to figure out what that number
is but you get different numbers where you ask different people and last
question so that money can only be used to connect already existing funding
projects yeah if you get COGS permission you can use it for anything road related
really yeah but you got to go through the county the way it was set up back in
2006 Denton County was the local match requirement because there's a 20% local
match when you access these funds and so that initial tranche of about 700
million that went to all the cities the county was the local match on that and
what what the deal was back then was the can't we didn't want to have the county
that the time didn't want to have to because what they do in Dallas and
Collin County is any time they want to access the RTR funds they got to get a
committee of the whole within the county and they're great everybody fights right
and we wanted to thwart that so we just gave half the money to the cities up
front so do with it what you want back in the day that's how you got Mayhill and
Bonnie Bray and McKinney and then the rest was on system projects mostly so
the county was the driver on that so the county cog worked the process to
allocate RTR funds and I've already talked to the county on this since their
courthouse is right up the street they want this road fixed as well as much as
anybody does
any other questions in on this in this regard okay well I do want to say that I
didn't know we were going to get in all of that thank you for that because that
really get gave us a great educational opportunity to learn so much more thank
you for going into those details there's a there's just a not enough education
out there for our public to understand that you know how these things work
absolutely and when they're saying oh then is not doing anything didn't counties
always the last one you know there's a process out there so if that's going
through the toll roads we're upset about having to pay toll fees and all that
stuff but that's where the money comes from the more money the 121 was
basically the last new toll road that's going to be built in the region if there
is anything going forward it'll be it'll be told managed lanes and that is you
build your competition right next to it so you get to choose like I'm 35 if you
want to drive on the managed lanes you can if you don't you have a free access
free flow general purpose lane to use so the toll roads are a 2020 20th century
item from now on everything is going to be directed towards managing congestion
yeah well thank you so much I do want to go go back to a May Hill stay here on
May Hill I have a question in regards to the RTR fund and you know I don't even
have to ask that anymore but the question now becomes which entity will
be responsible for connecting May Hill to 35 so I've done it both ways we're
doing a project in Louisville where they're doing the 121 corporate
breakout job that's that you're fixing to see that pop there is a tie-in Texas
Avenue which used to be on system but now it's off and we're funding that
separately with RTR funds because it wasn't cleared originally and TechStop
is going to build it with their big job because it's a billion dollar project so
adding 13 million dollars is spilled concrete so we don't know yet about
this segment okay and so the design you don't wouldn't know yeah the design will
be easy because it's just a connection we're not really we may widen but you
got a wide median there in the middle so we probably widen to the inside so all
those things are just now getting worked out but I'll talk to y'all your staff
and see what their feelings are about it you can get done quicker if y'all do it
but if not we'll just we'll try to put it in with the Mayhill job yeah that's
what I was kind of the question that I was alluding to as to you know who would
RTR doesn't require any environmental clearance like you do for the big jobs
they require a checklist where you just say no there's no no no no you send it
in and they go okay we believe you okay thank you all right thank you okay 35 W
frontage roads tech stock has scheduled a meeting with with ITS to talk about
their intent and desire to do a breakout on this beyond these projects because
they've got the about 288 million of the 430 they need and instead of waiting
until they get the rest of it they want to just start building breakouts and so
we are we're thinking that we're gonna do from 2449 South to 407 but leave out
certain parts of it that aren't either needed for development like the Cleveland
Gibbs we know it needs to be done but there's a there's another bridge
structure in there that we think we can pull out so when as soon as we get that
kind of roped up on what what the what the best management practices is for
that 288 we'll bring it to the committee say this is what text that's proposing
but it's all 407 north to 2449 so it's the segment y'all want let's go back to
that because I have one question it's man and so now also if you can determine
that there's some sections that could be left out because purchasing rights you
know things like that from the people that own that space and you all can't
predict how you know in 10 years 15 years you know how something like that
will work yeah so every year so text thought and the Commission has got this
program called from the Rio to the red six lanes right and they're talking
about I-35 so they're gonna have I-35 that's their goal is to push that's
why we've got so much money in the northern part 35 W is the last because I
just drove to San Antonio 35 W is the last segment to be six lanes so we
believe that every time we put a request in if they have the money they'll give
us additional funding so instead of waiting and incurring enough to do it
all at one time which we wouldn't do anyway because it's going to be
significant we're going to go ahead and start with the money we have so every
August we'll be able to come back to tell you what okay thank you okay so I
one of the bridges were taken out it's in that area where that it's just a
farmland where the guys got ability to get across to the interstate they were
gonna build a full-on interchange there and we said maybe but not today yeah okay
so you're this is the this is the project that's essentially done where
it's closing out we're just basically doing the cleanup work on it but they
added the six lanes from 288 to 377 raised median and the 10 foot shared use
paths to the green belt I will say that that road is the smoothest yes and the
good news is you'll start to see it when you go south of the lake they're doing a
resurfacing a 35 e what happens on these concrete roads is once they go to
resurface them they put asphalt on them and that's when you get a really smooth
run yes we have a question
June
that's the contract time frame I can get a specific day if you need it but it'll
be okay alright so the 28 West we just continue to push and bang on the design
for this project we are intending to do the northbound frontage roads in its
entirety as a first phase and with a great separation at 3/8 in the railroad
track at least we may have to add some more we got everything down here at
Underwood and John Payne John Payne John Payne worked out with y'all stir for a
plan we had to go back and do a little reevaluation on that but we got it all
taken care of so that's just plucking along okay we did have our breakout
meeting on the connector road I would say that counseling back was a very
attentive and information I'll let him characterize any feelings he has post
that but we we sat down with them went over chapter and verse and so I love how
y'all are staring at me yeah we go we had a we did have a breakout meeting and
and John and Scott spent a lot of time explaining the merits of various elements
of the proposal I tried to highlight things that I thought the public would
squeak about and and I don't know where we've come back from then but I do know
we're having a meeting in June 13 should be right yes that sounds right
you know there is so it'll be it'll be interesting to see the feedback I can
tell you just as an issue of feedback that the people don't you need me you
too need to highlight more whenever you're talking to people who's paying
for what and the cost of it right that changes people's perspectives a lot
right who gets to make the final decision well I mean both that but like
we were talking about having three separations of grade being an extra 50
million and people go they immediately stop at 50 million because that's it
that's an extra amount and they don't want to see Cassie put into the budget
right there's everything you can talk about everything you want to talk about
and we can walk the logic on you know what we do when we get to those
situations the program we've got takes into consideration your thoroughfare
plan and also something that we think we can actually get funded by the state so
I have a question on a project like any project okay let's use this project okay
it's specifically for this project I would say okay when what what when do
you come to the public and say okay public we have everything we need right
it's time to go and not necessarily based on the funding showing up because
everybody's not gonna be happy with anything ever at all correct how do you
how does how will this decision be made to say okay we have what we need we're
getting ready to build this road so when you see something that says public
meeting yes that's intent to actually gain information in order to make the
project better okay okay but when you see the next step being a public hearing
they're only there to hear the complaints and then they're gonna go
respond to the federal government on why we're not changing our plan so once the
public hearing hits it's done and done so that's why I'm saying the public
meetings and the feedback we're getting from the stakeholders which essentially
in this case is Denton is critical to making sure that we get the best project
we can for you and still meet all the state requirements so how do you all
determine what's fluff and what's not fluff dr. Beck not fluff somebody else
don't spend my money that could be fluff so the typical comments we get from a
public meeting is is they either don't want the road they don't want to be
impacted by the road or they don't want the traffic right so we respond to those
in the meetings phases like though you saw those two or three other alternatives
that further out we eliminated those partially because of the comments we got
but the other part was that it was significantly higher cost than what a
connection road should be so the two things eliminated it the cost and the
fact that the public wasn't really supporting of going out that far and
damaging them with many property owners we were going to damage it a lot of
property owners so that's that's how the public meeting process works we hear
what you got to say we all come and meet together and we try to tweak it because
there's been a lot of tweaks one of the tweaks we did was we had the major
crossing at Kings Row yeah and Scott and his group pointed out some of the things
y'all have planned in that area that Windsor makes a better location because
it's for multiple reasons and the state agreed and so we tweaked the plans to
dominate predominance the Windsor and under under serve or whatever you want
to do reduce them the area at the Kings Row because there's not enough room for
both of them we can only have one and so that kind of feedback changed the
schematic and and the the cost part of it is is the counties paying for the
environmental clearance and the design and the schematic and all that so every
time we have to change it the county pays more for it and the reality is it
made good sense everybody said yes and so we make we're making a change and so
for you know the benefit of the public this is just a clear it's a very clear
notion I don't know the other word that it takes time so all of this stuff there
we're seeing right now the meetings and all of that this has been a years ago
project yeah so I tell people of time y'all heard it I think we can build
roads tomorrow if I didn't have to include you in the process violate your
property rights and not care about the environment but if we got to do those
things it takes time but where we are we're at a point where after this last
public meeting which I think this is going to be the last because we did make
significant changes from what they saw last time so we needed to come out and
say this is what we're thinking what say you are this is what you say well when
we tried to respond to what I don't know if this is good news or bad news for you
three yeah but the federal government doesn't look at individuals the federal
government looks at jurisdictions so if you've got a jurisdiction says we
support project a and I just literally had this happen I've been at a public
hearing where there were 1,300 people wearing red shirts said stop 2499 and we
were started at six and we didn't get done to four o'clock in the morning
because we want he had to hear from everybody and as long as Highland
Village and fly them out of the county so this is what we need to do the feds
didn't see the 1,300 people or the 4,000 comments that said they didn't want the
road they saw the jurisdiction there represents everybody saying this is what
we got to do so the feds are really going to look to the city and the
county to make a comment on the schematic and thank you Johnson when
you're talking hearing versus meeting what I'm hearing you say is that the
public has can have much more influence at the meeting perfect and less so at
the hearings that correct okay exactly right they got to change the name or
that last thing we're here to tell you no meeting that's what they should call
it we ain't changing reality we ain't changing all right thank you okay segment
seven is a part of the 288 job that we were just talking about we show it
separate for y'all because again y'all are y'all got it as segment seven but
it's part of the 288 job and we'll be built with the 288 job no city money
alright 1515 we're looking at still ready to let of summer of next year we're
working on utilities that's pretty much driving the boat on this project or the
utilities and we're fairly confident because of various sundry issues with
this project we're fairly confident that we're going to be able to get the 34
million we need to build it got a question John I mean I don't know how
much I mean this is an industrial area I'm assuming it's very rich in in
subsurface utilities along that path yeah is that is that right I mean it's
complicated to do it or everything straightforward I mean everything's
complicated but I mean we listen this is like the 5700 time we've done it so it's
just the utility relocations take sometimes the longest time and they have
the most danger to the schedule because the state and the county and the city
city has more than the state and the county does swing with these franchise
utilities because they got better lobbyists right and the county can't
compete with them y'all issue franchise stuff so y'all can have some sway with
them but you typically if the utilities dig their heels in on something we got
to find a way around it because they they can't stop a project which is like
on the big big job for the merge on 35 we coordinated with everybody because
we're going to do what's called a utility bank where everybody's going in
generally the same area and we had to essentially order the priorities based
on City of Denton utilities out there because they were the biggest Kahuna
out there that we had to work around so it's just every every time is different
but yes we know what's out there and if we don't we find it with a backhoe well
okay so that was my follow-up question and that is I know that as we get
further back in time the the coordinates of the of the actual utility get worse
and worse right you know because we just we didn't GPS them back in the day or or
we didn't write into the plans oh yeah we moved it three foot to the left right
they don't tell you contractor may take your plans and it may be off by foot but
when we're in an area where we really think that we need to have to have a
significant level of assurance we'll go out and do potholes potholes and we'll
try to find them physically before we finalize the design because some of
these projects have if they get screwed up in contract they're going to go hard
expensive on the state so doing a little bit upfront skull-duggery to find out
where they are is beneficial okay 1173 from crumb over to 35 we are continuing
that project we met with crumb and there are some issues with some of their
historical stuff that we're going to work around that they told us what was
most important and so we're we've got everything in play for a February 25 let
and the part of the cost on this is that there's a ton of drainage issues right
as you get to crumb you kind of see that green area right here there's a lot of
there's a lot of drainage in here that's making the project more expensive that
you would think for a you know four mile road so we're working through that with
this one probably we want to go through about your engineering because it
shouldn't we got to figure out a way to get that cost down for you know 30
million a mile um that's what I had some issues with a railroad track so what
we're doing is okay sorry so what we're gonna have to do is we're not we're
gonna go at great at where it crosses what your old Barthold is but we're
gonna close the one here at 1173 so these people here will have like a
hammerhead u-turn and then these people will be able to come back and we're
gonna build in a tie-in here so it's not gonna be not a little unlike Edwards
over here at Mayhill we're gonna have to come up and then tie into the signal if
you want to come back so we're that's gonna be part of this job so we're we're
switching at grades and so far the railroad hasn't balked but they usually
like to wait till right at the last minute to throw a wrench in the process
so we got plenty of time for them to screw it up so no questions we'll just
move right on it's the outer loop what do you want to know though no the alignments
that I got to see I don't I don't know if the rest of the committee got to see
them that we were down to four or five or whatever they were yeah my question
is when when are we gonna get closer to releasing these to the public I mean I
know you you like the not are not you but the workflow likes to not do it
until the final alignment and which is distasteful to everyone everybody wants
to see at least what the last couple of options are so we're getting close to
showing the the four or five and it's really it's not four or five because we
have to cross the green belt at 428 yeah right we have to tie in where Collin
counties built the road we're building a 1250 foot long bridge at Milam so we can
fit underneath there so we've got three points set so there's a couple of
alternatives three or four on the west side and two or three on the east side
but this is a this is an environmental impact statement so the public will be
able to see soon because we're looking if we're looking at summer 26 I'm
thinking sometime fall of next year there'll be two alternatives that we're
going to take through the full-on matrix of what's what the feds call a thorough
vetting of their environmental impacts so an EA you only take one but the feds
require you to take two and we will have those two narrowed down probably by like
I say fall of next year and it comes from talking to to the stakeholders right
so in this case we've got Aubrey not so much Krugerville pilot point has a lot
right away a lot of city property that goes way south on 377 so they're a minor
stakeholder y'all are the big kahuna on this one in this area and the core so
we're talking about a 500 foot footprint except for when we cross the green belt
and it's 150 feet and what right now the core has told us to do is figure out a
way to stay in 150 feet and so we've come up with a dual deck system that
works but the other part of the core of engineers wants us to help them with
their flooding issues and so we may trade that effort for a little bit more
width on the green belt area if we need it but I don't think we'll need it so
we're going to be taking two through fall next year we'll be able to start
showing those to the public for comment right the meeting side and the public
involvement process for a EIS is double what it is for an EA so all the things
where you see what's doing with 288 we're gonna times to it for the outer loop once we get there this
is so exciting to me I think I just heard you say fall next year for public
meetings yeah so we've been having we will the county because the reason why
we wanted to do this document is we want to be significantly more attentive and
attuned to the needs of the local people so we're meeting one-offs with people
that have the land that call us hey we got a question so we'll meet with one
property owner if we have to and walk walk the dog on on if there is an
alignment that's shown on their property what the logic is so we have
constant constant flow meetings with property owners developers anytime y'all
want to anytime you don't want additional information we'll get LGA
here and we'll run you'll run it down with you but so we do the we do the
one-offs but the formal public meetings I think we're supposed to have four and
we've had one I think and I'll have to go back and check it was but maybe not
they all run together I'm doing the outer loop in Coppin and Rockwell County too
so I can't remember who's done what thank you you know is this our last one
that's somebody else I just put it in here so y'all can yell out yeah I know
we just except we have right under it a water main break and I'm asking what
what's the relationship of this finishing with this water main break and
who's on the hook for it and who's on the hook for repairing the road I'm not
answering that yeah danger Kramer deputy director of operations we're still
looking into everything that happened what it looks like is it wasn't a
water main break looks like a drainage issue which pushed up so we're still
investigating it looks like some repairs were done in the area and we're still
trying to figure exactly what's happening so as we find out more we'll
let you know so I get no I appreciate that I guess it's in the direction of
who owns the road currently because we were in the midst of transitioning it
from the state to us so Eagle was always going to remain part of the state because
that connects 377 okay Elman Locust will be turned over to the city after they
are complete on that all right so we're gonna we're gonna
unfortunate not unfortunately we're going to maintain our lovely dance on
on that stretch of Eagle for okay correct because you've got 377 going
through your city so that is my last one I think you know it just so happens
that I'm a retired teacher and so I'm always in and we have it educated here
next to me it's always um this has probably been the most informative
meeting that I've been in not saying John this doesn't have anything to do
with you but what it does I was not talking about John I was talking about
the process yes but thank you so much for going in a bit of more detail you
know on some of these things and I'm just gonna say with that being said in
it I don't know how we're gonna get the public to just be more curious about you
know what's happening around here and what we're trying to do here what I'm
trying to do is to give them as much information as possible now that we're
in this big project up here on north of us that you were just talking about and
you'd go in in the detail as to how that's happening is that no one person
is just sitting around just making these decisions no you all are spending time
at this time speaking to people you're gonna get ready for these public
meetings and then at some point there's going to be some hearings and then we
can get started on that in that roadway and that's just gonna be years again a
years long years and years long project so thank you John
appreciate you and the questions too guys thank you all for asking some you
know if we need some information so thank you all right so we'll move on to
see MC 24 - 0 1 5 of our staff memorandums so we have a couple of items
on the staff memo for you the the bollard placement if you have any
questions on that Chandra and/or dr. but is available to answer do you want me
to go through each one of them and then take questions or how do you want I
don't know what do you all think okay uh let's just not do that for you know
sick of time but we if there are any questions look like you had a question
yes sir so no I don't mind streamlining because we can just respond to the back
of materials but I guess pardon me I guess the reason I asked for this item
to be put on is to get a better understanding of what where we can use
them and I don't give an example and how we should use them in sort of and some
of the aesthetic complaints that we've had especially on Old North because it
doesn't actually match this description and and so yeah I see Scott so the this
this says hey we use these case 71 ballards any questions that's what that
says and I'm being a little harsh on it because it's thin and what I was trying
to get is guidance what's allowed I can go I can go read the the state
engineering and federal engineering manuals I was hoping not to I was hoping
to use your time to streamline and in particular the sort of not that we use
them but what are our options for places that we would use them and I think no
you no one's grousing about Parkway about Ector about other a little bit but
I mean I'm not hearing it anyway and and I think if you compare the ones that
have less grousing it is there can there were a consistent pattern of use and
replacement and and I'm trying to get to where where you know what where can we
use these things to fulfill that their mission on say something like an old
north and still and so that I was trying to get more information figure out what
more options what what our opportunities were and I'm being a little critical
because that's it yes ma'am I think our question I think our question is okay an
update you've given us an update and the update says we've made this decision
now when I say we I think that's the part that he's probably missing out of
this context is to we don't feel like you're talking about we us the people
that live you know in that area have you all done that particular kind of work to
satisfy this or you know we as a citizen take your expertise into knowing that
this type of product is best for us how does that correlate to what he's saying
okay good morning everyone Chandra city traffic engineer so mostly we use the
flexible bollards which is the case 71 type that we have for lane delineation
and separation between the motor vehicles and the pedestrians but to be
specific to answer councilmember may report him big it's it's only for like
pedestrian separations so far and those are retractable and it can take impacts
from trucks and it can stand back up and we don't use the metal ones or the
concrete ones that for federal buildings that for the safety of the building
itself and the contents inside so for other products we do not have in our
toolbox and we could explore more but so far case 71 has been the approved
devices that we use and have publications extensively that used in
other cities as well so if I can follow up what I'm hearing you ask and so I
want to clarify you're asking when we can be using them when more on the
planning process side for when we're thinking about putting in bollards not
necessarily the specific type that we're using or both so yes that but also I
think it's unclear what what our options are in different locations okay
cuz got everywhere I mean if we're if we're nailed down if we're using if we
make the executive decision to only use case everyone bought bollards just so
that's what we have in our warehouse as a supply and we're shoe warning seven
different kinds of uses in the case everyone's then that may be one of the
reasons that we you know there may or may not be happiness with it because it
fits better in certain circumstances than others and and I think as a request
for information so that we can provide policy recommendations it is more
understanding what the universe could go there and how well case 71 matches the
universe of options and whether that really is the best thing or whether we
should be looking at something else for given locations not we're not trying I'm
not trying to set the second guess that we only want to store he said he was in
our in our warehouse that it's an easy one it's cheap right but the if there's
locations where we want to recommend to counsel that we should go more or go
less then we need to know what the options are
I was gonna suggest we could probably put together an ISR for you and outline
the book provide more more information and then we can bring that back to the
next meeting I think part of what I'm hearing Brian say is is I guess you're
kind of looking for other options for Old North partially that maybe you're
more amenable to the neighborhood what I would advocate for is that we only use
the K 71s for bike ped delineation because when I bike on Old North and I'm
not driving biking in the parking lane people get really aggressive and it's
really scary and because they think it's a bike lane and it's not a bike lane it's
a parking lane you can bike in if it's empty but swerving in and out of cars is
very dangerous but people think it's a bike lane I've I've a lady threatened me
quite significantly one day nearly ran me over because I wasn't in the parking
lane where she thought I should be because she thought it was a bike lane so
I would definitely advocate for consistency of use for the K 71s but I
my understanding was these were placed on Old North basically as traffic calming
because people were using the parking lane to pass is what I think I recall so
I mean so it sounds like it sounds like we need to maybe experiment with some
alternative ways to prevent people from driving in the parking lane I would
advocate against using K 71s if it's not actually a bike or peddling anybody else
well it just so happens that I flew in from Denver Colorado yesterday and why
and I was there for four days and I mean I was totally obsessed with bike lanes
and parking I in and I was I think this was the first time that I was able to go
in and just kind of feel the city I was in all over the city and I was very
impressed and was trying to understand how they had all that laid out because I
can see the people biking and taking public transportation I could see that
it was so clearly evident and I was thinking about Susie the entire time that
I was there because it was just laid out in certain kind of way because you have
to have space for parking then biking and how they use some of those bus lanes
you know for certain things and narrowing the roads and maybe having some
over here I mean I was really really obsessed with it and taking it in so I
do understand what Susie is saying in regards to using a particular type of
material for a particular reason and in the end educating the public on you know
and it's gonna take some time so you got a lot of work to do and plus there was
all of this lime green you know going everywhere and crosswalks they were all
lined out in colors so people could you know understand so I'm really looking
forward to our city trying to figure that out for us because our roads are
way different a lot of narrow and neighborhoods and stuff like that on
these new neighborhoods so it's gonna be interesting to see how we pull all of
that out sure thank you very much back here you're good okay thank you anything
else for any other section okay you had some I think Hickory Creek Road was on
here right I think I read that yesterday is that right it was on the project
update so the construction oh so that's the next thing update I can wait it's
mentioned in this memo at the bottom I've been getting questions about from
people who live down there that notice it from at least what they're saying it
hasn't been touched in several months they were told that some things were
settling and I just looked on the website and looks like for the past three
months it's been settling and then the most recent thing I heard or here I saw
that it's the railroad so kind of where are we with that I see that they're
supposed to start moving again soon yeah so Seth Garcia deputy director of
capital projects so we are at a stall as John mentioned earlier the railroad can
come in and throw a kink pretty quickly to derail a project so Kansas City
Southern sold out while we were working through our CM agreement for the
overpass at grade crossing Ben's laughing he knows so we've been going
back and forth quite a bit with them as well as with encore to provide power to
the existing lights and gates before we take the crossing out so we have the
agreement with encore done and they are currently getting temp power over to
power the lights and gates we're meeting with the railroad weekly trying to hash
out the terms of the CM agreement so once we get that in place we currently
kind of are at a standstill we also need to get the overpass agreement in place to
get a gas line moved out of the way as well so once those three things happen
which is kind of a perfect storm of things our contractor will be back out
there and we'll be able to take off with construction again and just out of
curiosity for future reference how long does it normally take for things to
settle typically so when you say settle this person called it pylons but
elsewhere I saw it called not a berry basically where the bridge is gonna sit
the supports gotcha yeah so it's varies by construction again that's that's not
currently what we're waiting on is for any settling to happen or anything with
the abutments but yeah so so that's not currently the problem but again that
kind of varies based off the design what's the range typically ish I'm happy
yeah it's there's a huge I don't even know where to guess to be honest with
you okay yeah months to years okay yeah it's very variable thank you um looking
on the back of the side a question about Westgate this Westgate if you remember
off the top your head is Westgate behind schedule and or costing more than we
anticipated I know it's behind schedule what's the do we know why generally
speaking yeah so Seth Garcia again so currently we're at 90% plans we're
working with a couple property owners out there where we're gonna need to take
some right away and acquire it again kind of the grandiose so plan is have
Westgate and Bonnie Bray six going concurrently again we're adding
milestones in the Westgate contract to provide that east-west connection first
to be able to alleviate some of the high school traffic right now our biggest
critical path is going to be the right away acquisition we're currently talking
with the property owner on multiple projects they're one that we deal with
quite frequently so I wouldn't say the design is necessarily behind but
currently the right away acquisition is not quite where we need it to be but
again we're trying to sync up the Bonnie Bray six the rainy road east and Westgate
all at one time to make sure we're coordinating those construction efforts
okay and obviously it's gonna cost more money than we anticipated to so looking
at current OPC sees the construction dollars as they John talked about earlier
we are continuing to see an increase in kind of construction costs I think the
biggest one is going to be the right away acquisition that we're dealing with
there not knowing where we're gonna land if we have to condemn of course prices
go up but again that's that's kind of the biggest variable cost that we have
our eyes on right now
thanks thank you if I may I just have one other item on the Woodrow Lane and
more Street traffic signal so they did determine that traffic signal is
warranted at that intersection so we're gonna add it to a budget but it's still
not funding funded so it's gonna be funded dependent funding dependent on
whether when that will be actually constructed
and I agree it's needed because there's a hill when you're at that T you look to
the south I remember once upon a time and that hasn't been that long ago there
was a caution light for school crossing you remember being here that long to
remember a school crossing light at the time when Alexander Elementary School
was letting out they would have that light going for the kids and so I'm
coming back to the notion that there's a brand new apartment complex that it's
coming up over there on Woodrow and I do understand some families are gonna be
living there and I haven't done the homework I haven't even picked the phone
up to ask you know what the school's children would be going to will they go
to Alexander or are they going to Rivera so then they're going to have to cross
that road I'm just not sure that you know that conversation has been part of
the conversation yet I know I've asked about it maybe several months ago so and
then this is why the question of a light being at Morris and Woodrow the
necessity of that and us being able to get those kids over across the street
because they're not gonna be busting no and I think we'll we'll do we'll do some
homework and get something reported back to you so just ultimately kind of what
that plan might look like near mid and long term okay so you'll get back to us
we're ready to speak on that okay then that one is very important to me that's
my little situation right there we've got to address that and they're coming
along with it and your concern is that not only do we need a crossing from the
apartment complex over by the old the old shelter but also not making those
kids walk down to this new proposed life to help us get that concern under so I'm
not gonna worry about it right now as long as I know that it's you know it's
part of of that and how some of those people are driving more people and those
people are driving way more faster than I remember it ever being out there in
that area I agree I agree with the stoplight of my question is on the east
side of Woodrow next to obviously the city facility I assume that land is zone
light industrial any plans to I guess is that Tom Fouts name what they're gonna
do with that what's gonna come in the future the vacant lot next to a
facilities management I think it's for sale right now and I guess I'm
extrapolating here but I'm asking what might the future consequences yield if
we put a stoplight there given what's gonna come to that area and that when
they sell that field I will accept I don't know I'm just talking out loud so
it's okay we'll make that determination as traffic warrants require that site
is proposed to be developed as light industrial okay okay all right that I
think the drive the drive may change there and that location may change where
that drive is at so just there may be some alignment but that'll be part of it
like Scott thank you for bringing that up because I was a question that I was
gonna ask anybody else okay I do want to with including items anybody I have one
um Farhan would like to introduce some new staff members to everyone
morning chair committee members Farhan but deputy director of transportation
services division I am pleased to inform you that we had three vacant positions
one senior planner bike pad and ADA and that position has been filled we have
hired Gregory Scott Greg comes to us with 30 years of experience on bike pad
planning and has done a lot of projects all over US and he's also he's got
diverse experience on when it comes to ADA as well and has you know
participated in many processes and process developments when it comes to
ADA Greg is in the move right now he's moving from Portland which is Viking
heaven yeah and so he's he's hauling his stuff and then he's gonna be here
within I guess it's three to four days drive for him so he'll be here soon I'm
assuming that by mid-june he'll be he'll be here in the city office and then I
would like to introduce Sahar Asfandyari Sahar has a PhD in urban planning and
she has several years of experience in transportation planning and also a
public engagement when it comes to comes to transportation projects she comes to
us from Plano and has is interested in planning processes here and then also
participating in many public engagement processes for various projects and then
we have Raqib Alam Raqib comes to us from Florida Lee County Florida and he
has a PhD in civil engineering and has several years of experience in
transportation planning and also traffic engineering his focus is development
review processes and has also along with his publication dissertation his
publication is on has several publications on data mining including
fusion with Python and and many other programming languages I think I think
Raqib's focus would be on development review and data mining and also he'll be
helping us with traffic engineering data integrations as we go I'm hoping to
develop data integration process for for traffic operations as well and that's
where we are hoping that Raqib will be able to help us so now we know who now
we know who Brian is gonna be hanging out with every weekend when Gregory gets
here I want to go on the bike ride with you guys I know you go ask me on a bike
ride around the city I'm going to well I know I'm not gonna go but I will
support it bounce the prayers
just a little bit I almost actually got on one of those let me tell you my
experience in Colorado was really thought-provoking because I've
literally almost I didn't really want to walk and I literally almost got on yes
and my daughter said well I'm gonna take the scooter and you can take then I'm
like and she was like for real mom you can do it and I just blew it off but I
made the walk I made the walk it was like a almost a mile we were going anyway
I don't want to spend any time so I'm gonna move on well the last thing that
I like to say and of course encourage each and every one of us in this room to
get more people to watch these meetings so they can become informed and educated
to know that now we have our very own data mining person out there we are
considerate of their concerns so you all let's try to do that let's just try to
get more people to start watching at least this particular meeting because
infrastructure is very important yes sir are we doing other matrix items or when
are you doing those I'm not sure what you mean other matrix oh I'm sorry yeah
you can stay basic here does anybody have any questions the comments and
concerns on any future apps that we have you yes sir so I was approached by the
folks in the new razor school district zone who do the bike bus Stephanie okay
what's her last name Brooks Brooks then and they would very much appreciate when
Scott when Greg Scott gets here helping map out a safe routes to the school kind
of destination pathing for the bike bus but pedestrian quarters in general I
mean I know that such a map there's already a plan for safe routes to the
school for every school but but this is a unique occurrence because of the bike
bus situation and the fact that the school is new and they're in the throes
of planning pick up and drop off of cars and keeping the bike pit people separate
from the pickup and drop off people and and it is the perfect time to do this
this destination pathing and I think this is an easy win for mr. Scott like
really quickly he could probably solve this in a week so and work with the
stakeholders so I'm gonna recommend that even if it's not a matrix item that you
at least get to that when he gets here give him an easy win and getting started
rolling I'd like to propose that maybe in the next meeting or next two meetings
we begin to look at trip funds for DCTA next year previously I pitched for this
year's trip funds that we use them to purchase service from DCTA because
there's so many areas of our city that just do not have a DCTA bus service and
I'd like to revisit that for the 2025 trip funds thank you as in purchasing a
route yes okay cool question real quick John those funds you were talking about
those funds are for roadway projects or transportation related projects with the
toll funds transportation related projects so can we check on all of the
parameters that that whole money could be used for particularly I'm thinking
about bus stops covered bus stops I know that in future phases for DCTA they're
planning that and I know that they're also planning on getting some of that
money from the cog what prevents us from asking the cog and not waiting for their
future phases so we can get this done a little bit sooner that's something you
can check on does that make sense we can check on it but I'm gonna tell you if
you already know that I mean DCTA gets sales tax money from all of the
participating cities so didn't alone is about 19 million dollars of their budget
so I would propose that they use their the funding that they have available
and have set aside for bus stops but I thought they're just gonna get that's
where it comes that's where it comes from but they're they're just gonna get
it from the car right no they're there they get a portion of our sales tax so
anytime you shop and get in a portion of that sales tax funding goes to DCTA I
seriously I guess I was under the incorrect assumption that they would not
use their money they would ask the cog for that money since it is a
transportation-related item and everything that goes along with bus stops what I'm
trying to figure out as a way and we cannot wait until phase four four years
from now that's all so and we're doing some work well we'll get back we'll get
back on that I did want to stay on that topic in using that money is this money
available like right now the RTR funding the DCTA funding the trip funding no
it's a trip funding the same as what the funding that he's talking about no
there's he's talking about RTR money and she's saying that there's money 19
million dollars out there that's part of DCTA's budget that's their budget yes
what is and are we asking them and we're not that's not RTA money so I mean
that's not true money um that's that's their money that they have that's set it
up and they're ready to be used so why are they not using it
right
okay so we're not posted for that but if you know I guess we were kind of going
down into a rabbit hole on here thank you for bringing that back that's your
job that's what you're supposed to do so I'll just leave it right there but I was
gonna say we're working on trying to get DCTA to come present at a upcoming
meeting we haven't been able to get our schedules aligned yet but I think those
are questions that you could very easily ask them okay when they present okay
well I thought I was just clarifying you know a certain thing but apparently that
took us somewhere else that we didn't need to go right now thank you all any
other questions anything else for matrix the matrix all right well I just want to
and for concluding items and now we're in concluding items I wanted to just ask
the community to download that engaged didn't app it really does work I've seen
some things just happen just because of being put in so we're asking the public
to go ahead and just download the engaged in app and become a part of the
community and keeping us great by turning in things the other thing is I
want the community to go out to that discuss didn't comm the city said that
they were transparent and letting us know what's going on and so you any
questions that you may have the answer may be there so start there anything
else in that regard if there's not anything else then we can conclude the
meeting at 1115 and thank you all for being here