Recommendation to Authorize the Acting City Manager to Execute a Cooperative Agreement with the Department of Transportation (“Caltrans”) in an Amount not to Exceed $184,000 for Caltrans to Review and Approve the Project Initiation Document (PID), which is Required by Caltrans, to Determine the Project’s Scope, Cost and Schedule for the Central Avenue Safety Improvement Project; and Execute a Contract with CDM Smith in the Amount of $372,928, Including Contingency, for Engineering, Planning, and Outreach Services to Prepare the PID. (Transportation 91815)
Recommendation to authorize the acting city manager to execute a cooperative agreement with the Department of Transportation, Caltrans, an amount not to exceed 284,000. For Caltrans to review and approve the project initiation document, which is required by Caltrans, determine the project scope, cost and schedule for the Central Avenue Safety Improvement Project and execute a contract with CDM Smith in the amount of 372,000, including contingency for engineering. All right, if you want to go first. Yes. Good evening, Madam Mayor. Members of the City Council. I'm Gayle Payne, project manager for the Central Avenue Safety Improvement Project. You want me to make a staff report or. On this item. The item before you is to prepare the project. Initiation document. For this order to 1.7 mile corridor. This is a Caltrans required document because half of the 1.7 mile corridor is a state route, state route 61. That's between Webster and Sherman. And we have we're requesting a staff recommendation to execute a cooperative agreement with Caltrans to review this PID document, the project initiation document. That's the required document for state highway system projects. And then also to execute a contract with CDM Smith to prepare this pit. And keep in mind that this required document will take about a year to prepare. And what it will do is we will be able to understand what are the alternatives that we will consider for Central Avenue at Webster. So we'll have that nailed down as all the ones that will be analyzed in the next phase. And we also will do a preliminary environmental review and analysis, as well as a traffic analysis on the entire corridor, as well as the different scenarios for Webster and Central. We are looking at ways to in innovative ways to streamline this project, especially with it. Environmental Review. Since this is a really complicated project because it's partly on state run. I'm sorry, I need the record to reflect that Vice Mayor Vela has stepped out of the room and the time that I need that marked on the minutes. Thank you. She is recusing herself from this item because she lives near the property. Okay, so we need to say that so we all know what's happening. Thank you. I appreciate it. So, remember, Vice Mayor Vella is recusing herself from this item and that's why she stepped away from the dias. Or that. We know that. Thank you. You may continue. In parallel, as we complete the project initiation document. We will be working with. Caltrans and the funding agency to streamline the project, especially when it pertains to that environmental documentation. That's the Sequoia and the NEPA that's required since these are federal funds for construction. And so we will in parallel, while we're working on the PID, we will be working on ways to streamline. This is a really complicated project. And so we do want to use best practices on how to move forward and in the most streamlined way possible. And I'm available for questions or comments. Thank you. Member matter. Just a quick clarifying question. Maybe I missed it, but the Caltrans work, will they approve the plan for Central and Webster? Is that part of their approval or part of their review? They will review the various scenarios we come up with in this PID phase. And so they will conceptually approve all this, all the scenarios that we will come up with to consider, and that will be considered and further analyzed in the next phase and then project analysis. But when they say when you say that they will review everything that they. Does that mean that they could say no, that that particular plan, one, two, three, three is not going to we're not going to approve that they could they eliminate. I guess I'm asking, can they eliminate a scenario? They could. Okay. It's it's hard to say at this point. They have been very amenable and it's been a while. I'm not I'm just saying. What the process. Yes. Them to remove a scenario from our list of possible. I would think that would be a possibility. Okay, thanks. That's all I need. Thank you. Member Ashcraft. So I was the one who pulled this from the consent calendar, although my question is actually somewhat similar to councilmember matter. So I do understand that a part of this is State Highway 61 and that's where Caltrans comes in. My question, I know that they the city, we have to get a conceptual approval by Caltrans before proceeding to further design, environmental review and construction. And my question is, what what further Caltrans approvals will be required? I mean, this is just the initial phase, but do will they need to sign off on further design and construction documents before they can be finalized? Right. Okay. Yes. And so in the next phase, there's the project approval and environmental documentation phase. They need to sign off on that. Then there's the next phase. The plan specification estimates, they sign off on that. And the construction, it's it's federal money, so they sign off on everything. So then just for clarification, for their work, we need to come up with $184,000. That's just for this the project initiation document phase. Can we anticipate similar numbers for the other phase? Yes. Okay. And just for the public, that might be, you know, having heart palpitations like I did when I saw these numbers. There's a whole lot more grant money out there that we were able to get. So it's but I just I wondered what we would be looking at, more approvals and more fees. Yes. And we will be looking at additional. Those are my questions. Thank you. And we do have two speakers on this item that I'd like to call at this time, Brian McGuire and then Denise Trapani, a. Good evening. I was a little surprised to see the recusal. I didn't realize. I thought it was only if there was, like, a financial interest of some kind. But, I mean, a 1.7 mile corridor could be a lot of people that live close to such a project. But Bike Walk is looking forward to this project moving forward. We are excited to work with staff and excited that we've got funding and we're ready to take the next steps. We do think that a couple of things as regards to the description, this council gave direction to look at safer alternatives for the Webster and Central intersection . And we support that. We hope that we're not limited in when we consider our alternatives there. If the design for that intersection may lead us, especially towards the West, as we connect with different facilities towards the point to examine more than just the immediate vicinity, it might extend. And, you know, if we decide to do something like a protected bike lane on part of that section, it would make sense to reexamine from Webster to Payton School that maybe we could extend it and close that gap right wherever possible. So hopefully we we follow the follow the design where it goes and not just be focused at that corner. We do think it's a big enough project that maybe it would be worth exploring doing some of the other parts that are not Caltrans right of way sooner. We've waited a long time. We know this corridor's unsafe. There's a lot of schools that are on central west of Webster and a lot of students and families that use what we've identified as an unsafe configuration. So if there's any opportunity to start doing work on the segments west of Webster that we've got an approved design for , and we can move forward and start construction on those before 2021 so that we can start delivering some amenities and some safety improvements sooner without dramatically increasing. Obviously the staff, staff costs and efficiencies we might gain, but we think it would be worth exploring. So we hope you can consider that. Thank you. Thank you. Any other speakers on this item? I'm sorry, Denise. Thank you. Thanks for giving me the time to speak tonight on this. I'm going to reiterate some of what Brian said. I first got involved with Bike Walk Alameda on the Central Project. Years ago when we. Were doing outreach for a community outreach. That's how I first heard about Bike Walk Alameda and I'm on the board, so it's been a long time coming. So we're very excited that this is finally happening and I may be mis misremembering some of this, but the whole project goes from internal all the way down around the corner to where it becomes main to Pacific. The Caltrans portion is really just Webster to Anthony all it's just the eastern portion of it. When I was looking through some of the documents for the scope of this project, what we're going to be doing with Caltrans or with the consultant, where it looks like we're doing like traffic counts again all the way back to. Pacific and fourth and eighth where we may not need to do them again. I don't know how much of that is. We're just treating it all like one project. But that's not really Caltrans jurisdiction. But that's not my my area of expertize. I just want to make sure that we're moving as fast as we can and we're not doing too much work. And if we did a bunch of traffic counts and we have approval. On designs for. Stuff. That's west of Webster. Yeah, let's move forward with that. Let's not do all the traffic. Counts and look at all the pedestrian crossings. If we've done all that, let's not do that. But that was included in the scope of work tonight for the consultant. So that's it. Thank you. Please move this forward so we can get some a safety corridor in Central. Thank you. Thank you. Linda Astbury. Hello. Linda Asbury, executive director of the West Alameda Business Association. We really want to emphasize that West Alameda Business Association has to be at every point of this discussion, and it can't do anything that restricts any business on Webster and Central. And I think we've been terribly outspent, not terribly. We've been in a positive way, outspoken. And perhaps there's feelings that we haven't been heard and we can't repeat that we need to be at the table at all. Discussion and total transparency. Thank you. Thank you. All right. That completes our public comments on this item Council. Did you have any more questions or comments? I'm just going to I'm going to move approval of the item. Just quick clarifying question from whoever can tell me about the repeated traffic. And member matter as he seconded it. Sorry. Is it happening or is Ashcroft. And if you could repeat your question. I just asked Miss Payne to tell. Us about the traffic count. So as part of there are no new traffic counts. And what we'll be doing is we do know that since we've done the work on the concept, there have been more traffic counts down. So we will be compiling the latest and giving it to the consultant for this next phase. That's all. Thank you. And then could you speak to the intersection of central maps through that process? But. But what's going to happen? Yes. So just as a reminder, you all we came to you to ask for approval for the concept of the entire 1.7 mile corridor. And in February 2016, you will approve the corridor the entire quarter. Except you asked us to come back with some alternatives for that Webster Central Avenue intersection. And so what we're now going to be doing with this pit phase is we're going to be coming back with with some of those alternate with those alternatives for that intersection. And we will not be resolving that. We will be just bringing it in the pit phase and showing what the alternatives. We will be considering all the scenarios and doing a preliminary environmental report analysis on that, preliminary traffic analysis on that. And then the next phase will be seeking your approval and working in this phase with. All different, the key stakeholders. So we we have one reason why we have bike walk, Alameda and Barber here is that we alerted them that this was on the agenda. And so we are working with all groups and they're the. The. Primary ones with these stakeholder meetings. We will also we'll have focus groups really with these primary stakeholders and also a workshop with the broader community to make sure it's transparent what we're doing with this, with these key stakeholders, and then bringing it to Transportation Commission and the City Council. So even though we know we're not going to be resolving the issue, we are going to be working through the issue to make sure that we have some solid scenarios to analyze. Great. Thank you very much. Any other questions? Comments. Do we have a. Comment. About address? I'd love to see the scenario that comes to us out of this bid process. Yeah. Waba and bike walk alameda standing hand in hand saying, there we go. Let's go. Hey, so. Everyone here has a goal here. That would be great. All right. And all those in favor carries unanimously with one recusal. All right, so now we're and if someone could love vice mayor knows that she can come back in. Now we're on five K and I don't. Know, I did and. Never ask. Yeah. This one is, um, the recommendation to accept the Public Art Commission's cultural arts funding recommendations. And I just pull this because I think they're pretty spectacular. And I wondered if whoever's project whose this was about there. It would be Amanda Gursky, who is a management analyst with our department. She does have a short presentation. It's about 5 minutes. If you would like her to give that presentation. I'd like to waive the presentation. I it may be written consent. It's almost nine, so maybe I'm sure it's a lovely presentation. Maybe another time. Can you just quickly list for us the however many awardees are are included in there. But I have a question. Does the present the presentation has the pictures of them proposals, right? That's correct. If you could just go back to show the. Audience. Okay, I went to the public art meeting and there are hardly any people there. Right. It's okay. All right. I'm going to skip through the process and go straight to the awardees. Yeah. Wonderful. The Academy Awards. That I'll be using. Are very much. So. The first awardee at the $35,000 level is Island City Waterways. This is a biennial event, so it's every other year produced by rhythmic cultural works. And it really combines. Theater, dance and music. To celebrate Alameda history in the natural landscape. So this year's event will focus on Crab Cove and it will have. Ten performances over. Two days, including two performances that are particularly for Alameda Unified School District school groups. So the event is really meant to provide audiences with the opportunity to experience a free, interactive public art event about the history of the land that they live on and an understanding of how it was shaped by the water that surrounds it. So this is going to be held over May 18th, 19th and 20th. At the $25,000 level is the Animate Dance. Festival. Brought to us by the West End Arts and Entertainment District. So this is going to be held in October of 2018 at Alameda Point. And this is really intended to be a celebration of dance in all its forms. It'll include everything from performances by professional dance troupes down to performances by local youth groups. They'll have tribal dance classes so people can try out different forms of dance, and then a central festival hub with a play area and food truck. So it's very much a community oriented dance festival. And finally. The American landscape from sacred and profane. So this is a choral concert that is going to focus on a variety of American folk styles and traditions. It's going to include music from a number of American composers such as Paul Kihara, Sean. Kirchner, Stacy Gibbs and Moses. Hogan. And this is. One of a series of three concerts they're going to be doing in the Bay Area. I would say all of. The money that's coming through the Alameda Public Art Fund will be for the the event that will be here in Alameda. It's also going to be accompanied by a visual arts show that will celebrate the diverse traditions, landscapes and points of view of American culture. And two of the four artists included in that show will be Alameda Artists. So this concert is scheduled for March of 2019. Move approval of the item. Second, and I wanted to follow up. I know some of the money was not distributed. And if you could explain the next part of the process what's happening. I also do want to thank our public art commissioners. And are all of the artists participated in the process? So we are. So there was there were two categories that we didn't award, and that was the 15,000 and the. $5,000 award categories. And so that money remains in the Public Art Fund, and we're currently. In the process of developing a new RFP to rerelease that. Money. So we had a public art commission meeting on the fourth of this month, and the Public Art Commission asked. Us to. Take a survey of our arts. Community to find out the best way to rerelease. That money. Mainly questions about what increments should we release it. In, in. Terms of award levels. And then they. Also asked us to look a little bit about the at the process to see if there was a way. To refine our selection process so we could allow for a little more interactivity between the proposers and the selection panel. Thank you very much. All those in favor. My motion carries unanimously. Thank you. I am adopting a resolution supporting regional measure three. The Bay Area Traffic Relief Plan and a resolution supporting Proposition 69 and opposing Senate Bill one repeal to protect local transportation improvements.