PLANNING
COMMITTEE MEETING
Meeting Minutes
April 7, 2010
Melissa Ashline-Heil, City of Cohoes
Bradley Birge, City of Saratoga Springs
Wayne Bonesteel, Rensselaer County
Peter Comenzo, Town of Rotterdam
Frank
Commisso, Albany Port District Commission
Rocky
Ferraro, Capital District Regional Planning Commission
Michael Franchini, Albany County (Chairman)
Steve Iachetta, Albany County Airport Authority
David P. Jukins, Capital District Transportation
Committee
Andrew Kreshik, City of Troy
Joe LaCivita, Town of Colonie
Kathy Matern, Town of Niskayuna
Barb McHugh, Town of Clifton Park
Mike Morelli, Town of Bethlehem
Paul Reuss, Village of Menands
Tom Richardson, City of Mechanicville
Deidre Rudolph, City of Albany
Steve Watts, Town of Halfmoon
STAFF
Jen Ceponis, Capital District Transportation Committee
Tom Dolin, Town of New Scotland
Shelly Johnston, Creighton Manning Association
Tammy Kirkwood, GMB Engineers and Planners
Colleen Smith Lemmar, NYS Department of Transportation
Maryanne Mariotti, NYS Department of Transportation
Region 1
Sandra Misiewicz, Capital
District Transportation Committee
Christopher O’Neill, Capital
District Transportation Committee
Don Rhodes, Village of
Colonie
Bruce Secor, Stantac
Consulting
VISITORS ISSUES
Chairman Franchini opened the meeting at approximately
ACTION ITEMS
ADMINISTRATION
Approval
of the February 10, 2010 Meeting Minutes
The minutes from the February 10, 2010 meeting were approved
as written.
CDTC STAFF PRESENTATION`
Capital
CoExist
CDTA’s Bike Rack Program
The Capital Region Bike Rack Program
is a new addition to the set of Travel Demand Management (TDM) activities that
are administered cooperatively by CDTA and CDTC. The program provides free bike racks (up to
$1000) to the public sector and non-profits and provides a 50/50 cost sharing
arrangement for bike racks for the private sector. Eighty-two organizations submitted applications
for bike racks under the 2010 solicitation, for a total of $54,500. Seventy-seven applications were approved for
335 bike racks (totaling $50,000). About
900 bicycle parking spaces will be created as a result of this program. Project sponsors must sign an MOU and commit
to installation within a two month time frame.
The first delivery of racks will be available for pickup by project
sponsors on April 19th.
UNIFIED PLANNING
Revision
to the 2008-10 UPWP PL Budget
The UPWP PL budget needs to be revised due to greater
than expected staff time spent on the TIP update. To balance the PL budget, staff recommended
moving monies out of tens code 30 and reallocating to tens codes 10 and
40. Members approved the UPWP revision.
CDRPC also submitted (distributed at the meeting) a
request to amend the 2009-10 approved UPWP budget, moving $8500 out of
Provision of Services and moving $8500 into Socio-Economic
2007-12 TRANSPORTATION
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM AMENDMENTS
Broadway
over AMTRAK Service Road (R243)
The City of Rensselaer is requesting an increase of
$492,000 in construction funding for the Rehabilitation of the Broadway Bridge over
Amtrak (TIP Project R243). The bridge
requires immediate repair as it has numerous safety flags. The project also requires an increase of
$141,000 in design funds due to coordination issues with Amtrak. Members approved the proposed amendment.
Diesel
Retrofit Discussion
CDTC initially received and approved four project
proposals—
• The City of Watervliet -- $50,400
• The City of Schenectady -- $100,000
• Schenectady County -- $30,000
• The Town of Niskayuna -- $27,125
Subsequent to the city of Schenectady’s CMAQ award,
several fleet vehicles were retired and a few others were purchased. The city now has 17 vehicles that would
benefit from diesel retrofit technology.
However, the technology has improved greatly, as has the cost. Federal law requires that CMAQ be used to
fund retrofits using Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART). In the city’s case, this is Level 3
technology that will reduce Particulate Matter (PM) emissions by 85% (as
compared to 20% that the 2008 technology would have achieved) at a cost of
$14,799 per vehicle (total cost $251,583).
The city is asking the Planning Committee to approve the increase in
cost to retrofit the 17 vehicles.
Members approved the cost increase.
2010-15 TRANSPORTATION
IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM UPDATE CONTINUATION OF ROUND 2 PROGRAMMING
Summary of
Actions Previously Completed
During Round one programming, $71M was programmed,
mostly for highway projects. Top ranked
projects were selected for funding under Round 1. During Round 2, three safety projects were
programmed and members approved funding for several set-asides (ADA, Spot
Improvement, Linkage Transition Engineering and Bridges). With a $150M programming target, about $64M
is left to program in Round 2 and Round 3.
Approximately $56M should be programmed under Round 2, leaving $8M for
Round three.
New Scotland Project Candidate (Candidate #18)
Tom Dolin, Town of New Scotland Supervisor, reported
that the scope of the candidate project submitted by the Town, Rehabilitation/ Reconstruction
of Krumkill Road listed under candidate pavement projects in Table 7 of members
packets, has substantially changed. A engineering study suggests that the road
can be realigned for $3M, with the same benefit of the former $9M project (that
was submitted for consideration for the
Watervliet Hudson Mohawk Bike Trail Completion Candidate
(Candidate #25)
Public
Comment Received as of March 30, 2010
The Draft 2010-15 Transportation Improvement Program was
released for public review on March 4, 2010.
As of March 30, twenty-one written comments were received. Most comments voiced support or had questions
about specific projects on the candidate list.
Additional comments received by May 4, 2010 will be considered at the May
5th Planning Committee meeting.
Discussion
on the Village of Altamont Letter
Mayor Gaughan submitted a letter that further
articulates his concern regarding how TIP project candidates are
evaluated. The Mayor attended the
February 3rd Planning Committee meeting and introduced his concerns
at that meeting. Basically, the Mayor
feels that small projects from rural communities, are not given an “equitable”
evaluation, with larger urban needs taking precedence. Dave Jukins reminded members that Round 2 and
3 considers criteria other than rank for project selection.
Additional
Round 2 Programming
Members were reminded that Round 2 programming is not on
the critical path to adopting the
As a starting point for discussion,
After a spirited discussion, Committee members requested
CDTC staff to identify three to four options for funding allocations with
attendant lists of candidate projects. Members will use these lists a starting
point for discussions at the May meeting.
NYSDOT ARRA REPORT
Bob Hansen reported on the progression of the ARRA
projects. The Asphalt Index has been rising, which is affecting budgets for
ARRA Pavement projects. Early on, there
were some savings in completed ARRA projects, theses savings can be passed on
to other ARRA projects in the pipeline, on a first come first served
basis.
OTHER
There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned
at 12:25 p.m. The next Planning
Committee meeting is scheduled for May 5, 2010.
Respectfully submitted,