PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING
Meeting Minutes
February 8, 2011
MEMBERS ATTENDING
MEMBERS ATTENDING
Melissa Ashline-Heil, City of Cohoes
Brad Birge, City of Saratoga Springs
Frank Bonefide, NYS Department of Transportation
Rob Cherry, NYS Department of Transportation Region 1
Peter Comenzo, Town of Rotterdam
Ross Farrell, representing
Transportation Authority
Michael Franchini, Albany County (Chairman)
Steve Iachetta, Albany County Airport Authority
Andrew Kreshik, City of Troy
Joseph LaCivita, Town of Colonie
Patrick McCarroll, representing Michael Loftus, NYS
Thruway
Authority
Rosemary Nichols, City of Watervliet
John Poorman, Capital District Transportation Committee
(Secretary)
Paul Reuss, Village of Menands
Deidre Rudolph, City of Albany
Joe Teliska, representing Wayne Bonesteel, Rensselaer
County
Tony Tozzi, Town of Malta
STAFF
Dave Ardman, Barton & Loguidice
Shelly Johnston, Creighton Manning Assoc.
David Jukins, Capital District Transportation Committee
Sandra Misiewicz, Capital
District Transportation Committee
Leah Mosall, Capital District
Transportation Committee
Chris O’Neill, Capital
District Transportation Committee
VISITORS ISSUES
Chairman Franchini opened the meeting at approximately
9:40 am. There were no visitor’s issues.
ACTION ITEMS
ADMINISTRATION
Approval
of the January 5, 2011 Meeting Minutes
Members approved the January 5th meeting notes as
written.
UNIFIED PLANNING
CDRPC Amendment to the 2010-12 UPWP
2011-12 Linkage Project Selection
Sandy brought attention to the
fact that the City of Albany was not timely in providing match for previous
Linkage studies and that this concern would have to be addressed moving
forward. Sandy identified two potential options for members to consider:
Option 1: Fund all projects
with the exception of Albany with clarifications noted. Funding the four projects leaves $28,000 in
federal funds on the table.
Option 2: Fund all five
projects with clarifications noted and accepting Albany’s budget revision. This option will exceed the $200,000 reserved
for the program even with Albany’s revision on the project budget; however,
given the lower-than-anticipated demand for CDTC staff effort for Linkage, the
$225,000 federal funding required to support Option 2 is not a major budgetary
challenge to CDTC.
After some discussion, the
Planning committee approved Option 2, provided that there is assurance that the
city of Albany pays the local match at the time specified in the MOU.
2011-12 Addendum to the 2010-12 UPWP
At its January 5, 2011 meeting, the
Planning Committee reviewed an outline of proposed revisions to the second year
of CDTC’s 2010-12 Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP). Significantly modified
tasks included the Every Day Counts Initiative, the Census Data Task,
Since the budget for the approved
2011-12 Linkage studies is slightly higher than what is shown in the tables in
the draft UPWP, members were asked to allow CDTC staff to redo the tables with
this change. After some discussion about
the funding for the I-787 study, members approved the 2011-12 Addendum to the
UPWP and gave CDTC staff authority to adjust the UPWP tables to reflect the
increase in the 2011-12 Linkage Program line item.
2010-15 TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM UPDATE
Jobs Access and Reverse Commute Program
The Planning Committee approved the solicitation
for JARC at its November Meeting.
Shortly thereafter, the solicitation for projects for 2011 JARC
activities in was advertised with a due date of December 10, 2010.
CDTA was the only organization to
submit an application for funding. A
sub-committee of the Regional Transportation Coordination Committee (
For Federal Fiscal year 2011, a total
of $330,729 of federal JARC monies was allocated to the Capital Region
($295,799 A-S-T and $34,950 Saratoga).
The CDTA proposal provides the appropriate match for each of the
activities listed above. The total
matched cost of the 2011 JARC program, therefore, is $430,084 (with a total
match of $99,355). The figure of $430,084 needs to be included in the 2010-15
Transportation Improvement Program for CDTA to proceed with their proposed JARC
activities.
Members approved this change to the
TIP Projects T66 and T66A to reflect this programming of FFY 11 JARC funds.
Round Two Review
CDTC’s 2010-15 TIP development
involved a decision to program approximately $150 M in “anticipatory” revenues.
The funding level was viewed as sufficient to entertain a wide range of
candidate proposals with the intention of identifying a new generation of
projects that reflect New Visions priorities. It was also intended to allow
initiation of projects in early years of the TIP that would likely not be
constructed until years six through nine if lower funding levels prevail, but
would be more quickly advanced if higher funding levels materialize.
After addressing schedules, budgets
and commitments to existing projects (including those listed for the “post
period”), CDTC completed a Round One of programming of new high-ranking
projects within a limited set of project categories. Round Two of programming
was begun to consider other candidates and ensure that, overall, the 2010-15
TIP is balanced and equitable. Round Two was suspended by the Planning
Committee in July, 2010 (an action affirmed by the Policy Board in September,
2010) after agreeing that a minimum of $20 M of a $57 M programming balance
would be directed to pavement and bridges and that all new projects would be scheduled
later than those already programmed. At that point, the Planning Committee
determined that the urgency of identifying additional “out-year” projects was
less than originally expected, given that no progress had occurred in
Washington with regard to reauthorization legislation. With Policy Board
concurrence, the Round Two programming effort was tabled for at least six
months.
Six months have passed since the
Planning Committee’s decision to suspend Round Two. It is likely that
implementation of the first two years (2010-11 and 2011-12) of the 2010-15 TIP
will face federal funding levels that are, at best, flat. It is unlikely that
the full $150 M of “anticipatory” funding will be seen within the 2010-15 TIP
period, given that reauthorization has not yet occurred.
With this background in mind, John
Poorman posed four options for members to consider:
1. Truncate the
2010-15 TIP process. This would involve informing all sponsors that there will be no
further consideration of their candidates at this time, and that they will be
informed of any future opportunities to resubmit their candidates to CDTC.
2. Table Rounds
Two and Three. This would involve informing sponsors that CDTC will not be
considering remaining TIP candidates until federal funding levels are better
known, but that consideration of remaining TIP candidates would be among the
first CDTC programming activities at that time.
3. Complete Rounds Two and Three. This would
involve returning to the Planning Committee discussions over the compelling
arguments for each of the remaining candidates, within the broad funding
framework set before the subject was tabled. Projects selected for programming
through this effort would be subjected to public review and comment as draft
amendments to the TIP/New Vision Plan.
4. Abbreviate Rounds Two and
Three. This is essentially a hybrid between options 1 and 3. CDTC would
inform sponsors that it plans to complete its programming effort from last
year, but that given the delay experienced with reauthorization, CDTC must
reduce its estimate of “anticipatory” TIP resources. A lower estimate somewhere
$10 M and $25 M would be used in place of the previously-determined $57 M
balance and then the process outlined in option 3 would take place
After lively discussion, members approved Option 2.
TIP Project S175 Pangburn Road Bridge over Normanskill
Schenectady County is proposing the amendment
to the TIP due to a cost change resulting from their inability to completely
close the Pangburn Road Bridge during construction. The bridge cannot be closed due to the fact
that a number of other highway/bridge construction jobs will be occurring in
the vicinity of the project, impacting the public’s travel routes. Instead of
closing the bridge, the County proposes to maintain one lane of traffic during
construction. This would increase the cost of construction by $.604M. The total
proposed increase is $.578M due to a decrease in engineering costs of $.026M. The
county is willing to delay another County Bridge replacement job (TIP Project S203
– Van Vorst over Alplaus Kill) to provide an off-set if necessary.
There was some discussion mainly by
NYSDOT regarding the need for an offset and if the proposed delay of TIP
Project S203 would satisfy the requirement.
Members approved the motion to increase the budget of TIP project S175
and to use project S203 as an offset as necessary (if eligible).
Discussion Items
CDTC staff prepared updates for each
topic area addressed by the New Visions 2030 Plan. The updated summaries, identifying what the
2030 Plan said, what has happened since that plan was adopted in 2007 and what
the plans are for the 2040 New Visions Plan were distributed to Planning Committee
members in their mailout material. Using
PowerPoint slides, Chris O’Neill briefly reviewed the major points within each
topic. In response to a question, Chris
noted that the new census data will not be incorporated into these summaries
but that the new data will be looked at and analyzed for the 2040 update which
is scheduled to begin this fall.
STATUS OF PLANNING ACTIVITIES
NYSDOT
Eighteen of the twenty-one ARRA
projects are complete or mostly complete.
During 2011, oversight of local projects will occur within the design
unit. The Glenridge Road project will be
let on March 17th. The
I-87/Route 9 Corridor study is beginning to move forward.
CDRPC
CDRPC staff posted
CDTA
The Governor’s proposed budget did
not impact transit as much as was anticipated, in fact, CDTA’s budget could
increase slightly. The roll out of Bus Plus (Route 5
Albany County Airport Authority
Steve Iachetta circulated pictures
from President Obama’s visit in January.
Northwest Airlines and Delta Airlines recently merged, increasing
capacity. Service to Boston has been restored through a contract with Cape Air. A direct connection to the Economy Parking Lot
from Exit 5 will be open soon. The
Airport will receive ARRA funding through Clean Cities to purchase a
replacement CNG shuttle vehicle to service the Economy Parking Lot.
City of Watervliet
The Route 32 Linkage Study is now
complete. It will be posted on CDTC’s
and the city’s websites. The city
submitted their Comprehensive Plan to Albany County for their review. The plan should be adopted by the city
council within the next few weeks.
CDTC
The mapping of the TIP projects available
on CDTC’s website has been updated using a Google interface.
There being no other business, the
meeting was adjourned at 11:50 a.m. The
next Planning Committee meeting is scheduled for April 6, 2011.
Respectfully submitted,