Loading...
MPO TPC/TAC Board Minutes - 10/10/2007CITY CLERK'S OFFICE j Date By °_._.Tlme Z WICHITA FALLS METROPOLITAN PLANNING Technical Advisory Committee Minutes Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Voting Members Present: Lin Barnett —Wichita Falls MPO, MPO Director, TAC Chairperson Danny Brown — TxDOT, Director of Trans. Planning and Development Dave Clark — City of Wichita Falls, Dir. of Community Development Davis Powell — City of Wichita Falls, City Engineer James Kelley — TxDOT, Area Engineer Karen Montgomery-Gagne — City of Wichita Falls, Comm. Development Planner III Mark Beauchamp — City of Wichita Falls, Traffic Superintendent MPO Staff: Carolyn Askins — TxDOT, Transportation Planner 11 Donnie Arbeau — Wichita Falls MPO, Transportation Planner II Highway Needs Committee Members: Visitors: Jerrie Sowards — Texas State Representative Farabee's Office from District 69 Nora Zarate Hodges — Nortex Regional Planning Committee Absent: Allan Moore — TxDOT, Director of Construction Tim Hertel — TxDOT, Director of Operations I. Welcome & Introduction Mr. Barnett called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. and welcomed everyone present. II. Review and Approval of the July 11 th Technical Advisory Committee's (TAC) Meeting Minutes Mr. Barnett asked for comments on the July 11th TAC minutes. None were received. Mr. Beauchamp motioned to approve the minutes. Ms. Montgomery-Gagne seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved. III. Review and Comment Regarding the Transportation Policy Committee's (TPC's) July 25th Meeting Minutes - No Action Required Mr. Barnett asked for comments on the July 25th TPC minutes. None were received. The board moved on to the next item of business. Wichita Falls MPO TAC Meeting October 10, 2007 Page 1 of 4 IV. Discussion and Recommendation Concerning Year 2000 UZA Boundary Smoothing and the MPO Area Boundary (Requires TPC Approval) Mr. Barnett prefaced this item by stating that it was a general housekeeping responsibility that the Transportation Planning and Programming Division (TPP) of TxDOT in Austin had contacted the MPO about several months ago. The three pertinent boundaries that are referenced in this agenda item are: the MPO Boundary, the 2000 Urbanized Area Boundary or UZA and the 2000 Place Boundary. The only boundary to be corrected is the 2000 UZA Boundary. According to the U.S. Census Bureau a Place Boundary defines an administrative boundary for municipalities over 50,000 in population (i.e. city limits). The UZA boundary defines the urban area for Wichita Falls. The UZA boundary must contain at a minimum the 2000 Place Boundary Area, which it does not. Mr. Arbeau explained that the 2000 Census Place Boundary must be inside the 2000 UZA Boundary. Therefore, TPP in Austin recommended that the MPO correct inaccuracies in how the UZA boundary was defined in year 2003/2004. To summarize the corrections, the section of the UZA that extends south past the MPO Boundary must be removed and the two portions of the 2000 Place Boundary that are not inside the UZA boundary must be added. Mr. Barnett asked for a motion to send the revised UZA boundary to TPC for approval at the October 24`h meeting. Mr. Beauchamp motioned to approve. Mr. Kelley seconded the motion, which carried unanimously. V. Review and Prioritization of the 2007/2008 Surface Transportation Projects List Generated from the September 2007 Environmental Justice Public Meetings Mr. Barnett presented the proposed Surface Transportation Project list for 2007/2008 to the committee. He stated that the list was a compilation of new and remaining 2006/2007 prioritized projects. Eight new projects had been added during the course of recent public meetings. Mr. Barnett explained that all projects, for the past three years, had been accounted for as either: Prioritized, Preventive Maintenance, Under Construction or Let, or Not Feasible and are kept in a separate Excel spreadsheet. Board members reviewed all proposed projects and revised some of them. Projects of particular interest were: EJ -22, the IH 44 concrete repair project from the Wichita River to the Spur 325/US 287 interchange. TxDOT is currently conducting the north bound part of this project under CSJ 0043 -09 -110. The southbound portion is waiting to be let and is identified as TX -45 in the new list of projects. Also of note, the original Maplewood Phase 1 project was split into two separate projects and the new Phase 1 (2 -lanes east of Lawrence Road) has been moved to the "Completed" list of projects. The new Phase 2 was left as WF -12 on the list and amended to state the limits are "From Kemp to Lawrence Road ". Maplewood Extension Phase 3 was added to the list as WF -31 with limits "From Lawrence to McNiel ". Two other new projects were added during the meeting. The first was EJ -27, Windthorst Road, from US 287 south bound to Hatton Road, and WF -30, on Maplewood Avenue at Elmwood, add signalization. Board members discussed ways to reduce the overall list to reflect only "added capacity' projects. It was agreed that if a citizen or stakeholder driven Environmental Justice (EJ) project was viewed to be a maintenance or reconstruction /rehabilitation project then it should be removed from the prioritized list and forwarded to the appropriate agency (i.e. City of Wichita Falls Public Works or TxDOT Transportation Planning and Development) alerting the agency of their need to incorporate the project into their maintenance program. TxDOT and City of Wichita Wichita Falls MPO TAC Meeting October 10, 2007 Page 2 of 4 Falls surface transportation projects will be looked at on a case by case basis to determine whether or not they should remain on the list for prioritization or be forwarded to the appropriate agency for inclusion on their maintenance schedule. It is the goal of the TAC to reduce the current list of prioritized projects down to "added capacity' only or to projects of significant importance to the MPO. Each committee member cast his or her vote for each remaining project on the list as either: High, Medium or Low. The votes will be tabulated and each project scored and ranked. The final ranking will be presented to the TPC committee at the October 24th meeting where we will be asking them to review, revise and approve the new 2007/2008 prioritized list. The new, prioritized list will then be input into the 2007 MPO Surface Transportation Projects Environmental Justice Analysis Final Report and made available to the public. VI. Other Business: A. Discussion & Overview of Progress on Local Transportation Projects — City and TxDOT staff (Quarterly Review) City Report: Mr. Powell reported that the Loop 11 utility relocation for the Loop 11 extension will be complete by November 2007; there are nine other utility improvement projects currently under construction; in the future, Kell West Extension utility relocation will be let in November 2007; traffic flow improvements: construct left turn lanes at Kemp and Midwestern Parkway, Maplewood and Elmwood, Elmwood and Southwest Parkway; 10th Street, Harrison and Speedway intersection will be receiving faux brick concrete pavement to replace existing brick structure; Lawrence Road transfer station bridge will be constructed across Quail Creek Channel that will allow transfer trucks access to Maplewood and Lawrence Road at the signalized intersection (January 2008); a street rehabilitation City wide mill and overlay project that will let in January 2008; a city -wide designated alley rehabilitation project scheduled for March 2008; the Maplewood Phase II 4 -lane construction from Kemp to Lawrence Road with drainage improvement scheduled for March 2008; Gregg Road and Langford Road scheduled to reconstruct Gregg Road from Southwest Parkway to Langford Road and Langford from Gregg Road to Barnett Road in May 2008; there are 10 other utility projects scheduled for 2008 and 8 drainage improvement projects. TxDOT Report: Mr. Kelley stated the Kell West erosion problems had recently been completed; the ribbon cutting for the Falls Flyover will be November 13th; IH 44 is behind schedule due to flooding and a windstorm but is scheduled to switch traffic over onto the new concrete and begin work on Phase II by mid November; Kell West was awarded and a preconstruction meeting will be scheduled; Loop 11 has let and will begin work early next year. B. MPO Quarterly Financial Report (3rd Quarter FY 2007 — April, May, June) Mr. Barnett reported that two open transit grants (FY 2004 & FY 2005) had been closed and that he was in the process of setting up grant public hearings for the FY 2008 Transit Grant. He asked for comments and questions on the quarterly report. There were none. C. Transit Study Progress Report Wichita Falls MPO TAC Meeting October 10, 2007 Page 3 of 4 Mr. Barnett reported that the City had received the final. report of the Transit Study from Moore and Associates. He commented that while much of the information contained within the report was very useful (i.e. community survey and on -board survey) there was some disagreement with the route structure that Moore and Associates was proposing. Mr. Barnett stated that the Director of Aviation, Traffic and Transportation, the Transit Administrator and he were currently working on the problem. Moore and Associates did not offer any additional routes other that to reconfigure the existing 5 main routes and the Sheppard Express route. Mr. Barnett went on to say that they hoped to present City Council with a sound proposal before end of the year and to implement the plan by early next year. D. Calendar Year 2008 Meeting Schedule Mr. Barnett asked for comments on the proposed calendar. There were none. E. Other Mr. Barnett reported that BWR Corporation was currently working on the 2005 base year estimates for the socioeconomic forecast study update and that BWR had made some minor revisions to the TAZ boundaries up around Sheppard Air Force Base. Mr. Barnett stated he was scheduled to have a teleconference later in the day to discuss these issues, traffic generators, and progress on the study update. IX. Public Comment on Anything Not on the Agenda No comments were received. XII. Adjourn The meeting adjourned at 12:00 noon. af Irvan F. "Lin" Barnett Jr. MPO Transportation Planning Director Wichita Falls MPO Wichita Falls MPO TAC Meeting October 10, 2007 Page 4 of 4