HPMPO Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC)

Attachment 1 MINUTES TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE February 25, 2014 TAC MEMBERS PRESENT: Becky Smothers – High Point Jim Myers –Lexington Clyde Lynn Reece – Wallburg Billy Joe Kepley – Davidson County Neal Grimes – Thomasville Bill Bencini – Guilford County Larry Warlick - Archdale TCC MEMBERS PRESENT: Guy Cornman, Hemal Shah, Darius Sturdivant, Jeff Loflin, Mark McDonald, Bryan Fulbright, Chuck Smith, Matthew Johnson, Diane Hampton, Julie Maybee, Zeb Holden, Chuck George, Roger Jones, Kevin Edwards, Rob Stone, Mike Mills, and Pat Ivey OTHERS PRESENT: Greg Venable (City of High Point Transportation), Randy McCaslin (City of High Point), David Morris (PART), Strib Boynton (City of High Point), Karel VanDerLinden (Davdson County Airport Manager), LG Cashion (Davidson County Airport Authority RECORDING SECRETARY: Marianne Janiszewski, City of High Point Item 1: Reading of the Ethics Statement. Becky Smothers read the Ethics Awareness and Conflict of Interest Reminder. Item 2: Public Comment Period Becky opened up the public comment period. There were no comments. Becky closed the comment period. ACTION ITEMS Item 2: Consideration of the January 28, 2014 TAC meeting minutes. There was no change to the minutes. Motion by: Jim Myers Seconded: Larry Warlick 1 2 Attachment 1 Vote: For: Unanimous Against: None Item 3: Public Hearing for the Conformity Determination Report for an amendment to the Winston-Salem Urban Area FY2012-2018 Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program. The Winston-Salem MPO is amending their FY 2012-2018 Winston-Salem Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP). The amendment that requires HPMPO TAC action is TIP project I-911A, which is a widening of I-40 from NC 801 in Davie County to Harper Road in Forsyth County. This particular amendment requires a Transportation Conformity Determination. Because the High Point MPO includes a portion of Forsyth County, the High Point MPO must also approve the amendment and associated Air Quality Conformity Determination. The amendment has been out for the required 30 day public review and comment period and a required public hearing as part of the High Point MPO Public Participation Policy. Becky opened the Public Hearing up for comments. There were no comments. Becky closed the Public Hearing. Item 4: Consideration of the Conformity Determination Report for an amendment to the Winston-Salem Urban Area FY2012-2018 Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program. Motion by: Bill Bencini Seconded: Neal Grimes Vote: For: Unanimous Against: None Item 5: Consideration to release the Draft 2014-2015 Unified Planning Work Program for public review and comment. As part of the process for approval, the Draft 2014-2015 UPWP must include a minimum 30 day review and comment period. Greg already sent out the allocations for the year to each jurisdiction. Greg will email each member a copy of the whole draft. Most of the numbers will not change. Transit numbers are not in yet. There may be some changes to the Section 5303 funds. At the end of the comment period there will 2 3 Attachment 1 be public hearing held at a regularly scheduled TAC meeting so the public can have their comments recorded if they so choose. Staff is requesting approval from the TAC to place the Draft 2013-2014 UPWP out for public review and comment. Once the public comment period has concluded and the public hearing held, staff will be requesting TAC approval at the April TAC meeting. Motion by: Bill Bencini Seconded: Jim Myers Vote: For: Unanimous Against: None AGENCY REPORTS Item 6: Division Engineers Report Division 7 Mike Mills reported that the High Point Road widening project is slightly ahead of schedule, 35% complete, 21 % scheduled. They are still working on the interchange across I-73. The let date for the section of Skeet Club Road from NC 68 (Eastchester Dr.) to Johnson St. (U-3615B) has been shifted to January 2015 because of utility issues with Colonial Gas Line also there is some redesign going on at the Johnson Street intersection. The section is being reduced down a little bit to meet what is out there currently and what is proposed traffic wise. The U-3615A section of this project is currently unfunded, it will be listed in Prioritization 3.0 but do not know where it will fall. The intersection at I-74 and Eastchester has been approved. Design is still in progress and the project will be listed in Prioritization 3.0. The Groomtown Rd., NC 62 safety improvement design is in progress and will be let in September, 2014. The City of High Point is working on getting the utilities buried on the Pedestrian Improvements Project for Main St. at Lexington Ave with a let date sometime this year. There are currently some active bridge projects. The bridge over Richland Creek on Baker Road is slightly behind schedule. There are twelve design build low impact bridge projects under way and future bridge project over Lexington Ave. The let date has not been determined. The public hearing for the Prioritization 3.0 took place on January 29. 2014. Several good projects have been listed. Mike has been working with Greg and Mark as to who is going to list which project. The scoring of these projects will be done by May at which point all the divisions along with the MPO will coordinate which projects points need to be placed on based on how they rank scoring wise. Division 8 Darius Sturdivant reported that advance work on the project on I-85 from the Davidson County line to east of US 311 has started but it will not fully get under way until March. The installation of interstate signing along I-73/74 is nearly complete. The upgrading to 3 4 Attachment 1 interstate standards of I73/74/US 220 Bypass is scheduled to be let in May, 2014. There are a few resurfacing projects that will be let in March, 2014. Last Monday Division 8 held their STI Public meeting. There was a small turnout but they have gotten some good comments. They are in the process of entering new projects into SPOT on-line, which has a due date of March 3, 2014. Division 8’s public information meeting on SPOT will be held on the evening of Wednesday, February 12 at the DOT Traffic Office in Carthidge. Division 9 Diane Hampton reported that there are a lot of bridge replacement projects in various stages of completion. Project R-4750 on Business 85 will start on the outside south bound lane on March 3, 2014. There is an open graded friction course project on I-85 which they will be adding more areas too. A new project that will be added soon is a left turn on Hickory Tree Road at Mendenhall Rd. There is a commitment of $250,000 from the Transportation Mobility and Safety Office and the Winston Salem MPO is trying to come up with $410,000 to complete the funding for this project. The Wilcox Bridge Connectivity meeting will take place tomorrow at the Davidson County Parks and Rec Building on W. Center St. Ext. at 1:30. Pat Ivey reported that Division 9 had their STI Public Involvement meeting on January 27, 2014. They were very pleased and surprised at the turnout which was about 50 people. They are still getting comments in. The plans for the signing project for I-74/US 311 to upgrade it to reflect its new interstate status has been approved and the project will be let this spring. Commissioner Kepley asked Pat about the high cost of the left turn lane on Hickory Tree Rd. Pat explained that the higher cost was due to moving utilities. Item 7: NCDOT Transportation Planning Branch Report. Hemal reported that she has provided Greg the website link to the CTP projects and he will send them out to everyone. Item 8: Hi tran Report Angela was not present at this time. Mark reported that the Triennial Review was just completed and the FTA has provided some comments. The comments that were received were consistent with other agencies that are going through the same process. Most of the comments involved documentation and making sure that our policies are in sync with current federal policies. Ridership is down slightly mostly due to the weather. The steering committee and sounding board committee for the transportation study and hope to have it completed later this year. Item 9: PART Report David Morris reported that the regional summit for the Piedmont Together project will be March 27, 2014 in the Empire Room in Downtown Greensboro for the daytime session and the night time session will be held at the Carolina Theater in Greensboro. PART has received the honor of a Best Workplace for Commuters award. It is a program that encourages all types of aspects of commuter transportation. PART planning staff is working Greensboro and Winston-Salem on small area planning charrettes which are funded from the Sustainable Communities HUD grant. This will start in February and be 4 5 Attachment 1 completed by June 30, 2014. PART hosted a regional training session with the Winston- Salem bomb squad for urban operators of the Triad. They learned about the difference between suspicious versus unattended packages. This will become a part of the drivers training program as well as the mechanics. PART ridership is currently ahead of last year’s ridership numbers. Item 10: MPO Staff Report Greg reminded everyone that they have to file the ethics requirements by April 15, 2014. INFORMATIO N ITEMS Item 11: Strategic Transportation Investments (STI) Prioritization Process P3.0 update. Included in your packet is the priority ranking criteria that will be used to rank the projects of the High Point MPO. This ranking has been sent to NCDOT for review and approval. Also a more detailed description of the project selection matrix is included as well. Greg handed out a SPOT P3.0 Schedule. Item 12 : Other Business LG Cashion with the Davidson County Airport Authority gave a presentation on their needs for the airport. There was no other business. The meeting was adjourned. 5 6