HPMPO Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC)

Attachment 1 MINUTES TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE April 22, 2014 TAC MEMBERS PRESENT: Becky Smothers – High Point Jim Myers –Lexington Clyde Lynn Reece – Wallburg Billy Joe Kepley – Davidson County Neal Grimes – Thomasville Larry Warlick – Archdale Keith Volz – Jamestown Larry Ward - Denton Bill Marley - FHWA TCC MEMBERS PRESENT: Greg Venable, Guy Cornman, Hemal Shah, Darius Sturdivant, Jeff Loflin, Mark McDonald, Bryan Fulbright, Chuck Smith, Diane Hampton, Julie Maybee, Chuck George, Roger Jones, Kevin Edwards, Mike Mills, Ed Lewis, Hal Johnson, Mark Kirstner, and Pat Ivey OTHERS PRESENT: Randy McCaslin (City of High Point), Karel VanDerLinden (Davdson County Airport Manager), LG Cashion (Davidson County Airport Authority), Britt Moore (HP City Council), Leigh Gill (Citizen) 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. Billy Joe Kepley read the Real Estate Disclosure Form. There was a short discussion regarding the wording and understanding of the form. Becky introduced Britt Moore a member of the HP City Council. Becky thanked the representatives from the Davidson County Airport Authority. Item 2: Public Comment Period Becky opened up the public comment period. There were no comments. Becky closed the comment period. 1 Attachment 1 ACTION ITEMS Item 3: Consideration of the February 25, 2014 TAC meeting minutes. There was no change to the minutes. Motion by: Keith Volz Seconded: Jim Myers Vote: For: Unanimous Against: None Item 4: Public Hearing for the update of the Public Participation Policy PPP. As part of the Public Participation Policy for the MPO, any updates to the policy must go through a 45 day public comment period followed by a public hearing. The public hearing was advertised in local papers, on local access cable television and on the HPMPO website. Becky opened the Public Hearing up for comments. There were no comments. Becky closed the Public Hearing. Item 5: Consideration of the updated Public Participation Policy (PPP). The PPP was updated to include the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation (PART) and HiTran Program of Projects in the MPO process. The update went through a 45 day public review and comment period. Once additional MPO staff is hired a more thorough update will be done. The wording of the PPP is consistent among MPO’s. Motion by: Jim Myers Seconded: Neal Grimes Vote: For: Unanimous Against: None Item 6: Public Hearing for the 2014-2015 Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP). 2 Attachment 1 As part of the process for approval, the Draft 2014-2015 UPWP must include a minimum 30 day review and comment period. The public hearing notice was advertised in local papers, cable access television and on the HPMPO website. Becky opened the Public Comment Period. There were no comments. Becky closed the Public Comment Period. Item 7: Consideration of the Certification of the High Point MPO Transportation Planning Process. Every year, prior to adoption of the Unified Planning Work Program, the MPO is required to certify its planning process and its compliance with various federal regulations including the Clean Air Act, the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the federal transportation authorizing legislation. The certification states that the MPO is in compliance with all federal requirements and is carrying out its planning process in the appropriate manner. The resolution is a necessary prerequisite for adoption of the UPWP. There is a checklist that is included in the Planning Work Program. Becky called attention to the timeline for the Planning Work Program. Motion by: Jim Myers Seconded: Keith Volz Vote: For: Unanimous Against: None Item 8: Consideration of the 2014-2015 UPWP. The UPWP is the MPO’s annual budget and work plan. It lists the planning tasks that staff expects to perform and the work products that we expect to produce during the fiscal year. Our fiscal year runs from July 1st through June 30th of next year. The work program consists of three major divisions: surveillance of change, long-range planning, and administration. Each major division includes several line items under which the MPO can perform work. Each line item includes explanatory text describing the customary work items for the line item, the rationale for performing the work, how much money we plan to spend on the line item and the work products that the MPO expects to produce during the upcoming year. The UPWP also includes a series of tables showing the sources of the funds used, the amount of federal funds used, the amount of the local match, and total expenditures for each line item from each funding source. Greg showed an overhead of the funding table. Some additional funding was added for special studies. The total budget for the upcoming year is $591,950. There was a comment at the TCC meeting that Davidson County is not receiving 5307 funds. Greg stated that they will work with Hi-Tran to take care of this. Becky was unclear as to whether it is last year’s money or this year’s money and Guy Cornman stated that the funds 3 Attachment 1 were from the past 13 months. The Draft 2014-2015 UPWP was available for public review and comment from March 17, 2014 to April 18, 2014. Motion by: Neal Grimes Seconded: Jim Myers Vote: For: Unanimous Against: None Item 9: Consideration of the resolution of support and project funding adjustments for a Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) project in Lexington. The City of Lexington has been awarded funding from the CMAQ program to purchase two hybrid sideloader refuse trucks. The hybrid sideloader that they are looking at uses hydraulics to assist the diesel engine. The fuel consumption, according to data from the Town of Cary who already owns and operates one of these vehicles, is reduced by 1/3. Data from the maker of this vehicle stated that emissions are reduced by almost 40%. The primary goal of CMAQ funds is to use these federal dollars in a way that reduces emissions and improves air quality. In order for Lexington to be able to purchase these vehicles with CMAQ funds Lexington’s TIP projects will have to be reallocated. A resolution of support is needed from the MPO for TIP Project C-5208 to go to the Board of Transportation in June. Lexington is also requesting the reallocation of funding by canceling CMAQ project C-5214 and transferring these funds to C-5208 and transfer $5,000 from project C-5212 to C-5208 to purchase the second hybrid sideloader. These transfers will give C-5208 $285,000 in CMAQ funds. The City of Lexington’s match will be over $525,000. The estimated cost for each sideloader is $385,000 for a total of $770,000. These sideloaders should have a 10 year life and even at present fuel cost there will be no increases which will result in a savings of over $77,000 per vehicle over 10 years. First motion is for the reallocation of funds. Motion by: Jim Myers Seconded: Cheryl McQueary Vote: For: Unanimous Against: None Second motion is for support of this project. Motion by: Jim Myers 4 Attachment 1 Seconded: Cheryl McQueary Vote: For: Unanimous Against: None Information Items Item 10: Strategic Transportation Investments (STI) Prioritization Process P3.0 update. During the past month the High Point MPO has been working with NCDOT on our ranking methodology. We have received approval to proceed with the process. Greg reviewed some of the highlights of this process. The ranking methodology is currently out for public review and comment. Greg would like to get together on May 20 to review public comments and approve the ranking criteria and priority list. Dot voting will take place at this meeting and the results will be released for another 30 day public review and comment period. Once the comments are received back after the 30 day comment period Greg would like the TAC and TCC members to meet on June 24 to approve the final list. At that point the local input points can be assigned and by July 1st have the final approved priority list and input points posted to the MPO website. The list will also be posted at the local libraries. NCDOT has a deadline of July 31 for completion. Greg also went over the ranking criteria for the projects. AGENCY REPORTS Item 11: Division Engineers Report Division 7 Mike Mills reported that the High Point Road project is ahead of schedule. The resurfacing is 25% complete. They are currently working on interchange where it crosses I-73. The Skeet Club Road project from Eastchester to Johnson has been delayed until January 20, 2015 due to issues with utilities. The I-74/US 311 and NC 68 interchange project design is in progress. It had to be listed again in prioritization 3.0. The safety project on Groomtown Rd. at NC 62 is in the design phase. It will be let in September of 2014. A one month delay has been requested on the pedestrian improvement project on N. Main St. at Lexington Ave. in order to bury utility service. Division 8 Darius Sturdivant reported that the first three projects on the list are already on the TIP list. The two active NCDOT projects on the list are on schedule. The pedestrian improvement project in Archdale is scheduled to be let in August, 2014. There are also some resurfacing projects on the list that are currently under development. There is federal funding available to municipalities for sidewalk projects. He does not currently 5 Attachment 1 have all of the details and will update Greg with updates. Currently Division 8 has $500,000 of money but it does require a 20% local match. There is a public meeting for the Asheboro bypass on May 8. A public officials meeting will be held from 2:00 – 3:00 followed by a public drop in meeting from 4:00 to 7:00 at the education building at the zoo. Division 9 Pat Ivey reported that the bridge project (B-4497) on US 64 over I-85 Business (29/70) in Lexington is open and total completion of this project is expected in a couple of months. Division 9 will be working with the city this fall on some landscaping on this project. Construction on the 2970/Business 85 project (R-4750) has begun. Contractors are working mainly on the new ramp. Lane closures are in place so they can begin work on shoulder and drainage. The anticipated completion date on this project is summer 2015. Item 12: NCDOT Transportation Planning Branch Report. Hemal reported that she currently working on a comprehensive transportation plan highway inventory. Item 13: Triad Air Awareness. No one was present. Greg reported that Lorelei Elkins will be attending the meetings to give an update on air quality. Mark Kirstner reported that the Triad Commute Challenge began on April 5. It is an annual event that raises awareness about commuters using different modes of transportation. Item 14: Hi tran Report Angela reported that hi-tran is moving forward with the short range transportation plan. The existing conditions work has been completed. Meetings with the steering committee and sounding board along with public outreach will be taking place within the next 30 days. They are aiming for a completion date in the fall of 2014. Ridership is slightly down, about 3%, due to the ice storms that occurred between January and March. Hi tran is experiencing some minor route changes due to the closing of Montlieu Ave. and a significant medical facility relocation. Transit funding for Davidson County has been delayed because of MAP 21 changes and changes in the certification insurances. Once this was caught up we ran into changes on rate expectations from FTA that has been compounded by the need to get intercompliance again on the findings from the triennial review as well as civil rights and sub recipient oversights. Before we can expend anymore federal funds Angela has to make sure that both Davidson County and Guilford County are in compliance. Becky asked how we make sure that the sub recipients are in compliance? Angela stated that Hi-tran is trying to hire additional staff whose responsibilities would include sub recipient oversight. Becky asked Angela to give Bill Bencini an update on this. Item 15: PART Report Mark Kirstner reported that ridership remains strong and is projected to exceed slightly the numbers from last year. PART’s Transportation Demand Management (TDM) 6 Attachment 1 program received a first place recognition of Best Workplaces for Commuters supporting agency from the Southeast Association of Commuter Transportation 2014 annual conference. They were judged against agencies in several states and Puerto Rico. PART has been working on an equity profile for the entire region which will provide data that will help everyone’s environmental justice compliance. The primary focus is economic development and economic opportunities for everyone. PART will be presenting the Piedmont Together Plan to all of the MPO’s and RPO’s and asking for approval of the plan. Item 16: MPO Staff Report Greg reported that the Piedmont Triad Regional Model update is ongoing. There is a freight component that staff has been working on with other MPO’s and PART. We have been awarded a grant for funding to help with this program. Third quarter invoices will be sent out within the next week. Greg will continue working on the SPOT project ranking and methodology. Item 17: Other Business There was no other business. The meeting was adjourned. 7