HPMPO Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC)

Attachment 1 MINUTES TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY COMMITTEE April 28, 2015 TAC MEMBERS PRESENT: Neal Grimes – Thomasville Larry Warlick – Archdale Fred McClure – Davidson County Larry Ward – Denton Cheryl McQueary – NCDOT Board Division 7 Bill Bencini – High Point Keith Volz – Jamestown TCC MEMBERS PRESENT: Greg Venable, Mark McDonald, Guy Cornman, Hemal Shah, Bryan Fulbright, Chuck George, Roger Jones, Zeb Holden, Scott Rhine, Chuck Smith, Diane Hampton, Jeff Loflin, Darius Sturdivant, Heidi Galanti, Ed Lewis, John Gray, Wayne Davis, Gregg Errett, Angela Wynes, and Carrie Spencer. OTHERS PRESENT: John Hanes (Transportation Planning), Randy McCaslin (High Point), John Tippett (Consultant), Richard Atkins (Triad Transportation Partnerships) RECORDING SECRETARY: Marianne Janiszewski, City of High Point Item 1: Reading of the Ethics Statement. Neal Grimes read the Ethics Awareness and Conflict of Interest Reminder. No one had any conflicts. Item 2: Public Comment Period Neal opened up the public comment period. There were no speakers. Neal closed the comment period. ACTION ITEMS Item 3: Consideration of the March 24, 2015 TAC meeting minutes. There was no change to the minutes. Motion by: Fred McClure Seconded: Larry Warlick Vote: For: Unanimous 1 Attachment 1 Against: None Item 4: Consideration of an amendment from NCDOT to the 2012-2018 Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP). US 29 / US 70 / BUSINESS 85 SB, Replace bridges 400237 and 400242 over Deep River in High Point. Revise project scope to include Bridge 400237. Motion by: Larry Warlick Seconded: Keith Volz Vote: For: Unanimous Against: None Item 5: Consideration of an amendment from Hi tran to the 2012-2018 Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP). High Point Transit System would like to request an amendment to the FY2012 – FY2018 MTIP to allow Hi tran to add funding for our FY15-16 transit operating and routine capital funding as well as add funding for replacement of half of the Para transit fleet. The total for Para transit is $175,000, operating assistance $1,500,000, and routine capital $258,000. Motion by: Larry Warlick Seconded: Fred McClure Vote: For: Unanimous Against: None Information Items: Item 6: Presentation on A New Approach for Developing Local Government Priorities. John Tippit was a Transportation Planning Administration for the Hickory MPO for several years. He gave a presentation on the above topic. 2 Attachment 1 Cheryl McQuery stated that NCDOT Board Members have access to a small pool of money that they can spend however they choose. Cheryl represents five counties and she tries to make sure that she spends money in every county. She gave examples of several small projects she funded. The High Point MPO is covered by three Board Members so there is an opportunity to draw upon some small amounts of money. Most times the Division Engineer is contacted about a project who then in turn contacts Cheryl and explains the project. They will then decide if it makes sense to spend this kind of money. At the end of the year the money that is unspent is taken and put into the maintenance fund. She advised Conover to reach out to the District Engineer and make certain that that person is on the same page with you on all your projects because there are several funds that are available. If the Board Member agrees to fund a project a paper is filled out and sent up to Raleigh for approval and then when approved it will be put on the board agenda for approval. AGENCY REPORTS Item 7: NCDOT Board of Transportation Report. Cheryl McQueary reported that the General Assembly came up with a solution to the gas tax but there is still no long term funding fix for NC transportation funds. Greg is working on getting someone to come out and give a presentation on how funding is handled in the state. A couple of weeks ago the Governor introduced two bond requests and Division has two items on the bond. One would complete the Jamestown Bypass which is a $48,000,000 dollar project, and the other project is NC 119 in Alamance County, section B of the Mebane Bypass. This is a $17.8 million dollar project. Item 8: Division Engineer’s Reports. Division 7 Ed Lewis reported that the Traffic Signal Revision project on Main St., English Rd. is 90% complete. The plans are under review for the traffic signal revisions at Kivett Dr. and Dillon Rd./Triangle Lake Rd. The High Point Rd. project is 63% complete on work and 59% complete on the schedule. There are utility relocations under way on the Skeet Club Rd. project The contract has been awarded to APAC –Atlantic, Thompson Arthur Division. The design is in progress on the US 311 and NC 68 interchange. They are planning a workshop later this fall. The utilities have been moved and grading has begun on the realignment project at Groomtown Rd. and NC 62. There are 12 design- build bridge projects on the list. Work has started earlier this month on the bridge at Groomtown Rd. We are expecting about a 120 day closure. There are two other bridge projects that are currently under construction, one at Lexington Ave. over Bouldin Branch, and the other on Model Farm Rd. over Richland Creek. Division 8 Jeff Loflin reported on the list of projects in the draft STIP. Some adjustments have been made to the project schedule. The I-85 improvement project in Randolph County is scheduled to be completed in mid-May. The resurfacing program is currently under way. Some of the utilities have been relocated on the Braxton Craven Rd. bridge replacement 3 Attachment 1 project but some of the bridge funding is in flux so this project is on hold until the construction funding on bridge projects is determined in July. Division 9 Diane Hampton reported that they had a good public meeting on April 21 on the MPO projects process. There were approximately 20 members of the public along with about 20 DOT members. There are several rail and bridge projects under way. The pavement rehabilitation, bridge preservation, and upgrade to interstate standards project on Business 85 is 70% complete. The bridges over Swearing Creek will be replaced. Division 9 recently had a noise wall meeting in which the local community was invited to come out and see what the noise walls look like. They are waiting on the results of their ballots to decide whether the noise wall will be put in near the high school project. The widening of NC8 (Winston Rd.) will be let in FY 2019. Item 9: Triad Air Awareness. No one was here. Item 10: NCDOT Transportation Planning Branch Report. Hemal Shah reported that based on guidance from FHWA PL (planning funds) cannot be used to prepare the NEPA document. Planning funds can be used for preliminary engineering up to 15% of its cost. This language was updated and approved UPWP for FY 2016 as a technical correction and there was no change in the dollar amount. Item 11: Hi tran Report Angela Wynes reported that they are wrapping up their short range transit plan and are presenting the final draft to council on Thursday afternoon. Council will have a chance to review all of the input from the public, sounding board, steering committee, as well as the recommendations that they would like to see over the next five years. Item 12: PART Report Scott Rhine stated that the air quality conformity process is on schedule. They will be going in with a generation of their model activities in May. If everything works fine they will be moving into their division of air quality work. PART is working with the MPO to set up at a future meeting to present the freight enhancement study that they have been working on this current fiscal year. They had some federal highway administration research funds that were used for this study. This project has been completed. It is designed to incorporate more freight into the planning process. There will be a groundbreaking and naming ceremony event on May 13 for the PART Intermodal Transportation Center honoring Congressman Howard Coble. Item 13: Other Business Chuck Smith reported that Jamestown has been awarded two major sidewalk projects. The town agreed to sign the Municipal Agreement in July, 2014. One project is a $1.2 million dollar pedestrian bridge and sidewalk project and the other is a $150,000 of state and federal funding for both of these projects. It has taken eight months to get the 4 Attachment 1 municipal agreements back which left them with four months to complete the design work and testing. They had to spend town funds to start the design process and testing and are hoping to get reimbursed for those expenditures. Mr. Smith is asking the TAC for a letter of support to request and extension of the June 30,2015 date out approximately 2-3 months to allow them to get comments back from DOT and the railroad. Motion by: Keith Volz Seconded: Larry Warlick Vote: For: Unanimous Against: None The next meeting in May may be cancelled or postponed. Greg will set out an email. There was no other business. The meeting was adjourned. 5