Board of Public Works & Safety

SPECIAL MEETING – August 11, 2015 The Board of Public Works and Safety of the City of Michigan City, Indiana, met in a SPECIAL SESSION on Monday morning, August 11, 2015 at the hour of 11:00 a.m., in the Council Chambers, in the City Hall Building, located at 100 East Michigan Boulevard, Michigan City Indiana – a regular meeting room of this Board. The meeting was called to order by President Steve Janus, who presided. Noted present: Steve Janus, Michael Palmer and Virginia Keating (3). Absent: (0). A QUORUM WAS NOTED PRESENT. Also noted in attendance: Amber Lapaich, Corporate Counsel Charles “Spike” Peller, City Engineer Jim Micheals, Assistant Superintendent of Collection, M.C. Sanitary District Arber Hiniaj, Engineer, M.C. Sanitary District Craig Phillips, City Planner Kim Sliwa, Deputy City Clerk Change Order Request by City Engineer Spike Peller, City Engineer believed the board had a packet that shows the Change Order and maybe the summary on page 4 of 5 where the original contract cost was $1,069,601.00. Change Order 1 was about $24,000.00. Change Order 2 which is this, there is a deduction from the original work because they were able to save a little money by doing things a little different. With the additions to Change Order 2, the total contract cost including 1 and 2 is $1,263,000.00+ dollars. This is about an 18% increase in the original contract price. Mr. Peller added there is enough money in the Streets and Alleys account even if the Council takes back 20% of the original $2,000,000.00 that they appropriated. He knows there has been some talk about this. However, there would still be enough money for this Change Order. Also, there is some fairly detailed accounts of this Change Order and things like in the first part of the contract. This is just an estimate of the cost for the work to be done. Mr. Peller thinks the best way to do this is at the end of the work or contract he will bring before the board a File Change Order which will, when all quantities are tallied. This is based on tons of asphalt and square feet of sidewalk, things like that. They will not know the exact number until it is done. They will of course keep it under 20%. President Janus asked Mr. Peller if he was asking for a Change Order of $169,000 at this time and Mr. Peller agreed. That is the sum total of the Change Order. From the original contract they were able to save $223,000.00. The additions to the new work that they want to do is close to $400,000.00 and when you add that up and subtract that is what the net Change Order is. But this concludes all the work that they want to do, and it will be all done this year. Vice-President Palmer asked if this included the Fire Training Paving and Mr. Peller said it did not include it because they are working with the Sanitary District to get the property transferred and at the next board meeting it maybe be done. Mr. Peller has put together a description and they may transfer that to the City at which case then there will not be a need to have all these agreements and Memorandums of Understandings. Special Meeting – August 11, 2015 Page 2 Vice-President Palmer made the motion to approve the additional Change Order in the amount of $169,000.00. The motion was seconded by Virginia Keating and carried as follows: AYES: MEMBERS Janus, Palmer and Keating (3). NAYS: None (0). Motion carries. SOLICITATION OF BIDS Brad Minnick, Primera Engineers, came to the meeting today to see what questions the board might have regarding the plans or project in general. Craig Phillips stated for the benefit of two of the members, asked if the board wanted them to go through the whole project or just give highlights at this point? The plans have been drawn based on the comments received from the workshop. If there any specific question the board has about the project that they can address, it is basically South of Hwy 12 is largely signage and restriping. The addition of a bike lanes on Pine Street only. Parking on both sides of both Pine Street and Washington Street. North of Hwy 12 is more a substantial project, this consist of creating an actual intersection at Franklin and where Pine St and Washington St. currently intersect with Franklin, creating an actual intersection at 2nd St., and removal of the median north of 2nd St. The colored sheets that were sent separately, those represent the staging or the phases of traffic flow, so it will not result in full street closures. Mr. Minnick stated MOT is an acronym for the maintenance of traffic. The Stage 1 and most critical portion of the project is north of US 12 at the intersection of Franklin and 2nd St. As the board can see from the red hashing in the Stage 1 drawing, the part would be quadrant off and built from 2nd St. through the medians that are just south of the bridge. That has to be built first, that comes into play when the traffic flip occurs later in the staging. In Stage 1 all the removals and purposed curves would be built at 2nd and Franklin. Then install all the signs and signal throughout the project. Mostly from 11th St. down to 2nd St. and bag them so they would be covered until ready. Traffic flow would be counter clock wise one way which is consistent with the current traffic flow. Going to the next page, Stage 2 push all the traffic on Pine St. and Washington St. inside, that would be the west side of Pine St. and east side of Washington St., then work on the outside lanes for pavement marking, removal, striping and so forth. Then similarly the traffic would continue to flow in a counter clock wise direction, one way. Finally in Stage 3 push all traffic to the outside being the east side of Pine St and the west side of Washington St. At the end of Stage 3 open it all up to traffic with the intention of this being built all this fall, then in the spring there would be construction at curbs of Washington St. and 2nd St. and also at 2nd St. and Pine St. This would be to straighten out the curbs a little bit. President Janus asked if it was stated that they would have to purchase some area on the curb. Mr. Phillips stated there would have to be some negotiation with property owners in order for the possibility of the intersection of 2nd St. and Pine St. to occur. The second intersection at 2nd St. and Washington St. can occur today. This will only happen if they are successfully able to negotiation those terms with the three property owners. Mr. Phillips also wanted to clarify Washington St. is intended to be a one lane in each direction with a center turn lane down the center and parking on both sides from 11th St. to Michigan Blvd. Pine St. is shown as one lane in each direction with bike lanes in both direction and parking on both sides. Then 9th St. would be one lane in each direction with a center turn lane in the section between Washington St. and Pine St. Then to the west of Washington St. would be two way from Washington St. all the way through Chicago St. with parking on both sides. The reason for bike lanes on Pine St. is as a City subscribe to a Complete Streets model whenever we do major traffic work, we have to provide for all modes of transportation. Keeping that in mind, Mr. Phillips works with partners at the South Shore and NICTD. Having a bike lane Special Meeting – August 11, 2015 Page 3 going to and from our train station is a very good planning method. There has been some concerns that the bike lanes dead end at 11th St., they don’t dead end at 11th St., they dead end at a train station. That is critical, and thinks we should whole heartedly support that. They don’t feel the bike lanes are appropriate for Washington St. but they do fit on Pine St. Mr. Phillips also reinstated that Washington St. would be one lane each direction with a center turning lane for its entire length, Washington St. would be intended for carrying the majority of the heavy traffic within the downtown area as a result of this project. To the north of Hwy 12 there would be the same type of configuration on Pine St. up to where it curves into 2nd St. and Franklin St. Franklin St. and Washington St. all the way through would have that center turn lane to lead you in and out of Washington Park. This is for the purpose of being able to have enough traffic flow and perhaps being able to reverse traffic flow for events. Virginia Keating asked when the target completion date was. Mr. Minnick would have an intermediate completion date for the traffic flip late fall, probably November 15. Then the final completion date would be in the spring early summer and that would hinge on negotiations with the property owners at 2nd St. and Pine St. President Janus stated the actually switch to two way will occur prior to the curbing on the last two blocks of Washington St. are taken out? There will not be room for a turn lane then. Mr. Phillips stated that traffic flow would not be reversed until that intersection is done. However, that is intended to happen this fall if possible. President Janus reminded them the curve at 9th St and 10th St. on Washington St., the curbs come out into Washington St. Mr. Minnick stated they were not going to do anything with the curb. President Janus stated with the curbs sticking out he didn’t think there was room for a turning lane. Mr. Phillips said there are bump outs to protect the parking, there is no need to change those. There are three lanes south of 9th St., there is adequate room to do, and there is currently parking on both side. Vice-President Palmer stated there are only two lanes in right now, they cannot get three lanes, that it skinny’s down and you have to merge over to one of the two lanes, starting at 9th St. Mr. Phillips responded the flow of traffic that would be Franklin St to 9th St. to Washington St. in terms of flow of traffic for the center turn lanes. The parking on both sides would remain the same south of 9th St. and is one lane in each direction. In order for us to accommodate what the board is asking for, they would have to lose the parking in front of those business on that section between 9th St. and 11th St. That is also a pretty substantial increase to the cost of the project. They intended for this project to be done south of Hwy 12 within existing curves. President Janus said there would be a backup at 11th St. More discussion ensued over this matter between Mr. Phillips and President Janus. President Janus stated if you take the curbs out at 9th St. and 10th St. and you would have the same width, but Mr. Phillips reminded them that you have to take out bump outs out at all three of those intersections, which is a pretty costly project. Spike Peller, City Engineer his thinking is to do it like they have planned and if there is a big problem, they can change it. But he does not see a point in changing this plan right now and adding the cost when it may not be necessary. Mr. Phillips added that traffic will be able to turn onto 9th St., there will be a center turn lane available on 9th St. between Franklin St. and Washington St. and then there is two lanes in each direction on Franklin St. south of 9th St. More discussion ensued between the board and Mr. Phillips about traffic issues. Mr. Phillips stated the board was suggesting an addition of a center turn lane in that area south of 9th St. Maybe not a center turn lane but two lanes going one direction? President Janus stated that change just might do it. Mr. Phillips stated that would mean talking to all the property owners and redesigning the project to take out all the bump outs. Special Meeting – August 11, 2015 Page 4 Mr. Minnick spoke stating one potential alternative at that intersection would be to change the signal head and have a left turn arrow and holding up the northbound traffic, so it would be a delayed signal. He asked if that was a concern at other streets or was this one just because of the South Shore. President Janus stated no other intersections were a concern. Mr. Phillips added that they can always come back and modify this as a second phase of the project if they find it is not working. It would take some more work and some pretty heavy engineering to make that work, similar to the engineering work that had to be done north of Hwy 12. Mr. Minnick stated that was the nice thing about this project and being able to hold over into the spring, they could monitor traffic flow after the switch and make adjustments still under this contract. It something is not fit or needed at a certain intersection whether it be due to development, they can come back and modify it under this contract. President Janus mentioned that Mr. Minnick still had to talk to the Post Office and someone else, what was that about? Mr. Minnick stated on Washington St. south of Hwy 12 the Post Office has their drop boxes on the east side of the road. With respect to the conversation with Commerce Square group, that was just bringing them up to speed of where the project is at and that there would be two phases. Mr. Phillips spoke that there was another possible suggestion for perhaps in the medium term, that could be help with the concerns at 11th St. Tim Haas with Haas and Associates they are a sub consultant to Primera Engineering on this project. In the future if there is a need for a change, they are to add a dedicated left turn lane, there is a possibility to eliminate parking along the eastside of Washington St. This is adjacent to what use to be the Boyd E. Phelps building. They do have a dedicated parking lot that does go with that building so the parking lane there is not as critical as in some of the other areas where there are houses that do not have any other place to park. Vice-President Palmer asked when the Bike Lanes were brought up on Pine St. and there were no traffic counts or get any accident reports, Mr. Phillips stated they do have basic traffic counts. Vice-President Palmer stated that they are putting traffic down to one lane on Pine St. which is really heavy especially on weekends, the concern was if they could do away with the two bike lanes and put in a center lane that could be utilized both ways? The board was not sure where the stop signs were going or if any were going to be added to some of the busy intersections. Mr. Phillips recommend against this, he thinks we have to provide for all modes of transportation when the city does city projects. And with the fact that the train station is there the city needs to do what they can to support traffic coming from the train station using all modes of traffic that are available. Mr. Phillips added that there is a rule of thumb in regards to the number of cars per day that a lane can handle. Pine St. was far under this number. There is definitely not a need for two or three lanes on Pine St. going in one direction based on this information. There will be a stop sign added at Pine St. and 6th St. Mr. Minnick added there are going to be changes to these stop signs. First they are going to go with LED stop signs so it will flashing red perimeter, this will help alert traffic to the altered pattern. Other cities have used this with great success. Stop Sign changes along Pine Street will be the following: 10th St. there are currently no stop signs northbound so they would be added in the northbound southbound directions, there are currently only stop signs in the east/west direction. 9th St. there is a stop sign already on the northbound so there would be an added one for the southbound. 8th St. has a signal. 7th St. has stop signs east/west and no stop signs on the north/south. 6th St. would be a purposed 4 way stop. 5th St. again northbound existing and southbound would be an add. 4th St. northbound existing and southbound would be an add. Then the signal at Hwy 12. Then on Washington St. of course the signal at 11th St., no stop signs at 11th St. They are currently on the east/west on 10th St. 9th St. thru 4th St. all would have stop signs because they are introducing left turn lanes at each intersection. 8th St. and Hwy 12 have a traffic Special Meeting – August 11, 2015 Page 5 signal. The benefit of having this project carry over into the spring is if a stop sign is not installed in the fall and it comes to be needed in the spring, it can be added. And just the opposite, if they are installed in the fall and they find out that traffic is bottle neck they can take the stop sign out. Mr. Minnick mentioned again all intersection on Washington St. that do not have a traffic signal will become 4 way stops. This is because of the left turn lane. PUBLIC COMMENT Larry Silvestri, 314 Kenwood Place and is a member of the Michigan City Redevelopment Commission. They has studied the details for a long time and Mr. Silvestri cannot see any major problem. Other studies has come up with the same solution, that these streets need to be two way. There was not one study that said leave it as it is. Further discussion ensued between the board and Mr. Phillip about authorizing two way conversion project and to be on the Board of Public Works and Safety agenda for August 17. 2015. Virginia Keating made a motion to advertise for bids on the Two Way Conversion Project. The motion was seconded by Vice-President Palmer and carries as follows: AYES: MEMBERS Janus, Palmer and Keating (3). NAYS: (0). Motion Carries. ADJOURNMENT President Janus inquired whether there was anything else to be considered by the Board at this time and, there being none, declared the meeting ADJOURNED (approximately 11:30 a.m.). Virginia Keating made the motion to adjourn. The motion was seconded by Vice- President Palmer and carried as follows: AYES: MEMBERS Janus, Palmer and Keating (3). NAYS: None (0). Motion carries. _________________________________________ Gale A. Neulieb, City Clerk