CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS COMMITTEE

200 E. Wells Street City of Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 Meeting Minutes CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS COMMITTEE ALD. NIK KOVAC, CHAIR Ald. Robert Bauman, Ald. Michael Murphy, Ghassan Korban, Martin Matson, Mark Nicolini, and Mariano Schifalacqua Staff Assistant: Linda Elmer, 286-2231 Fax: 286-3456, lelmer@milwaukee.gov Fiscal Planning Specialist: Kathleen Brengosz, 286-3926, kbreng@milwaukee.gov Thursday, January 23, 2014 9:00 AM City Hall, Room 301-B Meeting call to order at 9:12 A.M. Members present: Ald. Kovac, Ald. Bauman, Mr. Korban, Mr. Matson, Mr. Schifalacqua Mr. Froh Members excused: Mr. Nicolini Also present: Kathy Brengosz - Fiscal Planning Specialist 1. Review and approval of the minutes of the November 27, 2013 meeting. Mr Froh moved approval of the minutes of November 27, 2013. There were no objections 2. Presentation of the Sidewalks Condition Report. Mr. Jeff Delleman - Infrastructure Services - Street Operations present at the table. He said that there are 68 million square feet (approx. 2,300 miles) of sidewalk in the City and that the average useful life of sidewalk is about 60 years. He said that a survey done in 2007 showed that approximately 18% of sidewalks are defective. 74% were defective due to grade differentials. Mr. Delleman said that the department will be doing a similar assessment in 2014. The survey will include 25 representative quarter sections containing approximately 5% of the City’s sidewalk inventory. The survey will identify general walk conditions, not specific walk that needs to be replaced. Mr. Delleman said the inspectors will be looking for grade offsets of more than ¾”, cracks that are more than ¼” wide, spalled surfaces, areas of settled or raised walk, areas that trap water, and patched slabs. He said that weather permitting the survey will begin in early March. He said it should take two public works inspectors about three weeks to complete. Ald. Kovac asked if this is the regular inspection schedule. Mr. Delleman replied that in the past there was no regular inspection schedule. He said that an assessment was done approximately 20 years prior to the 2007 survey. He said the department anticipates inspecting sidewalks on a seven or eight year cycle. He added that if the results of the 2014 assessment are positive, the department may go to a ten year cycle. Ald. Kovac asked if the same areas would be inspected as in 2007. Mr. Delleman replied that there are two or three quarter sections that are the same as in 2007. He said the results from those quarter sections will be compared to the results from the 2007 City of Milwaukee Page 1 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes January 23, 2014 COMMITTEE survey. Mr. Delleman described the various programs and means used to replace sidewalks in the City. He mentioned the Local Paving program, the Major Street paving program, the Sidewalk Replacement program, street maintenance and utility work, excavation and restoration permits, and private developments. Ald. Kovac asked when the wheel tax took effect. Ald. Bauman replied that it was in 2009. Ms. Brengosz said that the wheel tax would have had a greater effect on the Local Paving program than the Sidewalk Replacement program. Mr. Delleman described the sidewalk cutting program the department has been using regularly for two years. He said that sidewalk cutting is used to correct grade differentials of less than one and a half inches. He said that cracking has not been a problem because cutting is used to address only minor grade differentials. He said an east downtown area was done last year. He said in 2014 the department will focus on schools. Mr. Delleman said that the adopted budget for 2014 is $1.425 million for the Sidewalk Replacement program which was a little bit higher than the 2013 budget. Ald. Bauman asked if all the money gets spent or if there is carryover. Mr. Delleman replied that there is typically some carryover from year to year, but that the department has good cost data and develops contracts that expend virtually all of the budgeted funds. Mr. Delleman said that $1.1 million will be spent on area wide contracts and about $300,000 will be spent on scattered sites. He said that scattered site walk replacement costs between 50% and 70% more because the contracts have a lot of mobilization costs. Mr. Delleman said that the annual replacement goal is 350,000 square feet for the Sidewalk Replacement program and 700,000 square feet for the paving programs. He said that both programs have fallen short in recent years. 3. Presentation of the Bridges Condition Report. Mr. Craig Liberto - Infrastructure - Field Support present on this item. Mr. Liberto said that he will be presenting information from the department’s 2012 bridge inspections because the ratings for the 2013 inspections has not been received yet. He said those rating are usually received in February and suggested moving the bridge report to a later date for 2015. Mr. Liberto said that there are 179 city-owned bridges. There are 134 fixed bridges, 12 pedestrian bridges, 12 viaducts and 21 movable bridges. Mr. Liberto described the types of bridge inspections. He said that bridges are inspected in accordance with Federal Highway Administration and Wisconsin Department of Transportation standards by certified Department of Public Works (DPW) personnel. He said that most bridges are inspected every 24 months. Specialty bridges and bridges that are classified as structurally deficient or fracture critical are inspected every year. He said that last year the department did 101 bridge inspections including under water dive inspections on 31 bridges. Mr. Liberto explained that “fracture critical” meant that the bridge was designed in such a way that if one element failed, there was a possibility that the bridge could collapse. Ald. Kovac asked why bridges were designed that way and how many bridges in the City are fracture critical. Mr. Liberto replied that in the 1950 ’s and 1960’s that was the design methodology. He said that current bridge standards try to avoid fracture critical design whenever possible. He said that there are 32 fracture critical bridges. He added that 19 of them are moveable bridges that are only fracture critical when they are in the up position. Ald. Bauman asked how many bridges are deficient from a structural standpoint. Mr. Liberto replied that 16% of the City’s bridges are considered structurally deficient . Mr. Liberto described the three components of the sufficiency rating. He said that a bridge can have a maximum score of 100 points. He said that the structural adequacy of a bridge’s deck, superstructure and sub-structure is worth 55 points. City of Milwaukee Page 2 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes January 23, 2014 COMMITTEE Serviceability and functional obsolescence, which relates to lanes, widths, clearances and sightlines, is worth 30 points. Essentiality for public use, which relates to detour lengths and traffic volume is worth 15 points. He said that once a bridge is designed and built, the scores for serviceability, functional obsolescence and essentially for public use generally don’t change much. Ald. Kovac remarked that 45 of the 100 points in the sufficiency rating are related to policy issues and not related to the actual condition of the bridge. Mr. Liberto said that the sufficiency rating is a nationwide standard that is used for funding allocation and is not a true measure of safe verses unsafe. He added that the FHWA is updating the reporting process to require more documentation of condition and maintenance. Mr. Liberto said that the number of bridges with a sufficiency rating greater than 50 has been trending upwards since 1995. In 2012 91% of the City’s bridges had a sufficiency rating greater than 50. Mr. Liberto said that state and federal funding for bridges in recent years has decreased and more local funding has been required. He said that the federal bridge program is a competitive process based on limited statewide dollars. It’s a six year program and funds are applied for every two years. Bridges are generally funded at 80% with a 20% local share. Connecting highways are funded at 100%. He said that on the latest solicitation for fiscal years 2105 through 2018, the state received applications for 289 projects and awarded $93 million. The City received $7.3 million over the four year period. He said that this is three times as much as the City received in the last cycle but only about half as much as the City has historically received. He attributed the decrease in funding to an increase in project applications and the balancing formula that the state uses to distribute funds. Mr. Liberto described the balancing formula by saying that the state counts the number of bridges that are eligible for funding and determines what percentage are in each county. Each county is then entitled to that percentage of the available funding. If a community receives more than that percentage they will have a negative balance and their projects will be given lower priorities in future cycles. He said that at one point the City’s negative balance was $25 million. He said it is now approximately minus $5 million. Ald. Kovac said that the formula did not seem to take into account differences in the cost of bridges or the differences in the number of people who use the bridges. Mr. Liberto agreed. Mr. Schifalacqua said that funding should be need based and that the City is penalized by the existing allocation formula. Mr. Schifalacqua asked if bridge funding from the state has increased or decreased in recent years. Mr. Liberto said that most of the funding actually comes from the federal government and passes through the state. He said that bridge money allocated by the state has decreased in recent years but he did not know if the decrease was at the federal level. Mr. Schifalacqua said he believed it was not. Ald. Kovac asked how much a moveable bridge cost. Mr. Liberto replied that the reconstruction of Juneau Avenue cost about $13 million. He said that a new bridge might be somewhat cheaper because there is no removal cost but that it would still probably cost around $12 million. Ald. Kovac said that as part of the Lakefront Gateway project there may be a proposal for a new bridge where Florida Street used to be. Ald. Bauman said that there had been a proposal for a bridge at that location and it was vehemently opposed by the neighbors. Ms. Brengosz said that the next meeting is February 12th and the scheduled presentationd are street lighting, traffic control and bike facilities. Meeting adjourned at 10:01 A.M. This meeting can be viewed in its entirety through the City's Legislative Research Center at http://milwaukee.legistar.com/calendar. City of Milwaukee Page 3