CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS COMMITTEE

200 E. Wells Street City of Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 Meeting Minutes CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS COMMITTEE ALD. ROBERT BAUMAN, CHAIR Ald. Nik Kovac, 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, June 25, 2015 9:00 AM City Hall, Room 301-B ... 1. Review and approval of the minutes from the June 3 meeting. Meeting convened: 9:10 A.M. Member excused: Gerard Froh. Willam Christianson present for Mark Nicolini. Ald. Kovac moved, seconded by Mr. Schifalacqua, for approval of the minutes. There were no objections. 2. Presentation of the Sewers Condition Report. Mr. Tim Thur, Department of Public Works, discussed the condition of the City’s sewer system. He said there are 2,461 miles of sewer and the City uses a 90 year service life which is the industry standard. Mr. Thur said that small diameter sewers (<21”) make up 75% of the system; 56% of the system is between 50 and 90 years old and that about 231 miles (10%) of the system is older than 90 years. He said that the combined sewer system is in generally good condition; however, it has the largest amount of sewers that are older than 90 years. He said the department is monitoring the older sewers. Mr. Thur said that although the sanitary and storm systems are generally newer than the combined system (combined sewers were used exclusively until the early 1900’s) about 62% of the sanitary system and 70% of the storm system is between 50 and 90 years old and will need to be rehabbed in the near future. Mr. Thur said that bigger rainfalls with greater intensity are becoming more common, changing the design data considerably so that many storm sewers are undersized. He said that the City has always installed storm sewers at a five year level of service. He said many communities use a 10 year level of service and that the department tries to upsize storm sewers whenever possible. Mr. Thur said that he did not know if it was a cost consideration, but that the 5 year design has been used since the early 1900’s. Mr. Thur said that flooding and backups are more affected by rain intensity than by volume. Mr. Schifalacqua said that when a storm sewer surcharges it is not as critical as when a sanitary or a combined sewer surcharges. Overfilled storm sewers will cause street ponding and underpass flooding, but generally not basement backups. Mr. Thur discussed the metrics for developing the sewer program. He said the primary considerations are condition, performance, and projects that are on the City of Milwaukee Page 1 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes June 25, 2015 COMMITTEE paving program. He said sewer exams are done based on age and that the department examines about 145 miles of sewer each year. He said that in 2014, the department hired an outside firm to examine and clean many larger diameter sewers, which increased exam total to 159 miles. Ald. Kovac asked if the department is actively exploring options to open cut replacement. Mr. Thur said that about half of the sewer program is some type of trenchless work. He said that the department meets monthly with MMSD and all the other communities in the area to discuss new technologies and methodologies. Mr. Thur said the department has averaged 34.5 miles of replacement each year over the last 10 years. He said that level of work will keep up with the 90 year replacement cycle, but won’t quickly address the backlog of older sewers. He said that new sewer construction declined dramatically in the 1930’s so eventually the backlog will decrease and the City will have a much smoother age distribution. Mr. Thur discussed various sewer projects including an area wide lining and manhole rehabilitation project, and a joint project with MMSD on the north end of the 30th Street Corridor. Mr. Thur discussed efforts to reduce flooding and backwaters. He said the department has spent $18.5 million in the areas that were directly impacted by the flooding in 2010. He said $36 million has been spent addressing areas of the City identified by MMSD as poorly performing. The department has completed two private property lateral lining demonstration projects, one in Cooper Park and one in the Clemens School area. The department has also completed a foundation drain disconnection program in Cooper Park. Mr. Thur said that the department can monitor 54 locations which vary from year to year. He also said that MMSD monitors and shares data on 200 additional sites. Mr. Schifalacqua asked if the department has results from the demonstration projects. Mr. Thur said that in 2013, the Cooper Park neighborhood saw a reduction of 45%. In 2014, the reduction was less. He said the department is evaluating the cause. He said it could be a change in the rainfall pattern. It could also be that the water which is no longer getting in through leaky laterals is raising the groundwater level and entering through the foundation drains. He said the data from the foundation drain project may explain why the reduction is not consistent. He said the department’s participation target for the foundation drain project was between 30 and 35 homes. Twenty five home participated which Mr. Thur believes will be sufficient to evaluate the project’s impact. Mr. Thur discussed lift stations and bypass pumps. He said the pumps and lift stations are inspected on a monthly basis for 35 different conditions. The department also does wet testing, which ensures that the pumps are operating correctly. He said the department lets one or two rehabilitation contracts per year. He said that as a result of the rehab program which was implemented in 2008, there are fewer major rehab projects and more minor repairs. Mr. Thur discussed green infrastructure. He said the department began installing green infrastructure in 2008. He said about 112 bio-swales have been constructed. DPW has used permeable pavement for different applications including several alleys, the sidewalk portion of 65 driveways, and in the parking lane of two streets. He said the department is working with the state to have bio-swales included as part of the new construction. This will reduce the cost and increase the amount of storm water that can be directed to the bio-swales. Mr. Thur said that the incremental cost for installing green infrastructure has generally been funded by grants. Mr. Schifalacqua asked if the condition of the system was improving or getting worse. Mr. Thur said that the department monitors the number of complaints that are not related to rainfall. He said that complaints related to clogged and collapsed sewers have been pretty consistent and is usually between 24 and 26. He said that is a fairly low number given the size of the system indicating good overall maintenance. He said that complaints related to rainfall are highly variable and are not a good metric for evaluating system maintenance. City of Milwaukee Page 2 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes June 25, 2015 COMMITTEE 3. Presentation of the Parking Condition Report. Mr. Tom Woznick, Department of Public Works, discussed the City’s parking facilities including parking structures, parking access and revenue control systems, multi-space and mechanical meters, and surface parking lots. He said the City has 5 parking structures. The oldest is the structure at Milwaukee and Michigan and the newest is the structure at 1000 N. Water. He said the majority of them are in good condition and an analysis of condition and necessary maintenance is done every year. Ald. Bauman asked if the parking structures are currently staffed. Mr. Woznick said yes, there is an ambassador in or representing each structure who can answer an intercom or assist any customer. Ald. Bauman asked if each structure is evaluated individually for profitability. Mr. Woznick said yes, each structure is its own cost center. Performance of the structures including revenues, expenses and capital expenditures are assessed over time. Mr. Woznick said he would provide that information to the committee. Mr. Woznick said that installation of the multi-space (LUKE) meters began in 2007 and was completed about 5 years ago. He said the meters typically have a 10 year life. Ald. Kovac asked if the technology for multi-space meters has improved. Mr. Woznick said that he was aware of concerns about transaction processing. He said the department hopes that the MKE Park payment app will alleviate some of those concerns because the app’s communication with the system’s backend enforcement is much faster. He said that the newer meters are easier to use and more friendly from a user interface perspective but that the communication with the backend enforcement still takes time. Mr. Korban said that the department has a system in place to address situations where cars are ticketed because of a delay in the system. Mr. Woznick discussed proposed six-year expenditures. Ald. Bauman suggested that landscaping at the 2nd and Plankinton structure should be addressed as soon as possible. He said that neighbors are complaining that it is unsightly. Mr. Woznick said his team would evaluate it. Mr. Woznick presented information regarding expected capital funding needs over the next 20 years. Mr. Woznick discussed other non-parking structure components of the department’s infrastructure. He said the department has done an analysis of all 45 surface lots and graded them on a scale of 1 to 5. The two highest need locations are 9th and Mitchell and Downer and Park. He said the pilot project with Duncan and Liberty for single space smart meters is continuing. Ald. Bauman asked if the department was going to install new multi-space meters or single space credit card meters. Mr. Woznick said the department is still evaluating options. He said that the MKE Parks app will help the department understand customer payment preferences. He said the department will attend the International Parking Institute Conference and Expo to evaluate new technology and vendors. The department will do the analysis over the next couple of years and make a decision regarding the direction of the smart meter system. Mr. Woznick said that revenue control equipment typically has a life of 10 years and will need to be replaced. He said draft specifications will be written next year. Replacement is anticipated in 2017. Mr. Woznick said that currently 28 jeeps are equipped with license plate reader (LPR) equipment. Twenty four additional jeeps are scheduled to have the equipment installed. (12 jeeps each year in 2016 and 2017) The committee discussed smart pricing for parking. Mr. Woznick said that putting the value of a given block or parking space at market rate is not likely to happen soon. He said that the systems are difficult to develop and implement. He said that San Francisco spent $20 million on a sensor based system that determines occupancy on each block face. He said that even though the occupancy data is available in real time, pricing is adjusted once per quarter for full block faces, not individual parking spaces. Ald. Kovac asked if the department could do an occupancy evaluation City of Milwaukee Page 3 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes June 25, 2015 COMMITTEE without installing sensors. Mr. Woznick said the department has a fairly good idea of which streets have high occupancy. The committee discussed the parking structure at 4th & Highland and the proposed arena structure. Mr. Woznick said that he has not been directly involved in the discussions relating to the new parking structure. He said the department has the expertise to evaluate revenue and expenditure estimates. Mr. Matson said that project plans which include the parking structure were released by DCD last week Thursday. He said his office is reviewing those plans and will release a feasibility letter. Mr. Korban said the existing 4th & Highland structure provides a good model for the new structure because of its proximity to the new structure. Mr. Korban said the 4th & Highland structure transfers approximately $400,000 to the general fund each year. Ald. Kovac said the transfer would be greater if the City weren’t giving $175,000 to the Bradley Center. Mr. Matson said the proposed structure will have between 200 and 300 more spaces than the existing structure and the goal is to have more events so revenue could be expected to increase. Ald. Bauman said there was no guarantee the spaces would be filled. Ald. Kovac said if the City is only getting 50% of the revenue, the number of occupied spaces would have to double just to break even. Ald. Bauman asked Mr. Matson if the feasibility letter would review the operating income and operating expense for the proposed structure. Mr. Matson said the typical feasibility letter looks only at the capital cost. Ald. Bauman said an analysis should be done to determine if the City will have to absorb operating losses for the new structure. Ald. Kovac said that the new structure will have more spaces to make up for the loss of VIP surface parking adjacent to the Bradley Center. He said that in theory, whatever revenue the Bucks receive from that surface lot would be captured in the new structure. The committee discussed the new electronic parking signs. Ald. Bauman questioned if the signs were effective. Mr. Korban said that the signs present useful real time information. He said that the system is still new and people are not familiar with it. He said the department will do more education and outreach to increase system visibility and effectiveness. 4. Presentation and discussion on the pavement survey and pavement management system. Mr. Samir Amin, Department of Public Works, and Mr. Fred Stevenson, Stantec Consultants, discussed the department’s pavement management system and the condition of the city’s roadways. Mr. Amin said that the city has been using the RoadMatrix system since 1999 to fulfill DOT reporting requirements. He said that four or five years ago the department decided to upgrade the system to utilize it for programming and for generating reports. Mr. Stevenson said pavements will continue to deteriorate due to many factors including deficiencies in construction and materials, environmental and climatic conditions, traffic loading and funding. He said it is more cost effective to target roads when they cost $3 a foot instead of waiting until they require reconstruction which may cost $30 per square yard. He said RoadMatrix is a computer based system that uses field data for quality assessment. He said the system stores the condition of the roads, traffic volumes, pavement thickness and other historical data. Mr. Stevenson said that RoadMatrix has evolved since the late 1980’s. He said the super PMA was implemented in the 1990’s and in 2012 the application was upgraded again. The 2012 upgrade introduced a road segmentation definition that is based on the City’s dime centerline file. Mr. Stevenson said the department maintains a database of street and alley locations that are in need of improvements. Potential paving projects are obtained from RoadMatrix. Other locations are chosen based on requests from residents, businesses, aldermen, city engineering and field operations. He said the system can run “what if” scenarios with monetary limits. The system will also accept condition goals and determine the level of funding required to meet the City of Milwaukee Page 4 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes June 25, 2015 COMMITTEE goals. Mr. Stevenson said that pavement condition rating surveys in were done in 1993, 1997, 2001, 2006/2007, and 2013/2014. He said the company helped set up and configure the system, provided training, reviewed the database to identify gaps in the data, and provided a summary report. He said his company collected high resolution digital images every 16 feet on the entire network. He said the images have higher definition than Google images. All data were tagged with GPS to ensure it is assigned to the proper segment. He said the condition survey began in November of 2013, using one RT3000 survey vehicle. The vehicle was staffed with two technicians. The vehicle generally drove in the outside driving lane. Laser sensors measured the longitudinal profile, roughness and rutting. Other distresses were rated visually. He said a crew can typically survey 30 miles a day and can work any time that it is not raining or snowing. The survey was expected to take about 100 working days. Mr. Stevenson said that the company is based out of Tonawanda NY and has between 50 and 60 clients. He estimated that the survey vehicle cost $1 million. Ald. Kovac remarked that Tonawanda had an NFL team for one game in the 1920’s. 1 Ald. Bauman asked how much the survey cost and what the advantages are. Mr. Amin said that data collection is done every four years and costs between $250,000 and $275,000. Mr. Schifalacqua said that this type of survey gives greater consistency than manual surveys. Mr. Korban agreed. He added that the survey adds quantitative measures that can’t be obtained with a manual survey. Mr. Stevenson said that the pavement quality index (PQI) is a zero to 100 scale. He said the PQI is calculated using the Ride Comfort Index (RCI) which is based on the road profile measurements. The International Roughness Index (IRI) is correlated against user perception of what a smooth or rough road is. The surface distress index (SDI) is also a zero to 100 scale and is a measure of the severity and extent of all the surface distresses. Mr. Stevenson said that the average PQI for City maintained streets for 2015 was 61.3 which is in the fair range. He said 27% of the streets are in the poor category, 32% are in the fair category and 41% are in the good and excellent categories. Mr. Stevenson said the average PQI in the 2006/2007 assessment was 68.2. He said that the percentage of streets in the excellent category went from 17.3% in 2006/2007 to 12% in 2015. The fair category went from 32.1% in 2006/2007 to 28.5% in 2015. He said the system predicts that on average, there is about 16.5 years of life left on the City’s roads. Mr. Korban said that the current numbers do not reflect the effects of the high impact program. He said that by August, and additional 24 miles will be improved. Ms. Brengosz said that the high impact program will move more streets into the good/excellent category but that most of the streets will likely come from the fair category. Ald. Kovac asked if declining condition was typical. Mr. Stevenson said that most agencies he works with are seeing conditions deteriorate over time. The committee discussed how Milwaukee compared to other communities. Mr. Stevenson said that an average PQI of 61.3 would be considered middle of the road. Ald. Bauman asked if other communities use the same metrics. Mr. Stevenson said yes. Ald. Bauman asked if condition information was available for other communities. Mr. Stevenson said that WisDOT has rating information for communities across the state. Mr. Schifalacqua urged caution when comparing Milwaukee to other cities that have different climates, are not the same size, or do not have the same type of traffic. Ald. Bauman said he would like to know how Milwaukee compares to other Midwestern cities. Mr. Stevenson said he could provide information on comparable communities. Mr. Korban said that it is more relevant to compare the City to other municipalities that are competing for the same state or federal dollars. He said it is important to evaluate condition separately for local and arterial streets. He said being able to quantify condition will help the City get more funding for arterials. He also said the public is probably most sensitive to the RCI and that they are less concerned about drainage. City of Milwaukee Page 5 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS Meeting Minutes June 25, 2015 COMMITTEE Ald. Kovac asked to what extent seasonal timing matters. Mr. Stevenson replied that certain distress types have very little impact on the condition score. Patches and potholes tend to have a very small effect. He said that in warmer climates the timing of data collection may be more critical than here in Milwaukee. Ald. Bauman asked if comparisons could be made prior to 2006. Mr. Stevenson said no. He said the system upgrades don’t correlate well with past data. He said that as long as completed work is entered into the RoadMatrix system, the effects of the high impact program and other maintenance will be factored into each year’s condition rating. Mr. Stevenson said that because the survey is not done every year, models were developed by the City to project condition. Each pavement segment deteriorates based on three factors; pavement thickness, traffic volume, and subgrade strength. Mr. Schifalacqua asked how reductions in maintenance affected the curves. Mr. Stevenson said no adjustments were made to the curves. Mr. Schifalacqua said the curves are based on past maintenance practices and when those maintenance practices change, the curves should be modified. Mr. Christianson asked if crack filling will be entered into the system. Mr. Stevenson said ideally, yes. Mr. Korban said that is the department’s intent. 1 The Tonawanda Kardex joined the NFL in 1921, the same year as the Green Bay Packers. The team was coached by Walter “Tam” Rose. The Kardex played the Rochester Jeffersons on November 6, 1921 before 2,700 fans. The 45-0 loss was the worst game of the team’s existence and it’s only official NFL game. The Kardex did not have a home stadium and had difficulty scheduling games due to a lack of opponents. When the NFL franchise fee increased from $50 in 1921 to $1,000 in 1922 the Kardex left the league. Meeting adjourned: 10:49 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 6