Public Works Committee (Meets 1st Thursday of each month at 5:00 p.m.)

PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING January 6, 2022 GOVERNMENT CENTER ROOM 204 Members Present: Nick Ledin, Ruth Ludwig Members Absent: Keith Kern, Jenny Van Sickle Also Present: Todd Janigo, Chris Carlson, Jodi Saylor, Shelley Nelson, Thor Trone Councilor Ledin called the meeting to order at 5:00 pm. 1. Approval of the December 2, 2021 meeting minutes. Motion by Ludwig, second by Ledin, and carried to approve the December 2, 2021 meeting minutes with the correction to the next meeting date. 2. Charter Next Generation – Nicholas Massa a. CNG Requests approval to install a flashing PED signs to aid employee crossing of Winter Street. Purchase, installation and ownership of the signs will be by CNG. Charter Films, on the corner of Tower Avenue and Winter Street has been working on improving the crossing for their employees to their building from their parking lot. They are requesting permission for them to purchase, install and maintain a flashing PED sign. Due to how quickly they flash, there is no concern with it backing up traffic. Motion by Ludwig, second by Ledin, and carried to approve the request to install a flashing PED signs to aid employee crossing of Winter Street. 3. Public Works a. Request from SWLP to purchase 0.49 credits from the City of Superior Wetland Mitigation Bank. Superior, Water, Light & Power (SWLP) is looking to purchase .49 credits from our Wetland Mitigation Bank. This will be used to offset impacts to wetlands from the proposed community solar garden at Hammond Avenue and North 28th Street. Credits are $30,000 for non-SAMP projects. The City currently has 10.61 credits available. Motion by Ludwig, second by Ledin, and carried to approve the Request from SWLP to purchase 0.49 credits from the City of Superior Wetland Mitigation Bank. b. Blatnik Bridge Update There was a stakeholder meeting recently and Director Janigo shared some of the information from that meeting. They are currently studying traffic patterns and geometrics. They are still studying what will happen and what is needed. Parks Resources, physical and economic diversity, Howard’s pocket (making sure they can get ships in), etc. are all parts of what they are looking at right now. They are looking at alternative alignments – east, west and existing to determine where the alignment will end up. The City is closely watching the connection to Hammond or US 53. One option is directly to Hammond with an off ramp to get on to 53. Another 1 Pubic Works Committee Meeting January 6, 2022  option is where the main roadway bridge comes down and connects with an off ramp to Hammond. Having a straight shot to Hammond is not a favorable configuration. Director Janigo favors the off ramp onto Hammond configuration. An idea he mentioned was putting a roundabout right off the bridge around 4th Street. That would slow people down and set traffic up for a safer transition. He sent that idea on to the MN DOT. The MN DOT has an alternative matrix so they will continue to do traffic studies and refine interchange design details based on this matrix. Recommendations are likely to come out June – September of this year. The goal is still full replacement of the bridge. c. Fleet Vehicle Auction Removals 2021 and Request to sell Surplus Vehicles and Equipment by auction in 2022. This is the annual recap of 2021 auction removals and the annual request to sell at auction for 2022. Auction sales are reported on quarterly and annually. Councilor Van Sickle has requested that information on why we are getting rid of different vehicles be brought to the Committee and so that will happen in 2022. Motion by Ludwig, second by Ledin, and carried to approve the request to sell Surplus Vehicles and Equipment by auction in 2022. d. Recommendation of Contract: Professional Engineering Services Agreement with Donohue and Associates, Inc. Public Works does a lot of work with Donohue at ESD. This sets the contract language for things they work on for 2022. Having this set saves times when their services are needed. Motion by Ludwig, second by Ledin, and carried to approve the Professional Engineering Services Agreement with Donohue and Associates, Inc. e. Recommendation to approve the State Municipal Agreement for the LRIP - Supplemental funding for the reconstruction of Moccasin Mike Road. We applied some Local Road Improvement Plan (LRIP) funding from the state to the culvert project. Two cycles of LRIP of about $160K. When we applied for the second one, we applied for around $3.4M in discretionary funds. The discretionary money is for when the project meets certain criteria. We were awarded $450K. Since we applied, we have also worked out the deal for the dredging project and received the overlay money fund so we have also overlaid it since then. Our goal is to reconstruct that in about 2027, which wouldn’t fall under this LRIP funding, but it has an expiration date of June 30, 2027. We would probably not meet that and would lose those funds. The DOT suggested we sign the SMA and if we don’t use the money, we don’t use the money. Signing an SMA for a STP-Urban Project would start the process and the DOT would start billing as they start the design. Since it is a reimbursement, if we don’t use it, we don’t use it and it goes back in to the pot. We will explore all of the opportunities but this puts our name on it until July 30, 2027. This money is earmarked for Moccasin Mike Road project. Motion by Ludwig, second by Ledin, and carried to approve the State Municipal Agreement for the LRIP - Supplemental funding for the reconstruction of Moccasin Mike Road. 2 Pubic Works Committee Meeting January 6, 2022  4. ESD Director’s Report Received and filed. Councilor Ludwig took a moment to commend the Environmental Services Division to the improvement that they made and enabling the committee to get good reports. 5. Public Works Director’s Report a. Snow removal is fully in process. b. There was a dual warehouse fire today in the North End. The Fire and Police Departments have been pretty involved with that. Public Works crews have been out helping with traffic control. c. Hammond Avenue Reconstruction Public Meeting on January 18th from 4:30 – 6:30 p.m. We are sending out around 140 post cards with information on the meeting. There is also a website with information on the project. There is a virtual option for the meeting, so the public can go through the stations online that they would go through in person. d. Rail crossings – We have a hearing with OCR scheduled for Monday, so we have to submit our testimony on why the crossing is bad. Procedure would then have the railroad submit their testimony. We will then see their testimony and have an opportunity for rebuttal. They can then issue a rebuttal to our rebuttal. In the end, we hope that this process will require Union Pacific to fix the crossing. We have a couple of these crossings going through this process right now and if all goes well, we will keep funneling more through. e. We are working on new software for tracking City equipment that have GPS (sanders, plows, etc.). The current public facing side is not very user friendly and so we found a platform, SnowPaths, which takes the data from Verizon and makes it more user friendly. It will show where GPS units are, where they have been in last 2 hours, 2-4, 4-6 or over 6 hours. This will also show snow priority routes. Only downside is we don’t have GPS in all our equipment. That may change in the future, but that means that you won’t see all streets that are done until all of the equipment has GPS. f. SOGL should be going out to bid in the next few weeks. g. Emergency Vehicle Preemption (EVP) at all of our signals. Replaced a lot of signals in the last 8 years. With different signals the City and the DOT will be replacing, we will have the ability to install EVP on many intersections. We have quotes on hardware and installation. Each squad car/emergency vehicle will have an emitter that turns the light green and allows the emergency vehicle to go through versus going through the lights when they are yellow or red and potentially making a dangerous situation. This should improve response times as well as safety. We hope to get this done this year. Councilor Ledin adjourned the meeting at 5:39 p.m. The next Public Works Committee meeting will be held February 3, 2022 at 5 p.m. in Room 204 of the Government Center. Minutes submitted to the Council Meeting of January 18, 2022. 3 Pubic Works Committee Meeting January 6, 2022  Planning Department | SAMP Darienne McNamara 1316 N. 14th Street Environmental Regulatory Coordinator Superior, WI 54880 E‐mail: mcnamarad@ci.superior.wi.us Phone: (715) 395‐7506 Website: www.ci.superior.wi.us Fax: (715) 395‐7346 January 12, 2022 TO Public Works Committee; Superior Common Council FROM Jason Serck, Planning, Economic Development & Port Director Darienne McNamara, Environmental Regulatory Manager RE Request from SWLP to purchase 0.49 credits from the City of Superior Wetland Mitigation Bank Superior Water, Light & Power (SWLP) is requesting to purchase 0.49 credits from the City of Superior Compensatory Wetland Mitigation Bank (“mitigation bank”). The credits will be used to offset impacts to wetlands from the proposed community solar garden at Hammond Ave. and North 28th Street. The Wisconsin DNR and US Army Corps of Engineers have approved the project contingent on the purchase of wetland mitigation credits. SWLP is requesting approval to purchase credits from the City. The city’s mitigation bank was established to provide credits for projects permitted through the SAMP program. However credits have also been made available to projects that are not authorized under that program. Under the rules for the mitigation bank, the following order of preference has been determined for selling credits: 1) SAMP‐permitted projects; 2) City of Superior municipal projects; 3) non‐SAMP permitted projects within city limits; 4) Douglas County public/institutional projects within Douglas County; and 5) non‐public projects within Douglas County. This project falls under priority #3. In order to sell mitigation credits for a non‐SAMP project, program guidance stipulates that approval is required from the Public Works Committee. The price per credit is $30,000 for non‐SAMP projects ($15,000 for SAMP‐permitted projects). There are currently 10.61 credits available from the mitigation bank. This transaction would leave ample credits for SAMP‐authorized projects until 2024 when we anticipate having more credits available for sale. Based on the current availability of mitigation credits, and the importance of supporting SWLP as a major employer and utility in the city, I recommend that this request be granted. ________________________________ Mayor Jim Paine Blatnik Bridge PAC Meeting #5 December 2, 2021 1 – 3 p.m.  Welcome PROJECT WEBSITES: MnDOT: https://www.dot.state.mn.us/d1/projects/blatnik-bridge/ WisDOT: https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/projects/by-region/nw/blatnikbridge/default.aspx CONTACTS: Pat Huston, MnDOT District 1 | Major Projects Engineer (218) 348-9902 patrick.huston@state.mn.us Marc Bowker, WisDOT NW Region | Project Manager (715) 635-4975 marc.bowker@dot.wi.gov 2 Meeting Purpose Share progress of alternatives 1 development Evaluation of potential impacts and 2 recommendations for further study 3 Review project schedule and next steps 3 Agenda Project Overview Recap Project Purpose and Needs Schedule and Milestones Alternatives Development and Screening/Evaluation Process Alternatives Recommended for Further Study Next Steps Comments/Questions 4  Project Advisory Committee Feedback Based on the results of the Step 3a evaluation process: • What opportunities do you see? • What concerns do you have? 5 Blatnik Bridge Overview • Opened to traffic in 1961 • Approximately 8,000 feet long (1.5 miles); 120-foot maximum vertical clearance over St. Louis Bay • Carries 4 traffic lanes (2 in each direction) • Accommodates 33,021 vehicles per day (2019) • Regionally significant for long-distance freight and vehicle traffic • Bridge conditions limit vehicle weight to about 60% of a standard highway bridge 6  Purpose Statement “Provide an interstate highway connection across the St. Louis Bay that does not restrict the movement of freight and provides local, regional, and international movement in a reliable and efficient manner.” 7  Project Needs Primary needs Secondary needs • Bridge condition – truss and approach spans • Walkability/ bikeability • Vehicle safety – crash rates, level of service, geometric influences, and weather influences Additional considerations • Vehicle mobility – traffic operations, oversize • Maritime freight navigation overweight, and freight • Consistency with regional plans • Social, economic, and environmental considerations 8 Project Schedule 2020 to 2024: Preferred Alternative 2024 to 2026: 2026 to 2028: 2028 to 2032: Selection and Preliminary Design Final Design Construction Environmental Documentation 9 Milestones 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 Public and Stakeholder Engagement Environmental Studies Kickoff WE ARE HERE Purpose and Need Alternatives Evaluation Conceptual Recommend Alignment Preferred Screening Alternative State and Federal Conceptual Alignment Environmental Alternatives Development Documentation Development 10 Alternatives Development and Screening Process 11  Screening and Evaluation Processes Schedule Step 3B – Step 3A – Mainline & October 2021 – Mainline Interchange March 2022 July – Concept Alternatives Alternatives September 2021 Development Development SEE Studies December 2021 – and April 2022 Evaluation SEE Studies and August – Evaluation September 2021 Step 3B - Alternatives April 2022 Evaluation Step 3A - Memo Alternatives September 2021 Evaluation Public/Agency Memo May - July 2022 Review Public/Agency October 2021 – Step 4 – Study July 2022 – Review January 2022 of Reasonable June 2023 Alternatives 12 Step 1 and Step 2 Recap 13  Step 1/2: Conceptual Alignment Development and Screening • Conceptual Alignments: • General connection points (e.g., Garfield to Hammond) • Did not include design details such as geometrics of intersection/interchanges • Screening results • Eliminated tunnels and Connors Point bridge alignments from further evaluation • Recommended Connection 1 and Connection 2 for further evaluation • Public and agency review • Informal concurrence received from FHWA 14  Step 3a: Current Analysis 15  Step 3a: Mainline Concept Alternatives Development • Goals: • Develop alternatives based on Step 1 and 2 recommendations • Feasible geometric configurations • Study traffic patterns of I-535, US 53, WI Highway 35, and local connections • Step 3a Evaluation: • Evaluate for impacts based on known existing conditions • Other critical evaluation criteria will be evaluated in Step 3b 16  Step 3a: Evaluation Criteria • Consistency with local and regional plans • Past, current, and planned St. Louis River Area of Concern projects • Right-of-way impacts • Wetland and waterway impacts • Construction duration • Closure duration of bridge 17  Step 3a: Evaluation Criteria • Identification of parks and recreational resources • Physical and economic diversity • Changes in traffic patterns around I-535 and local roads • Bridge height over Howard’s Pocket 18  Step 3a Alternatives 19  Description of Alternatives The following alternatives were developed: Each alternative requires a connection point in Superior, which would include either of the following: • Alternative A: Existing Alignment • Connection 1: Hammond Avenue • Alternative B: West Alignment • Connection 2: US 53 • Alternative C: East Alignment • Alternative D: West/Existing Combination Alignment • Alternative E: East/Existing Combination Alignment • Alternative F: East/West Combination Alignment 20 Alternative A Connection 1 21 Alternative A Connection 2 22 Alternative B Connection 1 23 Alternative B Connection 2 24 Alternative C Connection 1 25 Alternative C Connection 2 26 Alternative D Connection 1 27 Alternative D Connection 2 28 Alternative E Connection 1 29 Alternative E Connection 2 30 Alternative F Connection 1 31 Alternative F Connection 2 32  Alternatives shown are advancing for Step 3a: Alternatives Matrix further study. % Change in Roadway Profile Grade % Avoid St. Resulting from Increase in Bridge Potential Identification Potential Reduction in Consistency Physical and Potential Potential Louis River Height Over Howards Pocket Right-of- of Parks And Closure Traffic from I- with Local and Economic Wetland Construction AOC Alternative (Alt.) Way Recreational Duration of 535 and Regional Plans? Diversity Impacts Duration Planned Impacts Resources Bridge traveling on (Yes or No) (Yes or No) (acres) (years) Projects? 100 foot 110 foot 120 foot (acres) (Yes or No) (years) Hammond / (Yes or No) Belknap Alt. A Connection 1 0% + 0.43% + 0.9% Yes 18.7 Yes Yes 7.8 4-5 4-5 5-15% Yes Alt. A Connection 2 -0.6% -0.3% + 0.25% Yes 21.8 Yes Yes 7.8 4-5 4-5 5-15% Yes Alt. B Connection 1 0% + 0.43% + 0.9% Yes 25.9 Yes Yes 9.9 4-5 2-3 5-15% Yes Alt. B Connection 2 -0.6% -0.3% + 0.25% Yes 29.0 Yes Yes 9.9 4-5 2-3 5-15% Yes Alt. C Connection 1 0% + 0.43% + 0.9% Yes 26.0 Yes Yes 10.6 4-5 2-3 5-15% Yes Alt. C Connection 2 -0.6% -0.3% + 0.25% Yes 29.1 Yes Yes 10.6 4-5 2-3 5-15% Yes Alt. D Connection 1 0% + 0.43% + 0.9% Yes 24.1 Yes Yes 9.6 5-6 3-4 5-15% Yes Alt. D Connection 2 -0.6% -0.3% + 0.25% Yes 27.3 Yes Yes 9.6 5-6 3-4 5-15% Yes Alt. E Connection 1 0% + 0.43% + 0.9% Yes 22.8 Yes Yes 9.4 5-6 3-4 5-15% Yes Alt. E Connection 2 -0.6% -0.3% + 0.25% Yes 25.9 Yes Yes 9.4 5-6 3-4 5-15% Yes Alt. F Connection 1 0% + 0.43% + 0.9% Yes 24.7 Yes Yes 9.3 4-5 2-3 5-15% Yes 33 Alt. F Connection 2 -0.6% -0.3% + 0.25% Yes 27.9 Yes Yes 9.3 4-5 2-3 5-15% Yes Next Step: Step 3b 34  Step 3b: Mainline & Interchange Alternatives Development • Goals: • Refine alternatives based on Step 3a findings • Additional traffic studies • Interchange design details • Step 3b Evaluation • Detailed evaluation of all evaluation criteria 35 Blatnik Bridge Preservation Project in 2022 • Purpose of project is to preserve the existing bridge until 2028. This work includes: • Concrete patching, sealing, and joint repairs • Cleaning and painting • Repairing drainage system • Traffic impacts: • Single lane closures on the bridge • Access from Garfield Avenue will be maintained and will continue to be used as a detour for Twin Ports Interchange reconstruction project • Schedule: June 1 – September 30, 2022 36  Project Interactive Feedback Map • https://www.publiccoordinate.com/#/projects/blatnikbridgeSEPTEMBER2021 37  Project Advisory Committee Feedback Based on the results of the Step 3a evaluation process: • What opportunities do you see? • What concerns do you have? 38 Upcoming Meetings • Public Open House: • Thursday, December 9 from 6-7:30 p.m. (virtual meeting) • Access meeting link on project website: www.dot.state.mn.us/d1/projects/blatnik-bridge/meetings • Open house notice/one-pager is included in the meeting materials 39  Questions/Comments Public comment period ends: January 8, 2022 • Project Website: MnDOT: https://www.dot.state.mn.us/d1/projects/blatnik-bridge/ WisDOT: https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/projects/by-region/nw/blatnikbridge/default.aspx • Contact: Pat Huston, MnDOT District 1 Major Projects Engineer (218) 348-9902 patrick.huston@state.mn.us Marc Bowker, WisDOT NW Region Project Manager (715) 635-4975 marc.bowker@dot.wi.gov • Mail: MnDOT, 1123 Mesaba Ave., Duluth, MN 55811 40 Thank you!