Public Works Committee

TUMWATER PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MINUTES OF VIRTUAL MEETING DECEMBER 5, 2024 Page 1 CONVENE: 8:00 a.m. PRESENT: Chair Eileen Swarthout and Councilmember Angela Jefferson. Excused: Councilmember Michael Althauser. Staff: City Administrator Lisa Parks, City Attorney Karen Kirkpatrick, Assistant City Attorney David Abbott, Finance Director Troy Niemeyer, Transportation & Engineering Director Brandon Hicks, Water Resources and Sustainability Director Dan Smith, Assistant Transportation & Engineering Director Clint Ritter, Engineering Services Manager Bill Lindauer, WPS Program Manager Patrick Soderberg, Communications Manager Jason Wettstein, Construction Engineer Colby Fletcher, Transportation Engineer I Bernie Gertje, Community Engagement Specialist Marnie McGrath, and Administrative Assistant Kelly Quiroz. SERVICE PROVIDER Manager Lindauer reported the request is for a contract extension and AGREEMENT WITH increase in the amount for on-call general civil engineering services. HDR ENGINEERING Typically, the City has engineering services on-call contracts with other FOR ON-CALL engineering firms to handle workloads and to provide expertise not ENGINEERING available by staff. SERVICES AMENDMENT NO. 1: The proposed amendment increases the original contract of $70,000 to not-to-exceed $145,000 to assist with any general civil engineering needs and extends the contract until December 31, 2025. Chair Swarthout reviewed the requested action. MOTION: Chair Swarthout moved, seconded by Councilmember Jefferson, to place the First Amendment to the Service Provider Agreement with HDR Engineering for On-Call Engineering Services on the City Council Consent Calendar on January 7, 2024, with a recommendation for the Mayor to sign. A voice vote approved the motion. SERVICE PROVIDER Manager Lindauer reported the proposed amendment to the service AGREEMENT WITH provider agreement with SCJ Engineering increases the contract amount SCJ ENGINEERING to $130,000 for on-call services and extends the original agreement until FOR ON-CALL December 31, 2025. ENGINEERING SERVICES Councilmember Jefferson inquired as to whether the increase in the AMENDMENT NO. 2: contract amounts is due to the inflation and/or an increase in construction cost. Manager Lindauer said the amount reflects an anticipated increase for services to occur in 2025. If services are not required, the City does not incur any costs; however, if services are utilized, staff establishes a work order with an estimated budget for each project. TUMWATER PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MINUTES OF VIRTUAL MEETING DECEMBER 5, 2024 Page 2 Chair Swarthout reviewed the requested action. MOTION: Chair Swarthout moved, seconded by Councilmember Jefferson, to place the Second Amendment to the Service Provider Agreement with SCJ Engineering for On-Call Engineering Services on the City Council Consent Calendar on January 7, 2024, with a recommendation for the Mayor to sign. A voice vote approved the motion. SERVICE PROVIDER Director Smith reported the proposed amendment is to provide the City AGREEMENT WITH with support and respond to inquiries as the project is reviewed by the PBS ENGINEERING Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). The FOR THE PERCIVAL agreement would also cover assistance with the project as the project is CREEK FISH released for construction bidding, as well as provide responses to issues PASSAGE BARRIER that might arise during the construction phase. The amendment increases REMOVAL the agreement by an additional $49,987 for a total agreement cost of PROJECT $301,075, completes any final updates to the design plans as needed, and AMENDMENT 4: provides construction support as needed. The cost is funded by two grants the City acquired to complete the project. Chair Swarthout inquired as to whether staff anticipates the presence of salmon returning after completion of the Somerset culvert project to enable salmon to travel upstream. Director Smith said the Somerset project has been identified as a partial barrier, which speaks to the reason why the City has been successful in receiving grant funds for the Percival Creek Fish Passage Removal Project. The project has been on the Capital Facilities Plan since 1999 and never ranked sufficiently to receive grant funds over time. Over time, the state began funding culvert replacements. Additionally, some work completed in 2020/2021 identified the presence of salmon species in the creek at the Sapp Road site through a simplified DNA process. The results increased the City’s competitiveness to receive a higher ranking for grants to replace culverts that were barriers to fish passage. Chair Swarthout reviewed the requested action. MOTION: Councilmember Jefferson moved, seconded by Chair Swarthout, to place the Service Provider Agreement with PBS Engineering & Environmental for the Percival Creek Fish Passage Barrier Removal Project Amendment 4 on the January 7, 2024 Council Consent Calendar with a recommendation to approve and authorize the Mayor to sign. A voice vote approved the motion. ACCEPTANCE OF Engineer Fletcher said the project scope replaced an eight-inch asbestos WORK WITH REED cement watermain with a new 12-inch watermain. As part of the project, TRUCKING AND overhead utilities on Israel Road between Linderson Way and Capitol EXCAVATING, INC. Boulevard were converted to an underground system. The project TUMWATER PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MINUTES OF VIRTUAL MEETING DECEMBER 5, 2024 Page 3 FOR THE ISRAEL included ADA sidewalk and driveway upgrades where applicable in ROAD AND locations of trenching for replacement of the watermain. LINDERSON WAY WATERMAIN Engineer Fletcher displayed an aerial map of the project site depicting the PROJECT: locations of the watermain extension and underground joint utility trenching on Israel Road. The project accomplished approximately 5,100 feet of new watermain for water transmission. Joint utility trenching totaled 3,150 feet to include Puget Sound Energy (PSE) electric, cable, and other internet service providers, and 3,300 square yards of new sidewalk, driveway, and curb ramps. Pending work includes the removal of existing power poles by PSE. Project challenges included navigating existing utilities and discovering other utilities that were never identified or recorded by the City. The project commenced on July 31, 2023 with substantial completion on April 12, 2024 and physical completion on May 9, 2024. Overall funding for the project was from the Water Fund CFP. Reed Trucking and Excavating submitted the lowest bid of $3,365,536.16 with a final contract amount of $3,866,098.95 creating an overrun of approximately 15% due to changes in field conditions and encountering many unknown existing water services and other utility obstructions. Changes to the joint utility trenching at the request of PSE were approved through a work order submitted in December 2023 that exceeded 10% of the budget. The final cost exceeded approximately 15% of the budget. The Council previously approved an overrun of up to 20% of the budget. Councilmember Jefferson expressed appreciation of the photographs as they reflect the work completed by staff and other professionals. Chair Swarthout reviewed the requested action. MOTION: Councilmember Jefferson moved, seconded by Chair Swarthout, to recommend the City Council accept the Israel Road and Linderson Way Watermain project as complete and authorize the release of the performance bond as soon as the laws of the State of Washington allow. A voice vote approved the motion. ACCEPTANCE OF Engineer Fletcher presented the request. The project was comprised of WORK WITH the City’s annual pavement striping maintenance project providing SPECIALIZED delineation for traffic management and improved safety for motorists, PAVEMENT bicyclists, and pedestrians. Paint is used to update pavement markings MARKING, LLC. because it is more cost-effective than plastic pavement markings. FOR THE 2024 CITYWIDE Engineer Fletcher shared a vicinity map reflecting the magnitude and STRIPING scope of the project. The scope of the project repaved existing pavement PROJECT: markings as well as restriping Deschutes Parkway parking stalls. The TUMWATER PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MINUTES OF VIRTUAL MEETING DECEMBER 5, 2024 Page 4 project was completed primarily during weekends to reduce impacts to traffic. The project included re-painting non-plastic roadway centerlines, lane lines, and bike lane lines throughout the City to improve visibility and traffic safety totaling approximately 515,000 of 4-inch linear paint line equivalent to more than 97.5 miles and 169,000 linear 8-inch paint line equivalent to 32 miles. Existing plastic pavement markings and raised pavement markers are scheduled during the 2025 Pavement Maintenance project. The Public Works contract with Specialized Pavement Marking, LLC. was $136,933.50. Work on the project has been completed at a final cost of $129,436.76. Funding for the project is from the streets operating budget. Chair Swarthout reviewed the requested action. MOTION: Chair Swarthout moved, seconded by Councilmember Jefferson, to recommend the City Council accept the 2024 Citywide Striping project as complete and authorize the release of the performance bond as soon as the laws of the State of Washington allow. A voice vote approved the motion. TRANSPORTATION Director Hicks introduced Transportation and Engineering Assistant BENEFIT DISTRICT Director Clint Ritter. Assistant Director Ritter previously worked at (TBD): Pierce County, WSDOT, and the Transportation Improvement Board. Assistant Director Ritter reported the City Council created the Tumwater Transportation Benefit District (TBD) in 2014. The quasi-municipal taxing jurisdiction is authorized by state law to fund street maintenance. Tumwater voters approved a sales tax increase of 0.2% (two-tenths of one percent) for a period of ten years in 2015 to fund street maintenance projects within City limits. Revenues collected through 2023 totaled $16.6 million. Funding was used to leverage and secure an additional $6 million in state and federal grants. Pavement maintenance and preservation is cost-effective in the long-term. Keeping streets in an acceptable condition or above by using pavement preservation, such as overlays, chip seals, and crack sealing reduces the City’s costs over the long-term and prevents streets from deteriorating to poor and unacceptable conditions requiring more expensive repairs. The focus of TBD funds has been allocated for pavement preservation. Over the last 10 years, some major accomplishments include improving 100 lane miles of streets by applying 50,000 tons of asphalt, reconstructing or installing 114 curb ramps, and replacing or adding TUMWATER PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MINUTES OF VIRTUAL MEETING DECEMBER 5, 2024 Page 5 38,000 pavement markings. Proposed projects in 2025 include the Israel Road Linderson Way Bike Pedestrian Improvements project, Linwood Avenue Sidewalk project, 2nd Avenue Pedestrian and Bicycle Improvements project, and the 2025 Pavement Maintenance project. The City’s GIS database includes information on pavement preservation efforts documenting pavement condition index of all streets in the City. Data provides a comparison of the overall rating of streets in 2014 versus 2023. In 2014, the City had 30.3% of road miles in very good condition. In 2023, nearly 60% of road miles are in very good condition due to the funding provided by the TBD. Assistant Director Ritter displayed several photographs of completed projects over the last 10 years funded by the TBD. TBDs are governed by state law in RCW 36.73. TBD taxes may not be imposed for more than 10 years. Any renewal of the tax requires a new vote by voters. The Tumwater TBD is scheduled to expire in 2025, requiring the City to renew the TBD through a vote. The TBD offers two primary funding mechanisms of a sales tax increase or a vehicle tab fee. The sales tax rate cannot exceed 3/10ths of one percent. Any amount above 1/10th of one percent requires a vote by the people of the City. The sales tax established for the TBD in 2015 was 2/10ths of one percent. The second option of a vehicle fee can be initiated through a $20 car tab and increased over time and by further legislative action to $40 or $50. One important difference is broader distribution of the funding through the sale tax method to include not only residents of the City but to anyone who shops or transact business in the City. The City Council serves as the governing body of the TBD taxing district. Today, 116 cities in the state have formed TBDs. The majority of the TBDs are funded by sales tax. Five counties in Washington formed TBDs with only one funded as the remaining four only established districts and did not pursue funding for various reasons. Since 2011, 33 ballot measures for cities using the sales tax option were offered with 30 measures passing with the remaining three measures losing by a slim margin. A simple majority is required to pass the measure. The future schedule includes a Council work session and meeting in January 2025 to review the requirements for renewing the TBD in anticipation of an election on April 22, 2025. The deadline for Council action to submit the resolution to Thurston County for a ballot measure is February 21, 2025. The Council will be asked to consider the formation of an opposition committee similar to the action the City undertook to form an opposition committee for the 2015 ballot measure. Ongoing TUMWATER PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MINUTES OF VIRTUAL MEETING DECEMBER 5, 2024 Page 6 coordination continues between Transportation and Engineering and the Communications team to document historical facts, data on accomplishments, and goals for a future 10-year program. Councilmember Jefferson agreed on the importance of documenting all projects that would receive TBD funds for the next 10 years in addition to the reasons for the investments. Chair Swarthout recalled meeting with homeowner associations and presenting information on the first proposed TBD with staff to share information about the program with the community. She stressed the importance of continuing ongoing communications with the community in light of the recent failure of the Regional Fire Authority ballot measure. The committee thanked Assistant Director Ritter for the presentation and welcomed him to the City. NEXT MEETING Chair Swarthout advised of the potential cancellation of the December 19, DATE: 2024 meeting because of the lack of agenda items. ADJOURNMENT: With there being no further business, Chair Swarthout adjourned the meeting at 8:44 a.m. Prepared by Valerie L. Gow, Recording Secretary/President Puget Sound Meeting Services, psmsoly@earthlink.net