Pedestrian Bicycle Advisory Committee
Minutes from December 11, 2012
Lincoln Parks and Recreation – 2740 “A” Street
Members Present: Parks Coble, Julie Diegel, Rick Dockhorn, Barb Fraser, Marynelle Greene, Elaine Hammer, Jordan Messerer, Delrae Hirschman, Dalyce Ronnau, Bill Spielman, Beth Thacker, Bill Wehrbein, Michael Wylie.
Staff Present: Terry Genrich, David Cary, Mike Heyl, J.J. Yost, Lynn Johnson, Glen Johnson
Others Present: Michael Kleffner, David Schoenmaker, Damon Hershey
This meeting was called to order at 7:00 a.m. followed by recognition of the Open Meeting Act.
Approval of October 9, 2012 minutes: It was moved by Dalyce Ronnau and seconded by Rick Dockhorn. Minutes were approved unanimously.
Staff Reports:
Wilderness Park Bridge Grant to RTP was ranked #1 by the Selection Committee. Pending Game and Parks approval at their January Board meeting, this project will be funded and able to move forward.
Bison Trail Bridge is on schedule with a projected completion of April 15, 2013. The warm weather has allowed the contractor to proceed with construction.
Pioneers Park Trails are being designed.
Jamaica North Trail received the agreement from Burlington Northern to cross Park Blvd. with the trail. We are now waiting on approval from Federal Highway to proceed with acquisition of ROW from BN.
Cavett Connector Trail – we have received the signed 4f letter from LPS and have submitted that to the state. We continue to work on the 60-90% plans.
Stonebridge Trail, the Mayor has signed the agreement for hiring Schemmer Associates to do PE for the project. The agreement will be forwarded to the state for their signature and once that has been completed, Schemmer’s will start on the design.
Several repair and replacement projects are going on including part of the Murdock Trail near Mahoney Park, Billy Wolff Trail east of the Dog Run, and a section of the Mopac Trail between the Hammer Bridge and 30th.
The drought is having a negative impact on the trails.
The installation of the signs has begun with the Billy Wolff Trail as the first one selected for installation. We also plan on removing any Bike Route signs that are improperly installed.
Old Business:
David Cary mentioned the City Council did not approve the waiver to remove the pedestrian sidewalk in Hamann Meadows.
Update on “N” Street – Not a lot more however Ernie Castillo is working on the contract for “P” street with the goal of getting design work beginning after the first of the year. There will still be public discussion about this project.
Pedestrian/Bicycle Strategic Plan Public Meeting is scheduled for this Saturday December 15, 2012 at the Jayne Snyder Trails Center, 2:00-5:00 PM. Public will have the opportunity to provide input on what is in the draft plan including proposals for priority projects. This is more for projects that don’t have identified funding for them. New bike Routes, bike parking, new sharrows, protected bikeways, pedestrian countdown signals, certain intersections with will benefit from a mid-block crossing, etc.
New Business:
Michael Kleffner gave a presentation on the changes of the Transportation Alternatives (TA) Program. TE and Safe Routes has been combined under Map 21 legislation and is now called TA. The Governor stayed with the TA Program, however we went from having $7 Million of TE Funds and 1.5 million in RTP and $1 million in Safe Routes to having $7.2 million for all of the programs. $1.4 goes to the RTP program leaving $5.4 for TA. There is also a change in how projects can be selected now allowing the local MPO with populations of 200K or greater to select projects for the funds allocated for them. There are two MPO’s in Nebraska. This however does not prevent them from applying to the remaining amount allocated for the rest of the state.
Because the state had been operating under continuing resolutions, they selected projects on previous funding that had been received. When the new legislation came out, projects had been programmed out for three years based on previous allocations of a little more than $7 million each year. The new legislation pushed that down to $5.4 million and has a different allocation. We are at a use it or lose it so projects have to remain on schedule or funding might not be available. LCLC will have to recertify existing projects. The state is going to go ahead and fund Haymarket Trail and Wyuka Cemetery project. As additional funds come available, funds will be allocated on a first come first serve, so be ready with projects. If projects are not ready to go in a timely manner, they will not be funded.
LCLC is guaranteed $386,000 for the next two years. NDOR is still waiting for official guidance allowing current projects that have gone through a selection process through TE to proceed if funds are available. All projects are identified on the hand-out.
There was discussion regarding Jamaica North and railroad issues with this and other trail projects statewide.
Safe Routes Program Non-infrastructure program has been successful and the infrastructure program has not been as successful. Within last year, three infrastructure programs got underway. In the future, non-infrastructure programs will be eliminated and the infrastructure programs will be eligible. Safe Routes infrastructure programs will be focusing on safe street crossings and possible pedestrian bridges and not so much sidewalk projects.
Question was raised on how the community can work to address building a balanced transportation system on not only building but also education. The new legislation pretty much eliminated education funding so it will be up to the local communities to fund. Need to work with the local MPO for these types of things. If a project is part of a master plan, it will rank higher on a selection process.
“P” Street Corridor – Process is moving along. Consultants are coming in this Thurs. and Fri. to work with staff on options and will come back in January for more input. There was a question regarding sharrows, however we don’t know what the final design will be yet.
14th and Warlick Blvd. design alternatives were presented and are available on the city’s website. All three designs did include bicycle/pedestrian facilities, however they included at grade crossings of the intersections. This was just a conceptual design and at some point in the future, there will be more opportunities for input when they start moving forward with final designs. There are gaps in all three designs for pedestrian/bicycle facilities.
Nominating committee was appointed. Elaine and Parks will work on this.
There was discussion regarding the 14th and Superior St. roundabout and the pedestrian/bicycle amenities. That portion has been very successful however they are still trying to figure out why there are still a fair amount of accidents. Accidents haven’t been as severe and PW is hoping after a year, the numbers will reduce as has been seen elsewhere for multi-lane roundabouts.
Meeting was adjourned.