TOWNSHIP of LOWER MERION Department of Parks & Recreation
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Exhibit A TOWNSHIP OF LOWER MERION Department of Parks & Recreation Department of Building & Planning MEMORANDUM TO: Douglas S. Cleland, Township Manager FROM: Lindsay L. Taylor, Director of Parks & Recreation Christopher Leswing, Assistant Director of Building & Planning / Planning SUBJECT: Memorandum of Agreement between the Township and City of Philadelphia for Maintenance of the Manayunk Bridge Trail DATE: March 6, 2013 OVERVIEW The Township of Lower Merion and the City of Philadelphia have negotiated a memorandum of agreement for maintenance of the future Manayunk Bridge Trail. The bridge’s surface, owned by Septa and leased to the Township in 2012, is to be developed as a multi‐use trail that will link the Cynwyd Heritage Trail in Lower Merion with the street network in Manaynk and eventually with the Ivy Ridge Trail in Philadelphia when it is completed. Maintenance of the trail surface of the bridge is to be shared by the two parties. BACKGROUND The Township has been working for several months with the City of Philadelphia, Montgomery County, PennDOT, DVRPC and others to extend the Cynwyd Heritage Trail across the Manayunk Bridge into the City of Philadelphia. The Manayunk Bridge trail extension is viewed by regional funders as necessary to creating a continuous, off‐road paved trail (the Schuylkill River Trail‐ SRT) from Philadelphia to Valley Forge National Park and beyond. The Lower Merion section of the SRT is anticipated to provide a bypass to Main Street Manayunk by utilizing the Pencoyd and Manayunk bridges and the CHT. DVRPC awarded the Township $40,000 in 2012 to explore the feasibility of linking the two bridges and existing/proposed trail sections together through the 9‐acre, steeply sloped parcel donated to the Township by Tom Connelly in 2006. The Township negotiated an amendment to its lease with Septa for the Cynwyd Heritage Trail to extend the trail approximately one third‐mile across the surface of the Manayunk Bridge. As with the original lease, ultimate responsibility for the trail rests with the Township. In 2012, the City of Philadelphia negotiated its own lease agreement with Septa for the Ivy Ridge Trail linking to the Manayunk Bridge and the proposed multi‐use trail and agreed to allocate $1.3 million in Pennsylvania Community Transportation Initiative (PCTI) funds that were awarded to the City for the trail’s construction. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) and William Penn Foundation awarded the Manayunk Development Corporation (MDC) $450,000 for the completion of design and construction documents for the trail. A Committee comprised of representatives from the agencies listed below worked with DVRPC, MDC and the consulting team of Whitman, Requardt & Associates to develop the design and construction documents. Lower Merion Township City of Philadelphia Manayunk Development Corporation (Schuylkill Project) Septa PA Bicycle Coalition PA Environmental Council The Township, represented by the Township Solicitor’s Office, and the City of Philadelphia’s Legal Department have been developing a joint agreement for maintaining the trail once it is completed. The Township’s goals were to keep its maintenance responsibilities consistent and continue similar tasks that we currently perform along the Cynwyd Heritage Trail leaving tasks and responsibilities that would be more difficult for the Township to accomplish to the City. The term of the proposed agreement will be the same as the Cynwyd Trail Lease. In addition to identifying various tasks and responsibilities and those responsible for completing those tasks and responsibilities, the agreement requires both parties to jointly inspect the Bridge Trail annually, to review the agreement annually and to maintain records of maintenance activities and costs for a period of five years. Following please find a breakdown of tasks and responsibilities and the proposed responsible parties: Task/Responsibility Responsible Party 1. Signage LMT 2. Trash collection LMT 3. Graffiti removal LMT 2 Task/Responsibility Responsible Party 4. Daily opening and closing of gates at both ends of the bridge Philadelphia 5. Gate maintenance and repair Philadelphia 6. Railing repairs Philadelphia 7. Trail surface repairs Philadelphia 8. Unanticipated repairs Shared 9. Significant repairs / improvements Shared Staff estimates that in 2012 the Parks Division spent approximately 200 man hours collecting trash and cleaning graffiti along the CHT, and over 500 man hours on other various maintenance activities , including , but not limited to, lock and gate repairs, material delivery, debris and brush collection from workdays, trail repairs and herbicide application. It does not include mowing, which was completed in 2012 virtually entirely by work crews from Montgomery County Prison, with some help from community service workers. Once the Bridge Trail is opened, we estimate that normal trash collection duties will add approximately 15 to 30 minutes per collection. Graffiti has become more of an issue recently on the CHT and the Department of Parks & Recreation has been working closely with Friends of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail (FOCHT) and the Police Department to address the issue. We estimate that two employees will be needed one day per month to remove graffiti along the entire trail. These are rough estimates, however. Until the bridge is open and in use we cannot know the full impact that it will have on the Parks & Recreation Department’s operation. We will schedule its maintenance and upkeep along with the rest of our parks and continue to do our best with the available resources. RECOMMENDATION It is the joint recommendation of Chris Leswing, Assistant Director of Building & Planning and Lindsay Taylor, Director of Parks & Recreation that the Board of Commissioners authorize execution of this agreement. An executed agreement is considered necessary for the project to proceed. Attached please find copies of the proposed Memorandum of Agreement and the 2012 lease amendment with Septa. I will look forward to answering any questions that you may have. 3 DRAFT 03.08.13 AGREEMENT MANAYUNK BRIDGE TRAIL MAINTENANCE THIS AGREEMENT (“Agreement”), dated the ___________ day of _____________, 2013, by and between the CITY OF PHILADELPHIA (“City”) and the TOWNSHIP OF LOWER MERION (“Township”). BACKGROUND WHEREAS, Township and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (“SEPTA”) entered into a lease agreement on December 22, 2007, as amended on March 28, 2008, October 13, 2010, and June 27, 2012 (the “Cynwyd Lease”), pursuant to which SEPTA leases to Township a certain portion of the surface of SEPTA’s non-operating Cynwyd Line for use as a recreational trail known as the Cynwyd Heritage Trail (the “Cynwyd Trail”); and WHEREAS, by the Third Amendment to the Cynwyd Lease dated June 27, 2012, SEPTA granted Township the right to extend the Cynwyd Trail across the Manayunk Bridge to that part of the SEPTA right-of-way at mile post 7.79 adjacent to the intersection of High Street and Dupont Street in the Manayunk, neighborhood in the City of Philadelphia; and WHEREAS, City and SEPTA entered into a lease agreement on July 13, 2012 (the “Ivy Ridge Lease”), pursuant to which SEPTA leases to City a certain portion of the surface of SEPTA’s non- operating Cynwyd-Ivy Ridge branch from mile post 7.79, the end of the aforesaid Cynwyd Trail, to mile post 8.36 for use as a recreational trail (the “Ivy Ridge Trail”); and WHEREAS, SEPTA acquired the Manayunk Bridge in 1976 and used it to carry the SEPTA Cynwyd Line across the Schuylkill River until 1986 when SEPTA ceased operating the Cynwyd Line across the river; and WHEREAS, the Manayunk Bridge is a historic concrete open spandrel arch bridge constructed by the Pennsylvania Railroad to cross the Schuylkill River and adjacent Schuylkill Canal between Bala Cynwyd, Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County and the Manayunk neighborhood of City of Philadelphia; and WHEREAS, the Manayunk Bridge and its integral approach structures span numerous transportation facilities as follows: a deck girder structure on the south end of the Manayunk Bridge spans tracks of the Norfolk Southern Railroad on the south side of the Schuylkill River; the concrete arch portion of the Manayunk Bridge spans the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76), the Schuylkill River, tracks of the Norfolk Southern Railroad on the north side of the Schuylkill River, the Schuylkill Canal, and Main Street and Green Lane in Manayunk; and a through plate girder structure on the north end of the Manayunk Bridge spans tracks of SEPTA’s Norristown Line; and WHEREAS, in 1999, SEPTA stabilized and refurbished the concrete arch portion of the Manayunk Bridge to maintain its structural integrity by, among other activities, replacing parapets, repairing concrete surfaces, replacing railings, removing and replacing rail bed ballast, and making drainage improvements, but no substantive work was performed on the steel structures on either end of the main span of the Manayunk Bridge because they were determined to be structurally sound; and WHEREAS, although SEPTA rehabilitated the Manayunk Bridge, it has not resumed railroad operations across the Manayunk Bridge; and WHEREAS, City and Township, with the consent of SEPTA and the participation of other stakeholders, desire to convert the Manayunk Bridge from railroad to bicycle and pedestrian trail use as a 1 DRAFT 03.08.13 connector between the Cynwyd Trail and the street network in the City’s Manayunk neighborhood (the “Project”),