Reading Area Transportation Study
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READING AREA TRANSPORTATION STUDY MINUTES OF THE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON FEBRUARY 7, 2013 IN THE BERKS COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION CONFERENCE ROOM ON THE FOURTEENTH FLOOR OF THE BERKS COUNTY SERVICES CENTER TECHNICAL COMMITTEE Jay McGee PennDOT 5-0, Chair* Raymond Green, PennDOT Central Office Alan D. Piper, Berks County Planning Commission Michael Golembiewski, for Glenn Knoblauch, Berks County Planning Commission Ryan Furgerson, for Dennis Louwerse, BARTA Charles Jones, City of Reading Deb Hoag, City of Reading *Tie-breaking Vote only TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MEMBERS NOT ATTENDING Terry Sroka, Reading Regional Airport OTHERS Jonathan Crum, FHWA Larry Shifflet, PennDOT Central Office George Tomaszewski, PennDOT 5-0 Regina Zdradzinski, Berks County Planning Commission Craig Lutz, for Senator Dave Argall Bill Royer, for Rep. Ryan MacKenzie Roy Baldwin, McCormick, Taylor Liam Migdail-Smith, Reading Eagle Carol Obando-Derstine, U.S Senator Bob Casey T.J. Huckleberry, Senator Schwank Matt Boyer, Commuter Services of PA 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman McGee called the Technical Committee to order at 1:30 p.m. 2. REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF TECHNICAL COMMITTEE MINUTES OF JANUARY 3, 2013 Chairman McGee asked if there were any questions or comments to the January 3, 2013 Technical Committee Meeting minutes. 1 MOTION: Mr. Jones made a motion to accept the Technical Committee Meeting minutes of January 3, 2013. Mr. Green seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. 3. BUSINESS FROM THE FLOOR Mr. Lutz stated that the Poplar Neck Bridge over the Schuylkill River in Cumru Township was downgraded from a 35 ton weight limit to a 32 tons. He asked if there was any way to put this bridge on the program. Mr. Piper stated that he had phone call the other day from the municipality and an engineer informing him that the bridge was re-rated. It puts more pressure on us to get the bridge onto the program. It is highly ranked on the unfunded project list. We need to find out if we have an opportunity to make repairs. Mr. Piper told the engineer that he wasn’t familiar enough to know what was wrong with the bridge to determine if it would need an easy fix or if it would be a more difficult project. Chairman McGee stated that he can have his staff pull the latest inspection report that caused the reduced rating to see what options we have. Mr. Lutz stated that access restrictions to the landfill will impact Reading, Cumru and Spring Townships and many other areas. Chairman McGee stated there is a line item on the TIP for local projects, but we have not yet decided, as a committee, which direction to move with this. PennDOT is running a parallel program looking at changing the process of how to deal with local match on local projects. He asked if there is a list of projects or municipalities interested putting projects on a list. Mr. Piper stated that the municipalities have not been contacted since we haven’t determined how we are going to use the funds. The Local Bridge Risk Assessment provided by PennDOT has been looked at and conceptual groups of projects have been listed. The Poplar Neck bridge project falls completely outside of any other group of bridges in Berks County because it has its own unique set of problems. Chairman McGee stated that he would look into the Poplar Neck bridge project and report back. He said that a game plan should be laid out in order to proceed with the Local Bridge Initiative. Most of the money is in the out years but now is the time to determine how to move forward. Mr. Lutz asked Mr. Piper to send him any information regarding the outcome of this project. 4. PENNDOT REQUESTED AMENDMENTS/MODIFICATIONS TO FFY 2013-2016 TIP Mr. Tomaszewski gave an update on PennDOT’s Requested Amendments/Modifications to FFY 2013-2016 TIP. Administrative Actions: 1. SR 662 Lake Ontelaunee Bridge Replacement – Additional funding ($80,000) requested due to structure alignment changes. Appropriations 916 Reserve Line Item is the funding source. 2 2. SR 3010 North Church Street Bridge – Additional funding ($37,499) requested per updated price proposal. Also, correction made to state match. Bridge Reserve Line Item is the funding source. 3. SR 4035 Tributary Schuylkill River Bridge – Preliminary Engineering will be done under separate Stone Arch Bridge Design contract. Subsequent phases are programmed. Preliminary Engineering funding ($51,000) is returned to the Bridge Reserve Line Item. 4. SR 1010 over Swabia Creek – Preliminary Engineering funding ($155,000) reduced per negotiated agreement. Funding repositioned within same project on Final Design phase. 5. SR 183 Schuylkill Avenue Bridge – Funding ($202,270) reduced per negotiated agreement. Funding repositioned within same project for Final Design phase. 6. SR 3020 GAI-Tronics Bridge – Funding ($265,000) reduced per negotiated agreement. Funding repositioned within same project on Final Design phase. 7. SR 422 West Shore Bypass – Study funding increased ($313,460) to execute engineering agreement plus internal review changes. Highway Reserve Line Item is a partial funding source. SR 4028 State Street Bridge – Partial funding source from a portion of de-obligated funds returned to the region. 8. Berks Commuter Services – First two years of RATS TIP ($267,120/$258,762) transferred to HATS TIP for Rideshare Program. HATS serves as the contracting agency for this program SRTP Rideshare Program is the Recipient of funds to approve and process work orders. 9. SR 2041 Monocacy Bridge – Funding ($215,000) reduced per negotiated agreement. Funding repositioned within same project on Final Design phase. 10. SR 1018 over Tributary Stony Run – Funding ($185,000) reduced per negotiated agreement. Funding repositioned within same project in Final Design phase. 11. SR 1003 over Schuylkill River – Additional Preliminary Engineering funding ($235,000) requested per negotiated price proposal. Bridge Reserve is the funding source. 12. SR 222 & Long Lane – Additional Preliminary Engineering funding ($330,000) requested per negotiated price proposal. State Street Bridge – De-obligation returned to region for re-assignment is the source. 13. SR 61 & Tuckerton Road – Funding for Final Design ($875,000) and Utility ($87,500) obligated from the 2011 TIP, and returned to the Reserve. A small amount is maintained for internal changes. 3 SR 61 & Tuckerton Road – ROW Partial AC converted prior to 2011 TIP expiration. Remaining AC amount is retained. Remaining state match ($78,000) is returned to the Line Item. Highway Reserve is used to maintain fiscal constraint. 14. PA 73 Bridge over Manatawny Creek – Construction funding ($961,500) requested for superstructure replacement. Bridge Reserve Line Item is the funding source. Mr. Piper pointed out that the PA 73 Bridge over Manatawny Creek in Oley is the bridge that had the lowered load posting on it before it was temporarily fixed. Now, this will be permanently fixed with a superstructure replacement. Mr. Piper asked about the status of the West Shore Bypass project. Chairman McGee stated that a consultant was selected and additional funding was required. Once that is in place, a contract can be executed and a Notice to Proceed can be issued. This study is scheduled to take a maximum of eighteen months. 5. UPDATE ON URBAN AREA REVISION ACTIVITIES Mr. Piper explained the areas that were smoothed in coordination with Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) for changes. There is one minor outstanding issue from PennDOT regarding whether or not smoothing should occur around urban cluster areas, which are located in Morgantown and Kutztown. Mr. Piper stated that the draft Memorandums of Understanding are in place with each of the five surrounding MPO’s or RPO’s and are scheduled to be executed within the next two months. We will have the information at our March meeting for execution by the Coordinating Committee. Mr. Piper stated that most of the MOU’s are fairly standard except for the NEPA RPO, because they are not sure if they will be a RPO or an MPO. Mr. Shifflet stated that part of NEPA will most likely be an MPO. Mr. Piper told NEPA to execute the MOU as an RPO now and it can be changed later if need be. Mr. Piper stated that the next step is to look at these urban area changes and roadway changes that have taken place over the past twenty years with respect to the overall Federal Aid Route System to see if changes need to be made to make it consistent with the existing functional uses of those roads and to ensure that they are classified correctly as rural or urban. This will be brought to the March Technical Committee for discussion and for a vote at the March Coordinating Committee. Chairman McGee asked if, as soon as it is voted on and approved, do the changes take effect from a design point. Mr. Shifflet stated that we must wait until and official approval comes back from the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT). Mr. Crum agreed that there are not many issues regarding this. Mr. Piper stated that most of the main routes do not contain changes. There are some that might get rolled back to a lower classification since some of them were in place before SR 222 South was finished. There might also be roads that are currently listed as Local that might be moved up as Collector’s status. 4 6. REVIEW/DISCUSSION OF 2013 WORK PLAN ACTIVITIES Mr. Piper gave an update of activities that needs to be done from 2013 through July 2014 when the Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP) and the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) need to be updated. Mr. Piper stated that right now there are issues with the urban area, MOU’s and Federal Functional Classification items.