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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTrans 2011-10-17 Item 3 - SCATBd - 9/20/11 Meeting Summary, 200th Street Light Rail Extension Letter and 10/18/11 Meeting AgendaSOUTH COUNTY AREA TRANSPORTATION BOARD (SCATBd) September 20, 2011 Members MEETING SUMMARY Councilmember Wayne Snoey City of Covington (Chair) Mayor Dave Hill City of Algona Councilmember Ralph Shape City of SeaTac Mayor Pete Lewis City of Auburn Councilmember Joan Hernandez City of Tukwila Kelly McGourty PSRC (Alternate) Chris Arkills King County (Alternate) Seth Boettcher Black Diamond (Alternate) Councilmember Marcie Palmer City of Renton Emiko Atherton King County Council (Alternate) Councilmember Jeanne Burbidge City of Federal Way Grant Fredricks City of Des Moines (Alternate) Councilmember Les Thomas City of Kent Stacy Trussler WSDOT Elizabeth Leavitt Port of Seattle I. July 19, 2011 Meeting Summary The July 19, 2011 meeting summary was approved. II. Reports: Wayne Snoey reported that BNSF is hiring in the State of Washington and is spending about $26 mill on the Stampede Pass rail line in track upgrades in anticipation of increasing coal train traffic. He noted that there were two problems with the existing line including the steep grade and not crowned to accommodate double stacked container trains. Chair Snoey said someday, but not in the foreseeable future, BNSF will improve the Stampede Pass tunnel to allow double stacked train traffic. Chair Snoey briefed the Board on an email he received from Hopelink which announced that they recently received funding from WSDOT to expand Hopelink's current mobility management effort in South King County and their plans to form a South King County Mobility Coalition SKCMC). The SKCMC will be tasked to identify and implement solutions that specifically address special needs (populations including older adults, individuals with disabilities, low- income, youth and people with limited English proficiency) transportation issues in South King County. SCATBd was invited to send a representative to a coordination meeting on September 26. Stacy Trussler informed the Board that there are two projects in the State budget associated with Hopelink. The project was funded with federal grant with state matching funds, and administered 23 SCATBd Meeting Minutes September 20, 2011 Page 2 through the PSRC. Mayor Lewis said that he was not aware of the City of Auburn's participation in the coalition and would like more information on Hopelink's efforts to form a SKCMC. Mayor Hill expressed concern about duplicative effort of SKCMC, and said that the monies might be better spent on existing special needs programs. Chair Snoey agreed that more information is needed and deferred discussion on Hopelink until next month's SCATBd meeting. Jeannie Burbidge and Kelly McGourty reported on the joint meeting of the Transportation and Growth Management Policy Boards. The current Board discussions on the Transportation 2040 project prioritization process included the possibility of exempting "significantly funded projects providing more information on the condition of region's existing transportation system and possibility of including more environmental measures in the priority process. Ms. McGourty also talked about the PSRC discussions of a possible project selection process for grant funding for next year despite the uncertainly around the federal funding process. Stacy Trussler commented on the need for the priority process to better explain how it will interact with the State transportation priorities. Ms. Trussler noted that Vision 2040 identifies where growth should occurred, and said that the region should also take into account where growth has occurred when developing measures for the priority process. She also noted that safety should be highlighted in the priority process. Environmental principals should be focused on fixing a problem and should not be adverse to new capacity projects. Mayor Hill also expressed concerned about the priority process and its focus of regional geographies. He noted that his city has grown faster than targets has suggested, and would like to see transportation investments focus on growth realities as well as growth goals. Mayor Lewis noted that he was pleased about the attention that was being given to preservation and maintenance needs of the region's transportation system. He said that the deteriorating condition of the local arterials will have a negative impact on freight mobility in the region, if truckers can't use local roads companies will move out of region. Mayor Lewis acknowledged Mayor Hill's concern about small cities not being able to compete against larger cities for limited transportation dollars. He said that local cities will have to work together when putting road projects together. Kelly McGourty said that she felt that congestion relief was addressed in the measure via measures that looks a travel times. She also noted that priority scoring will not be applying points based on city size. III. Sound Transit Update Rachel Smith, Sound Transit (ST) updated the Board on south corridor projects. She began the briefing with the introduced of Cathal Ridge, the new South Link Light rail project manager for the ST's light rail segment between South 200 and Highline 24 SCATBd Meeting Minutes September 20, 2011 Page 3 Community College. Ms. Smith noted that because of the economic downturn, ST revenues are projected to be down about 25% over forecast timeframe between 2009 and 2023. The South King Subarea will be down by $851 million. She said that the Sound Transit Board will be given updated revenue forecasts at their next Board meeting later that week. Ms. Smith reported that the ST Board, in July, voted to accelerate the light rail project between the Airport Station and South 200 Street. The plan is to open this segment by 2016 instead of the original planned 2020 opening date. One of the reasons given for advancing this project is because of its shovel readiness. The project's record of decision, the environmental work and design has been completed, and it has the ability to create jobs as soon as possible. The South 200 Street station will be a multimodal station with connections to transit and will include a 700 stall parking garage and 400 additional temporary parking spaces. Ms. Smith noted that there is a cost associated with accelerating this projects and ST has set a target for $40 million in additional grant dollars to off -set the cost of acceleration. To -date, ST has about $13.3 in secure grant funds, and is seeking an additional, $20 to $30 million in additional TIGER III grant funds. She noted that ST was building regional support for its TIGER III grant and is looking for letters of support. Mayor Lewis said that based on his revenue discussion with his neighboring cities revenue projects seem that have stabilized. He was curious about the ST's down revenue forecast for the region. Chair Snoey asked if ST could provide a more detailed break down of revenue forecast, if possible city by city figures, at the next meeting, Ms. Smith said that she would try to provide that information, and will also provide information on the updated ST revenue forecast. Ms. Smith noted that the Board has also provided direction to conduct route analysis, planning and, environmental and preliminary engineering work for the light rail segment between South 200 Street and Highline Community College. The segment between South 200 Street and the Highline Community College is expected on open for service in 2023 instead of the original 2020 opening date. Based on revenue projections, the link between Highline Community College and South 272 would not be feasible by 2023. ST will also conduct a transit alternative network study between Highline Community College and the Tacoma Dome to look at issues including light rail options and ridership demand, work on this study will also start in 2012. ST is also looking at the expansion of the Tacoma Link and a study on this expansion will being next year. Ms. Smith also reminded the Board on ST's Sounder Station Access Study that is currently underway to look at improvements around Sounder Stations to improve access for all transportation modes. The study is looking at sidewalks, additional parking, bike lanes, pedestrian bridges and transit improvements, and a look a demand out to 2030 to determine what kind of projects ST should be building. 25 SCATBd Meeting Minutes September 20, 2011 Page 4 Chris Arkilis noted that due to the bidding climate the light rail project between SeaTac Airport and South 200 Street should move forward. The project will provide jobs and this is a good project for south King County. He said he was not aware of any South King County TIGER III grant applications being put forward and that the Board should consider providing a letter of support for ST's TIGER III grant application. Chair Snoey asked Boardmembers to ask their public works directors if they were planning to submit TIGER III grant applications and report back at the next Board meeting. He said the Board will discuss a support letter at the next meeting. IV. I -5 Express Lane Toll Feasibility Study Update Rob Fellows, WSDOT Tolling Office, reported that the 2011 transportation budget included funding for a study on the feasibility of tolling the I -5 reversible express lane roadway between downtown Seattle and Northgate. Specific questions that were answered by the study included: The potential to generate funding for needed transportation facilities Maximizing the efficient operation of the corridor Economic considerations for future system investments An analysis of the impacts to the regional transportation system Mr. Fellows reported that interagency coordination for this project included transit, ports, PSRC, Seattle, Washington State Patrol and Transportation Commission staff. The study team used PSRC's travel model to assess traffic volumes and impacts, the model determined optimal toll rates through multiple travel model iterations. A financial model was used to determine potential toll funding contribution. The analysis found that there would be some diversion of mainline would occur with lolling, less than 1 of I -5 traffic would choose a different route. He said that generally, there would be a 4% increase in mainline traffic and a 21% decrease in express lanes traffic. The study concluded: Revenue Generation Potential of Value Pricing Over $20M annually net revenue, growing over time. Could finance up to $185M in capital improvements in FY 2015. Excess net revenues not used to pay debt service would be available for other pay as- you -go uses. Tolls also assumed to pay for facility operation and maintenance (but not major preservation), freeing up existing funds for other uses. Maximizing Efficient Operation of the Corridor Congestion pricing will improve express lane speeds and reliability. Eliminating HOV ramp restrictions will balance distribution of traffic between ramps and between lanes. Reduced queuing at bottlenecks at lanes to /from mainline I -5. Some traffic shifted to mainline lanes or other facilities, reducing speeds. SCATBd Meeting Minutes September 20, 2011 Page 5 Economic Considerations for Future Corridor Investments Provides revenues available for transportation use Benefits depend on how revenue is used Could provide seed money for I -5 capacity in Seattle or corridor build -out of express toll lanes (described in report appendix) Could address preservation, maintenance and safety backlog in corridor Regional Transportation System Impacts Model shows no significant impact on other major regional facilities Moderate increases in volumes on nearby corridors due to I% shift of traffic from I -5 to other routes o University Bridge and SR 99 Aurora Avenue Bridge Boardmembers asked if the SR 99 tunnel projects was taken into account in the I -5 tolling study, Mr. Fellows said tolling of SR 99 was assumed by the budget did not allow for a detailed traffic analysis between the two projects. V. SCATBd 2012 Legislative Message Chari Snoey began the discussion by recommending that SCATBd's 2012 legislative message could be based on a refined version of SCATBd's 2010 legislative message. He said, however, that SCATBd may have to wait until the Governor's Connecting Washington Task Force work is finished before SCATBd is able to provide an effective legislative message. Chair Snoey said that he had been reaching out to Task Force members to speak to SCATBd about the Task Force's work such as State Representative, Judy Clibborn, who spoke to SCATBd at their July meeting. He said he was also interested in providing business viewpoint and tried to get Stan Vander Pol, President of Peninsula Truck lines and president of Washington State Truckers Association to speak to the Board but was unable to arrange a time. Chair Snoey said that Tom Rasmussen, Councilmember for the City of Seattle will be at the next meeting to discuss Task force issues. Chair Snoey reported Mayor Lewis and Mayor Hill and he had met with Stan Vander Pol to discuss Connecting Washington and freight mobility issues in the South County area. Mayor Lewis reported that they talked about the fact that the trucking industry pays trucking related fees to the state but that none of those fees come back to the cities. Truckers rely on SR 167, SR 512 and I -5 as routes of choice. He also said that the "last mile" in the arterial system was crumbling and the truckers assumed that that the fees that they paid were being used to fix the arterials. Mayor Lewis reported that truckers were supportive of paying fees as long as there was a nexus between the fees paid and the road improvements needed. Mayor Lewis also recommended SCATBd should develop their 2012 legislative message and not waiting for the Connecting Washington Task Force to complete their work. 27 SCATBd Meeting Minutes September 20, 2011 Page 6 Mayor Hill said the meeting with Stan Vander Pol was very productive and that any coalition that can be built with the trucking industry will add to SCATBd's voice. He also noted that the Ports are also concerned about what happens to the "last mile and said shippers will move their business to other ports if they can not effectively move freight and goods within the region. Chair Snoey also noted that truckers were not against paying their way if they can see the benefits, right now they can't see a direct link between fees they pay and the needed transportation road work. He said the region has to recognize that something has to be done for freight mobility or business will start to leave the region. Chris Arkills reported the next Connecting Washington Task Force meeting was scheduled for October 4 th in Olympia. The task force will be looking at the first draft of the guiding principals on investment strategies and are scheduled to finalize them at the October 4 meeting. He said that the task force will be focused on fiscal and revenue issues and a final report from the task force is due at the end of the year. Mr. Arkills also said that any SCATBd legislative message should echo the language that eventually comes from the task force. Other Attendees: Cathy Mooney, City of Kent Jim Seitz, City of Renton Rob Fellows, WSDOT Dennis Dowdy, City of Auburn Ed Conyers, WSDOT Rick Perez, City of Federal Way Eric Chipps, Sound Transit Bob Giberson, City of Tukwila Rachel Smith, Sound Transit Paul Takamine, King County DOT Monica Whitman, SCA Susan Sanderson, SeaTac Cathal Ridge, Sound Transit Tom Hooper, Port of Seattle 28 South The Honorable Raymond H. LaHood DRAFT Secretary U.S. Department of Transportation 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, DC 20590 Transportation Board MS: KSC -TR -0814 201 South Jackson Street Seattle, WA 98104 -3856 Phone: (206) 263 -4710 Fax: (206) 684-2111 Re: Sound Transit S. 200th Street light rail extension TIGER III application Dear Secretary LaHood: The South County Area Transportation Board (SCATBd) strongly urges your support for Sound Transit's TIGER III application to extend light rail to S. 200th Street in the City of SeaTac. SCATBd is a collaborative effort of sixteen cities in South King County, King County, Pierce County, the Port of Seattle and regional transportation and transit agencies. As elected officials, we meet regularly to educate ourselves about transportation needs in our area and seek to find solutions to address our region's transportation problems. SCATBd believes that expanding the region's high capacity transit system further into South King County is important for our transportation network, our economic competitiveness and our environment. When this light rail extension opens, in concert with the extension to the University of Washington (UW), the system will stretch to over 20 miles. It will provide thousands of South King County residents access to key regional destinations, such as SeaTac Airport, our baseball and football stadiums, Downtown Seattle, and the UW. This extension is a key component to our region's economic competitiveness. It will allow South King County residents to access nearly 170,000 jobs within a half -mile of light rail stations between S. 200th and the UW. Further, there are major employers within walking distance of the S. 200th Station (such as Alaska Airlines). This project will also create over 2,000 jobs at a time when they are desperately needed. This is the right kind of investment to make, putting people to work now and investing in infrastructure for the next generation. We believe this project is very competitive for the TIGER III grant program: it is shovel ready, creates jobs, protects the environment, enhances our communities, and grows our economy. We hope we can count on your support for this important transportation project. Sincerely, Wayne Snoey Dave Hill Chair Vice Chair South County Area Transportation Board Algona Auburn Black Diamond Burien Covington Des Moines Enumclaw Federal Way Kent King County Maple Valley Milton Muckleshoot Indian Tribe Normandy Park Pacific Renton SeaTac Tukwila Pierce Transit Port of Seattle Sound Transit Transportation Improvement Board Puget Sound Regional Council Washington State Department of Transportation 29 The Honorable Ray LaHood July 1, 2010 Page 2 Cc: Senator Patty Murray Senator Maria Cantwell Governor Christine Gregoire King County Executive Dow Constantine Congressman Adam Smith Congressman Dave Reichert Joni Earl, CEO, Sound Transit South County Area Transportation Board 30 SOUTH COUNTY AREA TRANSPORTATION BOARD (SCATBd) MEETING Tuesday, October 18, 2011 9:00 11:00 a.m. SeaTac City Hall 4800 South 188 Street SeaTac AGENDA 1. Open Meeting Action Introductions Approve summary of September 20, 2011 SCATBd Meeting* 2. Reports, Communications and Citizen Requests to Comment Reports and Chair or Vice Chair Discussion Participant Updates from TPB, RTC, PSRC Boards, Other Sound Transit Update Rachel Smith Citizen Comment 4. Connecting Washington Task Force Update Seattle Report and Councilmember Tom Rasmussen Discussion 3. Sound Transit Update Rachel Smith Report and Revenue Forecast Update Discussion TIGER III Support Letter for South Link, SeaTac Airport to South 200 Street 5. King County's Strategic Plan for Roads Services (SPRS) Report and Briefing Paulette Norman, King County Roads Services Discussion Division *Attachment to agenda 9:00 a.m. 9:10 a.m. 9:30 a.m. 10:15 a.m. 10:40 a.m. 31