At the MPO: Second Pass at Applications for 2018-2023 Funding Cycle

The Technical Advisory Committee for our MPO, the Salem-Keizer Area Transportation Study, meets today, Tuesday the 9th, and they'll be taking a second look at applications for "the Federal Surface Transportation Block Grant Program (STBGP-U) funds and Transportation Alternatives (TA-U) set aside funds for the FFY 2018-2023 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)."

After a pre-application phase, full applications were due on July 29th, and there has been a winnowing. TAC members will do a second scoring to "evaluate and prioritize the projects and provide the results by August 30, 2016."

Project locations (download here)

Here are the preliminary rankings on the full pre-application list from June. Projects with full applications submitted on them are linked to the application (you will need to download them as they will not open in a new browser window). Unlinked projects for whatever reasons did not have full applications submitted and are not going on to the next round. 17 out of 31 advanced. Here also is a map and a summary table.

1. Center Street Bridge Seismic Retrofit Study ODOT/Salem
2. 12th Street SE: Hoyt St. SE to Fairview Ave. SE Salem
3. River Road N. Traffic Signal Interconnect- Keizer/Salem
4. Cordon/Kuebler Traffic Signal Interconnect Salem
5. Silverton @ Hollywood Traffic Signal & Tum Lane Marion County
6. Union Street NE Family Friendly Bikeway Salem
7. 45th Av : Silverton Rd to Ward Dr E Side Urban Upgrade Marion County
8. Transit ITS Replacement and Upgrade SAM TD
9. Fixed Route Transit Bus Replacements SAM TD
10. Hilfiker Ln SE at Commercial St SE Intersection and Signal Upgrade Salem
11. McGilchrist Street SE - Complete Streets Project Salem
12. Lancaster @ Hayesville Traffic Signal & Tum Lanes Marion County
13. Kuebler/Cordon Corridor Study and Management Plan Marion County
14. Center St: Lancaster to 45th Av NE Upgrade Marion County
15. Keizer Growth Transportation Impacts Study Keizer
16. Oregon Household Travel and Activity Survey for the SKATS area SKATS
17. Orchard Heights Road NW Pedestrian Improvements Salem
18. Lancaster Or: Auburn to Center Urban Reconstruction. Marion County
19. Lancaster Dr: Winema Signal and Realignment Marion County
20. Connecticut Av: Macleay to Rickey W Side Bike/Ped Marion County
21. Cordon Rd @ Herrin Rd Turn Refuge Marion County
22. Verda Lane Bike/Ped improvements Keizer
23. Wheatland Rd Bike and Ped Separation Design Keizer
24. Brush College Road NW - Safe Routes to School Salem
25. 25th Street SE Multi-Use Path Salem
26. Liberty Street NE Bridge Over Mill Creek Salem
27. Hollywood Or: Silverton Rd to Salem CL Urban Upgrade Marlon County
28. Turner Road Downtown Upgrade Turner
29. Sidewalk Reconstruction - Salem Northeast Neighborhood Salem
30. Cordon @ Auburn Rd Traffic Signal and Turn lanes Marion County
31. Lancaster@ Cooley Traffic Signal Marlon County

I don't know if there are any particularly interesting things to say about projects that got dropped.

$24 million in request, but $14 million available

As I recall, there was only about $14 million available, so there's still some prioritizing and winnowing to be done. At the same time, some of the projects might be programmed with 2015-2018 funding, it appears, so it's hard to say how much will actually need to be cut.

Here's a few observations in passing.

Sidewalks and bike lanes are not bonus "amenities"

In the description of the McGilchrist project there's some language about "bike-ped amenities" that needs to become obsolete.

Basic sidewalks and bike lanes should be a baseline, a standard, not a frill or amenity.

Another place where a project description is undernourished is on the Center Street Bridge seismic study.

"no impact"

The question:

At the project and regional levels, describe how the completed project promotes environmental justice (by avoiding, minimizing, or mitigating disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects including social and economic effects on minority and low-income populations).

The answer:

Completion of the plan will have no impact on minority and low income populations.

The Edgewater district is a low-income area in Salem, and since in an earthquake connectivity across the river and access to the Hospital and government services, as well as a 24" water main attached to the bridge will all be affected - how the heck does this City say "no impact"? It seems to me this project has a huge positive impact, offering benefits for health and in economic effects!

This is probably just an unintended artifact of bureaucratic form-filling, but geez. Way to milquetoast the most important project on the list.

Union St Bikeway: From Commercial to 12th

The application on the Union Street Bikeway says it will go "from Commercial St. NE to 12h St. NE." There has been ongoing uncertainty about the section from Commercial to Winter Street, and this appears to confirm that currently there is funding for the work on the intersection of Commercial and Union only, that anything east of Commercial still lacks full funding. (I believe that Urban Renewal Funds would be the the greatest part, or perhaps all, of the local match portion of the funding.)

For the elbow curve where 12th and Union Street meet, at Summer Street there is proposed to be a transition to a two-way separated bike lane. This appears to be carried over from the June 2013 renderings out of the Downtown Mobility Study. It would use the crosswalk at 12th and Marion to make the connection with the 12th Street Esplanade.

All in all the project list remains reasonable, broadly speaking, and it's difficult to say there are any really bad projects on it. Even the Keizer Growth Study has been retooled some and is much improved since its days as a terrible TGM application last year. (Do you see any real losers?)

Look for the historic sign
next to the entry

From here the most important projects seem like

1. Center Street Seismic Study
2. Union Street Bikeway
3. McGilchrist Redesign

SKATS Technical Advisory Committee meets Tuesday the 9th at 1:30pm. SKATS is at 100 High St. SE, Suite 200, above Andaluz Kitchen and Table Five 08.