Vote and Help Rank Applications for $5M for 2018-2023

"Like" your favorite projects and give SKATS feedback

Our local Metropolitan Planning Organization has a social media style map and is taking comment on applications for about $5 million in additional Federal funding.

The three in Salem are on Orchard Heights, McGilchrist, and Brown Road. Others are for Cherriots, in Keizer, Turner, and unincorporated Marion County.

(For more and a brief discussion of them, see last month's notes. If you really want to drill into detail, SKATS has posted the applications themselves here.)

City Council, September 25th - Brown Road and Proclamations

Council meets on Monday and while the proposal for a Sit-Lie Ordinance rightly gets headlines, there are some other transportation matters on the agenda.

The City has assembled a trio of project applications for Federal funding:

SKATS is soliciting for transportation projects that will be ready for contract in fiscal years 2019, 2020, and 2021. The total federal funds available for this solicitation is $5 million....

[the three projects are] for Brown Road NE Complete Streets, McGilchrist Street SE Complete Streets, and Orchard Heights Road NW Pedestrian and Pavement Improvement.

I think this is a result of extra funding from the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program. From back in July at SKATS:

The addition of CMAQ funds for SKATS in FY 2019 to FY 2021 provides an opportunity to review projects in the FY 2018-2021 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and add projects using federal STBGP-U funds that were not programmed in the TIP. Approximately $5 million will be available for projects for obligation in FY 2019 through 2021. Staff and TAC members need to discuss the project identification and application process that should start this summer.

One of the projects was already funded and needs completion funding. It is identified as the highest priority.

The project will construct sidewalks and bike lanes on Brown Road NE between San Francisco Drive NE and Sunnyview Road NE and add a turn lane at the intersection with Sunnyview Road NE. Brown Road NE is a collector street that provides access to Scott Elementary School, is located on a bus route, and is adjacent to a future park site.

Additional costs were identified during project design. In particular, right-of-way costs are approximately three times greater than originally estimated and hazardous material has been identified that will require special disposal. Because this project already has federal funds, staff recommends that this be the City’s highest priority for additional federal funds. [italics added]

The other two are new:

• [A project on Orchard Heights] will fill in two missing segments of sidewalk....The first segment is approximately 340 feet long and is adjacent to the Glen Creek Village Housing Authority Apartment Complex. The second segment is approximately 500 feet long and is along the frontage of a City water reservoir. The project will also construct a median at the entrance to the park opposite Parkway Drive to facilitate pedestrian access to the park.
• In 2016, the City was awarded federal funds for right-of-way acquisition for the additional width needed along McGilchrist Street SE and at intersections, with the exception of the intersection at 22nd Street SE. The intersection of 22nd Street SE and McGilchrist Street SE is an off-set intersection that will be realigned as part of the project. The right-of-way for this intersection was not included in the previous application because of higher costs associated with the realignment. Staff recommends that the City apply for the additional right-of-way needed to realign 22nd Street SE at McGilchrist Street SE.

These are small, incremental projects, and two are explicitly small parts of larger projects. (The whole McGilchrist project at the moment is conceived as a much larger TIGER recipient, and the future of that Federal grant program remains in doubt.)

From the TSP with inset detail from Staff Report,
and added comment on tier 3 prioirty

Interestingly, the segment on Orchard Heights was identified in the "Bike and Walk Salem" update to the Transportation System Plan as only a "tier 3" priority. Maybe there are reasons it should have a higher priority. Adjacency to the public housing is certainly a worthy reason, and part of any argument. But the Staff Report should discuss this and develop the argument in more detail. On the surface it looks like a project that's sliding in above other more urgent needs. If we are serious about our Strategic Planning effort, it should be easy to see how we prioritize projects. Here it looks more like an ad hoc selection process; it is not in fact easy to see how we rank and prioritize these and how they fit into a larger vision of mobility for the city.

At the MPO: Public Hearing and Final Adoption for 2018-2023 Project List

Today, Tuesday the 25th, our local Metropolitan Planning Organization will hold a Public Hearing and presumably formally adopt the 2018-2023 SKATS Transportation Improvement Program.

SKATS graphic on the TIP process
(comments in green added)

(See previous notes on it here.  Project website here.)

The document is a primarily a compilation from ODOT, Marion and Polk Counties, the Cities of Salem and Keizer; SKATS, our MPO, originates no construction projects themselves, and as compilers they are not the primary drivers of what is in and out of the TIP. They do have scoring and prioritizing phases for particular funding programs, and meaningful numbers of projects do get dropped from the "funded" lists. The real opportunity for public comment therefore is earlier in the process during the project application process, when the member entities of SKATS are compiling their candidate lists and submitting applications, and during the vetting processes when the Technical and Policy committees rank the candidate projects in an order of priority.

So it is an interesting thought experiment to consider what level of public comment would be sufficient to substantially alter or even delete a project at this stage. It would seem to require extraordinary proof of error or public outrage.

The Public Hearing then is mostly a formality, and it expected the TIP will be adopted unaltered.

Cherriots Board meets Thursday, SKATS Open House Today

The Cherriots' Board meets tomorrow night, and there were a couple of small things to note in passing.

Last month the committee for the Special Transportation Fund met and allocated some grant money, and while the Hospital didn't get entirely shut out, they got much less than they asked for.

Salem Health only partially funded for
Transportation Coordinator
(February 7th, Special Transportation Fund meeting)

It seems quite likely that this is related to the fact that the Hospital had recieved $50,000 for a similar coordinator position in 2014 or 2015, and then turned around and gave $50,000 to the anti-Cherriots effort on the November ballot.

October 2015

The monies came out of different accounts, so it's not like the Hospital passed the exact same money from Cherriots to anti-Cherriots, but it wasn't a good look and said something about the Hospital's values, about the way they view the community, and about their view of transit.

View 2018-2023 Area Projects and Funding on Map Now, Open House 22nd

Our Metropolitan Planning Organization will hold an Open House for the 2018-2023 funding cycle next week, and during the comment period they've got an interactive map with a social media style add-on for comment.

SKATS 2018-2023 TIP Comment Map

Look at the hearts! Awwww...

You can "like" projects and also comment on them.

Some projects that might deserve the love:

• Key intersection and crosswalk safety enhancements near schools and two on the Winter-Maple bikeway
• A complete bikeway on Union Street from Commercial Street to 12th Street
• Enhanced crosswalks with flashing beacons on Wallace Road between Narcissus Court and Vick Avenue
• Buffered bike lanes on middle Commercial Street between Oxford Street and Winding Way (Commercial-Vista Corridor plan!)
• Right-sizing with lane adjustments for safety on North Broadway between Pine and the Parkway - aka a road diet.
• Sidewalks and bike lanes on Brown Road 
• Sidewalks and bike lanes on Verda Road between Dearborn and the Parkway.
• Sidewalks and bike lanes on Hayesville Road between Portland Road and Fuhrer (2 projects).
• Sidewalks and bike lanes on 45th between Silverton Road and Ward.
• Sidewalks and bike lanes on Hollywood Driver between Silverton Road and Greenfield.
• Partial funding for the South Salem Transit Station

You might see others. The list is pretty well vetted and baked at this point, and it would take a tremendous effort to dislodge or meaningfully alter any project, however.

Look for the historic sign
next to the entry

If you want to read the full TIP document here it is.

There will also be an Open House on Wednesday the 22nd from 4pm to 6pm.

SKATS is at 100 High St. SE, Suite 200, above Andaluz Kitchen and Table Five 08.

At the MPO: 2018 - 2023 Area Project List Nearly Ready for Public Release

On Tuesday the 28th, the Policy Committee for our Metropolitan Planning Organization meets at noon, and there are several things to note. (Agenda and packet here.)

Release the TIP!

The biggest item is the draft 2018-2023 Transportation Improvement Program.

The main action will be a "Motion to direct staff to release the draft SKATS FY 2018-2023 TIP for public review and comment."

I think this will lead to an Open House, a formal comment period, and a Public Hearing.

What is a TIP?

The Executive Summary says:

The Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for federal fiscal year (FY) 2018-2023 is the region’s short range capital improvements program for roads, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, transit, and other transportation elements in the Salem-Keizer-Turner urbanized area...it includes lists of transportation projects proposed for FY 2018 through 2023. The TIP is developed through a cooperative planning process by the Salem-Keizer Area Transportation Study (SKATS), this area’s federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO).

As part of the planning process for the development of the TIP, the financial plan covers proposed transportation investments. The financial plan demonstrates which projects can be implemented (annually) using current revenues and funding sources...

This document describes how more than $160 million will be invested to support our transportation system over the next four years. SKATS has discretion over programming nearly $40 million in federal funds for FY 2018-2021...

Federal requirements strongly shape the process, and there may not be much flexibility in it, but the comment period is positioned at the very end of a process that started in the spring of 2016.

The real opportunity for the public to shape or influence the TIP comes earlier in the process, mostly in 2016. It is an interesting exercise to consider what level of public comment - how much outrage really - it would take to alter substantially a project, to delete one, or to add one at this near end-stage to the TIP. (New projects would probably instead be added as amendments after this TIP is adopted. This happens routinely, it should be noted.)

Since the TIP is a compilation - the MPO doesn't originate projects - of projects mostly from cities, counties, and the state, at this point in the process this seems like an opportunity mainly for rubber-stamping rather than an opportunity to influence. Still, the aggregate of comment might help shape the next round of projects, as well as the on-going amendment process as new projects are added. They'll also begin working on the next one in not too long, and that's something to keep in mind.

Projects in the TIP

If in your peripheral vision you've noticed the City 's Capital Improvements Plan, the State's All Roads Transportation Safety program, the State's "Enhance" and "Fix-it" programs, as well as the "STBGP-U and TA-U funds" vetting here at the MPO, you'll be aware of many of the projects.

Detail from Figure 4, map of projects (legend enlarged)

But whether you've followed any of the processes or not, it's nice to see them all collated and mapped.

MPO Looks to Have Project List for 2018-2023 Funding for February Release

The Policy Committee for our local Metropolitan Planning Organization meets on Tuesday the 24th, and it looks like they have a draft project list for an important 2018-2023 funding cycle. (Agenda and packet here.)

But First, at the Oregon Transportation Commission

One of the projects that was initially considered for this 2018-2023 cycle, but was later split off and instead added to the current 2015-2020 cycle as an amendment, is a study for seismic retrofitting the Center Street Bridge.

Councilor Andersen at the January OTC meeting - via N3B

Over at N3B you might have seen a terrific note about Councilor Andersen testifying before the Oregon Transportation Commission in favor of it. Formal approval for the project was on the consent calendar for the OTC, so it's not like was in danger and needed much lobbying. Instead, what Councilor Andersen did was show conviction and support from a Salem Elected - not just one of the rabble-rousers! - and give visibility to the fact that the Salem River Crossing project is in trouble and does not conform to higher-level policy goals - like "Fix it First" or reducing drive-alone trips. Hitherto communications on this topic have risen up to the OTC through the MPO and our area ACT from Mayor Peterson and Councilor Lewis, cheerleaders for the Salem River Crossing. So Councilor Andersen's comments were a strong counterpoint from within government. Thanks, Councilor Andersen!

Worth a little digression, I suppose, is that ODOT Director Garrett, shown smiling in the middle of the photo, is increasingly attracting criticism from the OTC.

The other day the Portland Tribune posted an article on the OTC and problems with its relation to the Oregon Department of Transportation, which ostensibly it supervises as its "Board of Directors."

Pseudo-Science vs. Real Science at the MPO: Greenhouse Gas Workshop

If we haven't killed ourselves off in some slow-developing or sudden extinction event, historians from the future looking back on our era will write about our enthusiasm for cars and the way we embraced the pseudo-science and social engineering in hydraulic autoism. They will be impressed with the pseudo-scientific metrics of volume/capacity ratios and levels of service, as well as our tolerance for long and sedentary commutes, and equally amazed with our repudiation of actual science in rising greenhouse gas emissions, their effects, and our careless response.

The Policy Committee for our Metropolitan Planning Organization meets on Tuesday the 29th, and there are several meaty matters on the agenda. At the top of the list is a two hour work session after the meeting proper to discuss greenhouse gases and what the State and MPOs should do.

From the agenda:

The Advisory Committee on Metropolitan Transportation Planning and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets has held five meetings between May and November 2016. Commissioner Brentano and Mike Jaffe have represented SKATS on the committee and provided updates to the SKATS Policy Committee. The Advisory Committee has consensus on several of the initial target issues and is having its final meeting in December....

Because of the complexity of this GHG target setting issue, the Policy Committee requested a 2-hour workshop to review the work and consensus recommendations of the Advisory Committee. SKATS staff will provide a presentation about the target setting process assisted by staff from the Department of Land Conservation and Development. After the Policy Committee has asked questions and discussed the issue, they are requested to provide Commissioner Brentano and staff with any direction they believe is appropriate for the final meeting of the Advisory Committee in December and/or LCLD’s meeting in January 26-27 to adopt targets.

Project Scoring for 2018 Cycle Continues at the MPO

The Technical Advisory Committee for our local Metropolitan Planning Organization meets today, the 8th.

Forward-thinking cities are removing highways!
(via New York Times)

The lead item is continued assessment and ranking of projects for the 2018-2023 funding cycle (formally "the Federal STBGP-U and TA-U funds for the FY 2018-2023 TIP" - more on that in a moment).

With the decision to pull four items from consideration for the 2018-2023 cycle and instead fund them by applying the "bonus" money from the 2015 cycle, evaluation of the remaining projects is a little easier. ODOT has further refined some estimates (and the false precision, down to single dollars even, is a little amusing: $1,470,000 vs. $883,541 etc.) and here's the latest draft priority list with project "owner" and estimates:

1. River Road N. Traffic Signal Interconnect – Keizer Keizer/Salem $1,470,000
2. Union Street NE Family Friendly Bikeway Salem $3,500,000
3. Silverton @ Hollywood Traffic Signal & Turn Lane Marion County $883,541
4. Hilfiker Ln SE at Commercial St SE Intersection and Signal Upgrade Salem $1,925,000
5. Fixed Route Transit Bus Replacements Cherriots $4,234,927
6. Verda Lane Bike/Ped improvements Keizer $2,730,000
7. Hollywood Dr: Silverton Rd to Salem CL Urban Upgrade Marion County $2,513,318
8. Keizer Growth Transportation Impacts Study Keizer $185,000
9. Kuebler/Cordon Corridor Study and Management Plan Marion County $200,000
10. Oregon Household Travel and Activity Survey for the SKATS area SKATS $350,000
11. Lancaster Dr: Auburn to Center Urban Reconstr. Marion County $2,417,189
12. McGilchrist Street SE – Complete Streets Project Salem $3,500,000
13. Transit ITS Replacement and Upgrade Cherriots $2,145,000

Here's a helpful reminder about what should be important for prioritizing.

September's Keeling Curve - CO2 earth

Center St Bridge Seismic Study Looks to get Funding, other Notes: At the MPO

The Policy Committee for our MPO meets today, and there's lots in the meeting packet and agenda. (They even warn "this meeting could last longer than usual"!) We'll go back-n-forth a little in time (off the meeting agenda even) in order to try to give the emphasis we want to things.

Center Street Bridge Seismic Study and other 2015-2018 Funding Adjustments

Center St Bridge Seismic Preapp Sheet

Some bonus money appeared from the new Federal Transportation bill, and SKATS has a plan for it:

During the project prioritization process by the TAC this August and September, four projects were identified by the TAC that would be ideal candidates to add to the current TIP. Three of the projects would add funds to an existing project in the FY 2015-2020 TIP. The fourth was a new project to study the cost and feasibility of a seismic retrofit for the Center Street Bridge and could start in early 2017. These projects were the top four in the initial ranking, would not require additional scoping by ODOT, and the requested funds would be programmed in FY 2017 or 2018.

None of the proposed construction projects would significantly affect roadway capacity, vehicle volumes, travel speeds, or would require a conformity determination. Planning studies are exempt from conformity determination requirements. Therefore, a 30-day public review would not be required in accordance with the TIP Management Process.

Therefore, based on their high ranking and need to complete critical projects, the TAC recommends modifying the FY 2015-2018 TIP for the following projects:

• Delaney Road Project Supplemental Funding - $50,338 STBGP-U funds
• Center Street Bridge Seismic Retrofit Study - $179,460 STBGP-U funds
• 12th Street SE: Hoyt Street SE to Fairview Avenue SE - $623,000 STBGP-U funds
• 45th Avenue: Silverton Road to Ward Drive East Side Urban Upgrade - Total request of $1,791,496 in a combination of TA-U and STBGP-U funds

So as I read it, that then leaves this list for the rest of the preliminary rankings generated by the TAC and which will continue to be evaluated and ranked for the 2018-2023 cycle, which will take a few more months yet:

Car Violence and Preliminary Project Rankings at the MPO

The Technical Advisory Committee for our Metropolitan Planning Organization meets tomorrow the 13th, and they will continue early-stage draft ranking of projects for the Federal 2018-2023 funding cycle. They'll also be talking about yearly safety targets.

Detail from preliminary scores and ranking

In the meeting packet is a preliminary ranking of the 17 candidate projects for the Federal STBGP-U and TA-U funds for the FY 2018-2023 TIP. The ranking is "for discussion purposes only" so it's important to regard it as an early-stage draft, subject to revision and not something formal yet.

Nevertheless, there are some odd things about it.

A part of the ranking is pictured above, and you'll see that funding for the seismic study of the Center Street Bridge is #2, and some members of the TAC ranked it as low as 7th, 8th, 9th, even 15th.

The highest ranking project is for Delany Road in Turner!

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.

City Council, July 11th - Federal Surface Transportation Funds

Council meets on Monday, and you'll already know about the possible work session on the Salem River Crossing. (Which seems to have been scrubbed from Council agenda in the last day or two. The charitable interpretation is that the schedule changed or is not finalized. More cynically, it might be that the City errantly posted it and wants instead to withhold the information as part of the way it seeks to manage debate for a pre-determined outcome. It is also interesting that this fall may be consumed with debate on the bridge and debate on the size-large police station - is that a "divide and conquer" strategy by the City or is that an opportunity for community advocates to unify on a consistent theme about the perils of super-sizing?)

Federal Surface Transportation Funds

On the agenda is also authorization to pursue formal full applications for Federal funding in 2018-2023 for a suite of road projects. (They are discussed here and here in the context of the MPO's assessment of the pre-applications.)

Center St Bridge Seismic Preapp Sheet

The City has split them into two buckets of priority:

Highest Priority Projects:

• 12th Street SE Widening
• Center Street Bridge Seismic Retrofit Study (co-applicant with Oregon Department of Transportation)
• Hilfiker Lane SE/Commercial Street SE Intersection and Signal Upgrade
• McGilchrist Street SE Complete Streets (right-of-way component)
• Union Street NE Family Friendly Bikeway

Additional Applications:

• 25th Street SE Multi-Use Path
• Brush College Road NW Safe Routes to School
• Liberty Street NE Bridge over Mill Creek
• Orchard Heights Road NW Pedestrian Improvements
• River Road N Traffic Signal Interconnect (co-applicant with City of Keizer)

In general terms that seems pretty reasonable. The 12th street project is already in process and needs extra funding. It's too late for effective criticism on that. The bridge retrofit is urgent. Hilfiker is at Trader Joe's and Firehouse Crossing and the y-intersection with Sunnyside - and maybe it does need an upgrade. That's the one project I might slide out and swap with the 25th Street path. McGilchrist needs badly to be rebuilt and between freight and disabled veterans and brewery visitors, it may have the widest range of uses of any transportation corridor in the city. The Union Street bikeway is key. At any rate, it's a list on which there is a kind of clear balance and on which the proverbial "reasonable people can disagree." It is not a list that has great and obvious flaws.

MPO Subcommittee Moots Sidewalks vs. Third Bridge for 2018-2023 Cycle

The technical advisory committee for our local metropolitan planning organization meets next week and they've got a bunch of substantive administrative matters on tap. Significantly, as they look to the 2018-2023 cycle and plan, they are beginning to talk about setting aside funding for parts of a Third Bridge, and this merits close attention. (Agenda and packet here.)

General Discussion on Priorities and Values

There's a good bit of discussion about evaluation criteria, and the policies and values that might inform them. Funding parts of a Third Bridge is being considered. Because of the dollar value, it potentially dominates everything.

This casts a long shadow over everything
September 2014 Oversight Team Presentation

The whole section in the Staff Report is worth quoting:

With over $14 million in federal funds to program, there are several policy questions that should be discussed prior to selecting projects for the draft SKATS FY 2018-2023 TIP....

2. Should an amount be set aside to partially fund a large and expensive regional project?

The SKATS RTSP contains a number of large and expensive projects that are difficult to program relative to the limited funds received by SKATS. There are six projects between $5-10 million, and five over $10 million. These include a new interchange at OR22 at Cordon Rd., upgrading McGilchrist St., widening Cordon Rd., and several other projects. The FHWA record of decision (ROD) for the Salem River Crossing Final EIS is expected to be completed in 2017, and there has been discussion about setting aside some of SKATS's federal funds for an initial phase of the project.

Large projects such as these require a substantial amount of funding and many years to complete. With $14 million available over the next five years, now might be the time to set aside some of those funds to go toward a large project. Another option is to also set-aside an amount in the illustrative years of the plan (FY 2022 and 2023), when another $5 million could be available (although those years are beyond the current federal act (FAST Act)). Either approach might also be a strategy for leveraging future competitive state and federal funds such as a federal TIGER grant.

The implications, risks, and challenges of doing a large set-aside include:
a. It leaves fewer funds for Complete Street projects, ITS, transit projects, intersection improvements, etc.
b. If a project is only partly funded using SKATS funds with the intention to leverage a state/federal grant, there is the risk of not getting a grant and therefore having the SKATS funds either sit idle or not be used efficiently.
c. Competitive federal and state grants are more often provided to projects that have significant local match.
d. It should be kept in mind that federally mandated performance measures in the near future will require projects in the SKATS TIP go toward meeting targets for safety and system performance as noted on page 2.
e. For a project associated with the River Crossing, one concern would be identifying what the initial project would be and which jurisdiction(s) would provide the match. In order to include a project in the adopted TIP, it must have a description of the project and a source of match. (Note: funds that SKATS identifies for the 2022 and 2023 illustrative years would not be added to the FY 2018-2021 Statewide TIP, so don't require as much detail.)

Staff recommendation - A discussion is needed by the Policy Committee and TAC about this option.

I don't know what is the best frame for advocacy on this.

MPO to Consider Bridge Seismic Study, Other Projects for 2018-2023 Cycle

This is interesting news. Our Metropolitan Planning Organization's Technical Advisory Committee meets on Tuesday the 10th and the list of projects submitted during the pre-application phase for part of the 2018-2023 cycle of Federal funding has some good ones.

We're starting on the 2018-2023 TIP

Near the top of the list should be funding for planning the seismic retrofit of the Center Street Bridge.

There are several other worthy projects for better walking and biking that also deserve strong support, including a proposal to complete the Union Street Bikeway to the Esplanade.

After the preliminary vetting, the committee will forward a priority list to the Policy Committee for the final decisions.