Technical Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, August 19, 2014 1:30 PM
Attendees Agency
Stu Baker Town of Queensbury Community Development
Frank Bonafide NYSDOT Region 1
Mike Breault Washington County DPW
Rob Cherry NYSDOT Region 1
Chris DeBolt Washington County Planning Department
Ed Doughney Warren County DPW
Preston Jenkins Supervisor, Town of Moreau
Joe Orlow Mayor, Village of South Glens Falls
Shawn Raymond Warren County
DPW
Chris Round The Chazen Companies
Dan Rourke Barton and Loguidice
Owen Shevlin NYSDOT Region 1
Scott Tracy Washington County DPW
Mike Valentine Saratoga County Planning Department
A/GFTC Staff
Aaron Frankenfeld
Kate Mance
1. Welcome and Introductions ‐ Aaron called the meeting to order at 1:30.
2. Visitor Issues ‐ none
3. Federal update
A. Highway Trust Fund ‐ Aaron reported that a short‐term funding measure was passed by
Congress to address insolvency in the Highway Trust Fund until May 2015. The measure
was
a redirection of funds and included no long‐term fix for addressing continued revenue
shortfalls.
B. Rulemaking Summary ‐ Metropolitan Planning ‐ Aaron briefly reviewed a staff summary of
the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Statewide and Metropolitan Planning. The new
emphasis on performance‐based planning will impact the Transportation Improvement
Program
and Long Range Plan; rulemakings on performance measures are anticipated by
December. Other core requirements for small MPOs remain largely unchanged. The New
York State Association of MPOs has formulated comments and submitted those to the
docket.
Adirondack / Glens Falls Transportation Council
11 South Street, Suite 203
Glens Falls, NY 12801
p: (518) 223 – 0086 f: (518) 223 – 0584
info@agftc.org
www.agftc.org
4. UPWP
A. Completed / Ongoing Studies
1) Exit 17 Land Use Study ‐ Aaron reported that the public comment period had
closed on August 4. Comments from NYSDOT and Harry Gutheil were compiled
and sent to the consultant (CME) for consideration. CME has requested and been
granted a $5,000 supplemental agreement
to complete the study. Preston Jenkins
stated that the Town was still actively pursuing the expansion of sewer services
along the corridor. Rob Cherry requested that a disclaimer be included in the
study to state that the planning concepts were illustrative and would require
additional engineering review. Aaron agreed to
include language to that effect in
the final document. Rob also asked how comments would be addressed within the
document. Aaron said that past practice was to incorporate as many viable
comments as possible without generating a formal response to each comment
submitted.
2) Bike/Ped Plan update ‐ Aaron reported that the
Policy Committee had voted to
adopt the Bike/Ped plan update, and he also credited Kate with the major
upgrades incorporated within the newly adopted document.
3) On‐call Assistance Projects
1. Jackson Heights ES Transportation Study ‐ Aaron reported that a draft plan
to address congestion and safety issues has been
sent to the school’s
principal for review and comment. Additional time has been requested for
that review. Recommendations included in the draft for consideration
include circulation changes, student drop‐off procedure modifications, and
crossing guard operations optimization.
2. River Street Streetscaping Concept ‐ Kate reported that a study advisory
committee has been
formed and a kick‐off meeting was held on July 21.
Thorough public outreach will be emphasized. A walking tour (with notice to
the public) is planned. Rob Cherry reported that traffic counts were recently
taken and were being processed and should be available by the end of the
week.
He also noted that the record plans would be available to the
consultant (The Chazen Companies) from the residency. Kate also raised the
issue of changing the Functional Classification (FC) of NYS 418, as the Town
of Warrensburg has expressed an interest in doing so. Aaron noted that 418
is the
only State‐owned highway within the region that is not federal aid ‐
eligible, but eligibility is no guarantee of funding availability. Staff does not
wish for the FC issue to become a distraction. Frank Bonafide, while noting
that DOT has a process in‐house to evaluate proposed FC changes, added
that federal aid eligibility does not necessarily improve the likelihood of
improvements to State‐owned infrastructure.
4) EV Charging Station Network Evaluation ‐ Kate presented the initial results
(handout) from an analysis intended to inform the potential siting of municipal
charging stations for electric vehicles. This effort was modeled from a
similar
analysis for the City of Albany and focuses on potential locations within
municipally‐owned parking areas for Type II charging stations. Those areas were
buffered with employment and land use data in an attempt to generate potential
medium and longer‐term parking stays. Discussion ensued regarding designated
reserved spaces for
EVs and the ability of the public to reserve those spaces. Staff
will continue with this effort by producing similar analyses for municipalities
within the urban area.
5) Intersection Safety ‐ Training Recap ‐ Kate attended an Intersection Safety
training course in Albany presented by the Cornell Local Roads Program. During
the course of the training, methodologies for conducting safety analyses that did
not rely upon traffic count data were discussed. Intersection count data has been
hard for A/GFTC to
obtain in the past as local system counts are scarce. These new
methods hold promise for advancing systemic safety analyses in the absence of
extensive traffic counts. Kate will look to apply this approach to highways in
Warren County and evaluate the results.
5. GGFT Update ‐ Schedule conflict; no
report.
6. TIP
A. Project Updates from Sponsors
1) Warren County ‐ Ed Doughney reported the following:
Valley Road / Combs Road is on track for an early Spring letting.
Consultant is working to modify design report.
Blair Road is also on schedule for an early Spring letting.
Federal authorization has been obtained for the Make the Connection
projects, with the exception of the West Brook sidewalks.
A beyond preservation request is planned for the Palisades Road bridge.
The County questions the value of doing element‐specific work to repair a
bridge with other aging and deteriorating components.
Mike Valentine
asked if there was a process in place to determine what projects could
qualify as replacement candidates; Aaron noted that this project has been
on the program well before the preservation programming mandate was
established.
Design for the three bridge preservation projects can be safely
reprogrammed from
FFY 14 to FFY 15 without impacting the County’s
construction schedule.
2) Washington County ‐ Scott Tracy reported the following:
Work is progressing on Cr 16 over Halfway Brook. South abutments have
been poured. Schedule is aggressive.
CR 12 /Hatch Hill Road safety project was completed in June and
coordinated with two paving projects.
3) Saratoga County ‐ Mayor Orlow noted some continuing operational concerns
with the recently completed safety project on Route 9 in South Glens Falls.
Queuing issues have been observed and associated with the new pavement
markings, and some signal actuation appears to be delayed. Frank Bonafide
offered to follow up.
4) City of Glens Falls ‐ no report.
5) Town of Queensbury ‐ Stu Baker reported that roundabout at the intersection of
Aviation Road / Dixon Road / Farr Lane was open to traffic, with only landscaping
left to be completed.
6) NYSDOT ‐ Frank Bonafide reported that NYS 9L
would likely be re‐paved this year.
Given existing physical and ROW limitations, there are no feasible opportunities to
safely create additional shoulder space. Frank also distributed the A/GFTC‐area
project commitment list and reported that Region 1 was among the highest
performing in the State with regards to on‐
time project delivery and that that
would likely continue. He then thanked the local project sponsors for contributing
towards that result.
B. Amendments and Modifications
1) CR 10 over the Poultney ‐ Washington County submitted a TIP amendment
request to delay construction from FFY 14‐15 to FFY 16‐17. The State of Vermont
is the lead agency
on the project and there has been considerable uncertainty
with regards to project priority and schedule. A concern was expressed that
Vermont could move on the project before the delay date; Aaron reported that
there was no administrative pressure to delay the project. Given the uncertainty
regarding the project’s existing
status, the TIP amendment was tabled.
2) Preservation Projects ‐ schedule adjustments ‐ Aaron reported that the
preservation projects appear to be on track. Some design phases will need to be
moved from FFY 13‐14 to FFY 14‐15. Staff is unclear of status of the Town of
Moreau’s projects and wants
to be sure that the Town is proceeding in a manner
that will not jeopardize their ability to collect federal reimbursements; Supervisor
Jenkins said that he would look in to it.
C. Bridge Preservation Analysis ‐ Aaron reported that GPI sent a draft agreement without cost
information to staff; that was
reviewed by the committee and returned to GPI with
comments and a request for cost information. A revised draft agreement has been provided
that includes a cost estimate that is considerably higher than what was expected. The
review committee will need to have another look; as the funding for this project
is derived
from the capital bridge repair setaside, staff has a goal of keeping the cost of this analysis
under the amount that it would cost to design or implement a repair project.
D. Transportation Alternatives Program ‐ Aaron reported that staff has completed its ranking
of all eligible TAP projects
received by Region 1; the review meeting is scheduled for 8/25.
The regional review process has been successful for similar solicitations in the past.
7. Other Items / Adjourn
The next TAC meeting is December 17; a Policy Committee meeting is scheduled for October 15.
A motion was made
to adjourn the meeting.
Moved by: Stu Baker Seconded By: Ed Doughney Meeting adjourned at 3:22.