MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE A/GFTC TAC October 22, 2012
Attendees Agency
Members and Participants
Stu Baker Town of Queensbury
Frank Bonafide NYSDOT
Michael Breault Washington County DPW
Mike Fiorillo Village of Hudson Falls
Kevin Hajos Warren County DPW
Wayne LaMothe Warren County Planning
Mary Anne Mariotti NYSDOT
Larry Mulvaney NYSDOT
Scott Sopczyk GGFT
Jeff Tennyson Warren County DPW
Scott Tracy Washington County DPW
Michael Valentine Saratoga County Planning
Staff
Aaron Frankenfeld A/GFTC
Kate Mance A/GFTC
Monika Bulman A/GFTC
Minutes of the Meeting
1. Welcome & Introductions – Aaron called the meeting to order at 1:35.
2. Visitor Issues – None.
3. MPO Administrative Items Aaron: the outstanding reimbursements have been paid
to the Regional Planning Board. A temporary contract was established and we should be
caught up on State reimbursements.
4. Completed/Ongoing Activities
1) Traffic engineering services, Aaron
a. Dix/Sagamore intersection evaluation. Chazen has developed conceptual
improvements that were presented to the Glens Falls Common Council last
week. Aaron showed the renderings to the Committee. The primary focus of the
study was to determine if a traffic signal was warranted. Traffic volume at the
intersection easily meets multiple signal warrants. The alignment of the Warren
County Bikeway crossing at Dix Avenue was also examined. Chazen came up
with two realignment alternatives; one with and one without a traffic signal. The
City was presented with the option to pursue this as a Make Connection Program
candidate at their discretion.
b. Crandall/Orville intersection. The Chief of Police of the City of Glens Falls
contacted A/GFTC to request a review of crash history at the intersection of
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Crandall and Orville Streets, two blocks south of Sherman Avenue. Both
approaches are narrow and sight distance is limited. Most recently, a house was
struck by a car as a result of a two-car collision. The Chief wondered what kind
of traffic solutions might be available. Chazen will undertake this study as one
of A/GFTC’s on-call engineering services.
c. Street and subdivisions standards review. A summation of the review was
just presented last week by Chazen. Warrensburg has reviewed the first draft.
A copy of the summation will be given to Jeff Tennyson.
2) Bicycle map – Kate – The map has been sent to the printer; 15,000 copies
have been ordered.
3) Long Range Plan 2035 survey -Kate – As of today, 102 completed surveys have
been received. The majority of the responses have been online but we are
getting some paper copies also. The surveys were distributed to County
buildings and a mailing with surveys for display/distribution went out to all
Towns and Villages.
Jeff Tennyson – regarding outreach, there are a few organized groups that have
specific concerns regarding transportation and the survey would be heavily
weighted toward those groups. The suggestion was made to get the survey to
bus garages and bus drivers (school and Transit).
Scott Sopczyk – suggested using the phone to solicit survey response. A/GFTC
will look into the possibility of phone solicitation.
4) Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan. Kate – On September 25th
the kick-off meeting was held. The meeting was well attended and there was
good feedback. The group will meet every other month.
5) Countywide accident analyses. Kate – This is ongoing. The accident data from
the State web site has been down loaded. We have the counts from
Washington County but still need them from Warren County.
Aaron – Going back to Traffic Engineering Services, the contracts lapsed this
year, but we are in the process of resoliciting for consultant participation. The
applications should be in our hands shortly and will be reviewed internally.
We are working on a crossing guard location evaluation for the Chief of Police for
the City of Glens Falls to help the City determine if the crossing guard
budget is being used to the best possible extent. Staff has taken on this project
and the Glens Falls Hospital Creating Healthy Places to Live, Work and Play
program will assist with the data collection.
5. Transit
A. GGFT Update: Scott Sopczyk – Took delivery of two paratransit vehicles about a
month ago. The trolley season is over. It was a strong season in terms of
ridership and exceeded last year’s numbers. Scott will be re-evaluating the night
service that runs basically as a take home service for people who are working
and need to get back home. GGFT just finished up with the Special Olympics and
some other special events going on in the City.
B. 5316/17 solicitation. Aaron is still waiting for solicitation instructions from DOT.
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6. TIP
A. Make the Connection Program Solicitation. Aaron – Kate has revised the
solicitation and some draft copies are available. Would like to get the solicitation out
next week. We are doing away with partial funding for projects. If a project sponsor
has multiple elements of a proposal, we should receive separate applications. A
score sheet will be available to project sponsors also.
B. Amendments and Modifications
1) Bridge Project Scope Changes – 197/Hudson, 28N/Hudson- Aaron – We
did receive the requisite votes from the Policy Committee to approve the
NYSDOT’s TIP amendment requests for downscoping the Route 197 bridge
over the Hudson and the Route 28N bridge over the Hudson to rehabilitations.
C. NYSDOT TIP/STIP Programming Instructions- Aaron – We can expect that the new
TIP is not going to look like the old TIP with regard to the type of projects that we
are carrying within it. There have been changes to federal funding eligibilities with
regard to respective programs. The state is the fiscal agent for the Federal Highway
Program within the state of NY so the responsibility for developing programming
criteria largely falls upon them. They have issued the guidance which has been
circulated to and discussion items that have been assembled with illustrations of
types of capital projects that constitute preservation work. Handouts were
distributed.
Frank Bonafide – Under normal circumstances our program update is labor intensive
and sometimes complicated, but now we have a new federal act and a program that
is going into an entirely new direction. Funding limitations are such that the choice
becomes doing one big project or many small projects. Preservation is the preferred
strategy. As we begin this TIP update we are asking that on the local side the same
tact is taken…preservation. Mary Anne Mariotti will be working with everyone to
identify preservation candidates.
Frank reviewed the a Programming Criteria handout. The last four years of the
upcoming TIP will have significantly reduced funding. There will be approximately
$116M available for the Region as a whole. The formulas now in use focus on
preservation need and the planning target is based on those needs. Within the dollar
amounts, 60% was taken and distributed to the Regions for preservation, 10% of
total amount went to the Regions for core projects (bridge replacement), 25% of
total amount is being held aside for Statewide Priority Program; if the project is
beyond preservation and is a competitive candidate (would rank well statewide), the
Region will work with sponsors to prepare applications. The deadline is November 9
The region has a cap of $179M for submissions. Region 1 staff is working to
assemble State and local candidates for the new programs.
MAP-21 created the National Highway Performance Program and that includes all the
funds that used to go to interstate maintenance, NHS and HBRR. Bridges funded
under this program must now be part of the federal aid – eligible roadway system.,
This is the biggest issue. 15% of the 2009 HBRR funds were set aside for an
STP off-system bridge fund. That results in only about 3.5 million dollars a year for
the entire region, with 1.6 million dollars going towards off-system bridge
inspection costs. Changes in CMAQ do not impact A/GFTC too adversely.
State funds are being reduced; this will result in NYSDOT pursuing more federal
funding to execute its program.
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It is imperative that project sponsors deliver their existing projects that are
programmed for obligation prior to September 30, 2014. If you have a project on the
TIP that has not received approval of a BP-1 submission yet, the project can be
progressed forward but Marchiselli should not be expected. This will increase the
requisite local match from 5% to 20%.
Other discussion focused on the content of the distributed handouts.
D. Project Updates – (new developments only)
1) Warren County – Kevin Hajos – Hicks Road and Crane Mountain have
both been temporarily delayed because of FHWA review. Federal
authorization for the State-owned section of Beach Road has
been granted.
2) Washington County, Scott Tracy – Truthville Bridge bids came in under
estimate.
3) City of Glens Falls – no report
4) Town of Queensbury, Stu Baker – Aviation Road, letting is anticipated
for 2014
5) Saratoga County/Moreau/South Glens Falls – Mike Valentine asked
about Rte 9 paving project paving. It will begin in Spring 2013.
6) NYSDOT, Frank Bonafide – Rte 4 in Hudson Falls has been let.
7. Other Items – Aaron brought up for discussion the possibility of the TAC
meeting every other month, what day and time of day works best
for committee members. He will get back to members with the
results.
Creighton Manning Engineering has been selected from the on-call
program to conduct pavement scoring.
There are now 14 MPOs (Watertown is the 14th) competing for
funding. Due to PL increases in MAP-21, our MPO will get a small
increase in funding.
8. Adjournment – Mike Valentine made a motion to adjourn at 3:25