Mobility Committee Meeting Transcript – 03/11/2021 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - COAUS Recorded On: 3/11/2021 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 3/11/2021 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [1:03:39 PM] >> Ellis: We are right at 1:03 P.M. I will call to order the meeting of the mobility committee. I am the new chair. I am pleased to be taking over from councilmember kitchen. We've had a lot of good conversations and so I'm looking forward to what the next few years Olds for us as a committee. Joining me is vice-chair Mackenzie Kelly, councilmember kitchen, councilmember alter and mayor pro tem harper-madison is our newly added person to help join us in these conversations. So very excited to have you on the team. We do have I believe one citizen that has signed up for general citizens communication. Before we call that person I just wanted to daylight that the item number 6 urban transportation commission briefing item, they asked to postpone that because they were not able to meet due to some of the situations that we've been going through over the last couple of weeks. So if there's no objection, I would like to postpone [1:04:39 PM] that item until our next meeting which we'll still have a regular standing item for an update from [indiscernible]. So our first item is general citizens communication. If we have a speaker signed up we'd love to hear from them now. >> Thank you, madam chair. Are you able to hear me? >> Yes, I can hear you. >> Every meeting is different, so sometimes staff comes on to notify us. So I didn't want to just in. Thank you, madam chair, members, I'm 1717. I just have a few comments specifically related to our agenda items. They're discussion items so I'm just going to make them now as it relates to capital metro item it number 2 where you will get your briefing on the winter disaster. [1:05:40 PM] I wanted to call to your attention that there was a senior citizen who is also partially blind that lives in the Parmer lane area who was unable to get water. I'm sure she's not alone. There is no public transportation in that area. So I would ask you as you are moving forward to recognize the need to have a plan in place for our elders that do not have transportation. Or in this case have to walk 1.5 miles to the bus stop. This is also true of the senior citizens in the wells branch area. It's a one mile block to the bus stop from Merrill town and .5 miles on Braker lane. The sidewalks are slick and I would ask you to have them in your planning moving forward. As it relates to item 3 that's the capital express program Susan Frazier's briefing. She was on kazi for several months before project connect went before voters. I want to call attention to [1:06:41 PM] your page 4 where it talks about improving east-west connectivity, I do find that problematic because you have eliminated -- not you meaning the city of Austin, but capital metro eliminated east-west connectivity east of 183. So pass important for the I-35 capital express program, then I would ask you for the need to restore the service in northeast-west as well. Then on the item 4, which is your 2016 mobility bonds, I would just ask you to recognize the need for our pedestrian hybrid pee cons, which is in the Parmer lane area. It's in councilmember pool's district where they actually give out water. It's walnut creek, metropolitan park. There's an apartment complex across the street. A gentleman was killed in his wheelchair in about 2016 in that area. It's just about Parmer, north of Braker and north Lamar. His service dog lived but he died. So it is tempting if you live across the street to [1:07:42 PM] just walk that distance or try to get across, but it's dangerous. Lastly I'll just call your attention item 5, which is your briefing on the project connect. It specifies the Orange line, north Lamar and U.S. 183 and it specifically says rail on page 11, but I want you to recognize that on December 17th, 2018, capital metro approved the project connect plan and it actually is south of U.S. 183. So I think that's very misleading. And I'd just ask you to accurately inform the voters because if you look at the plan for March 9th, the joint project connect plan, you will see that it says enhance metro rapid. [Buzzer]. So it's misleading the state that that is the rail in that area because north of U.S. 183 is txdot's right-of-way, Texas department of transportation. As you may be aware that's 24 to 30 years and moving forward for your future items I would just ask you [1:08:42 PM] to include on the agenda the regional transportation plan. You may be aware that capital area metropolitan planning organization have some funding opening up through the end of the year, 13 million to 14 million. And my concern is that the metro rapid line from Samsung to apple was eliminated and all three of the northeast metro rapids cost less than southwest Austin in your area where oak hill is. Those are my comments. I know that's a lot, but I just want you to understand that specifically convict hill only has 2.9 boardings an hour. So I think the people in northeast Austin need the transportation and. And the source I'll give you lastly is there's a north corridor project connect alternative study from 2014 that talks about the growth through 2035 in that area. If you have any questions, I'll gladly answer them at this time. And thank you for allowing me to speak. [1:09:45 PM] >> Ellis: Thank you, Ms. Joseph. We certainly appreciate your comments. >> And lastly, madam chair kiolbassa the two minutes for healthy streets was in the directions that came to me, but I didn't see it on your agenda. So if you could speak to why that says two minutes for healthy streets. Thanks. >> Ellis: Very much appreciate that. Item number 6, the urban transportation briefing, they weren't able to meet and so therefore we postponed that item. So very much appreciate you being able to speak with us today. Our number 1 item on the agenda is going to be the approval of the minutes of the mobility committee from January 21st, 2021. Do I have a motion to approve those minutes? Vice-chair Kelly makes the motion. Do I have a second? Mayor pro tem harper-madison. All those in favor? It's unanimous on the mobility dais. So we will now move into our briefings. We have quite a few briefings, some really, really interesting presentations that we're [1:10:46 PM] going to see. I certainly present those presentations being added to backup to give us a chance to look through them over the last few hours. I will say we've got a pretty tight timeline so if there are any slides you want to move quicker on it will allow us time for the members of the committee to circle back if those are particular slides that they have specific questions on. So I want to make sure that we have enough time to hear the presentation and to make sure we have some time for q&a from the committee members. So the first one up is going to be an update regarding the response by city mobility strategic outcome departments, which is Austin transportation, public works, fleet mobility and aviation. And capital metro to the February 2021 winter weather disaster. You may get started as soon as the presentation is up and you have everyone you [1:11:46 PM] need. >> Thank you, councilmember, chair. If we could start the presentation. Great, thank you. So this is an overview of the mobility outcome winter weather response, and we can move to slide 2. Thank you. So chair, councilmembers, members of the community that are joining us, we appreciate the opportunity to highlight some of the work of the mobility outcome departments and how we prepared for and responded to the winter weather emergency. This was an all hands on deck response and I'm very proud of the work of our transportation department, our public works department, our fleet department and our aviation department. They mobilized quickly and efficiently. And they supported the entire enterprise and our community. It was difficult work in difficult circumstances, but supporting each other and [1:12:47 PM] supporting our community is really what we do best. I've asked Jennifer walls our fleet services director to join me this afternoon. Jennifer has a few slides to bring you through really the great work of the fleet department. They are the unsung heroes of this weather emergency. They were out there from the beginning and they were out there after. And to me they supported the entire enterprise and they supported our community. A lot of times people will say, you know, what does the fleet department do? Well, to take you through some of great work is Jennifer walls and I'll turn it over to Jennifer at this point. You're on mute, Jennifer. >> Thank you. Thank you, acm and thank you committee members and any of the public that's watching. I just want to thank you for [1:13:50 PM] this opportunity. Gina kind of talked about it a little bit, but the incredible work that our employees do and a lot of time it goes unseen, unheard, and they're kind of the at the grassroots level of making the organization run with these services. So again, thank you for this opportunity to allow me to do that. The fleet department along with our whole mobility outcome folks all worked together in this response. I would like to talk to you a little bit about what we did in preparation before the storm as well as during the storm. That's what I'll be sharing. So in advance of the storm, we worked on mobilizing assets and resources to respond. This means fuel supplies, dolamite for the roads and staff, housing staff as well on site so they wouldn't have to respond remotely, [1:14:50 PM] they could be on-site. A lot had a service truck pick them up from home. And a lot of times they were leaving homes where the conditions weren't any better than anyone else in the city. As a director, this goes without saying, after the storm I learned of so many stories that people had and they still responded even though they had damage at home. One American a death in their family and they still came to work. Run any noses, cold hands, slinging it hard to get that done. Now that I've bragged on them enough I'll move forward. So mobilizing equipment and staff. Also staging equipment throughout Austin and pretreating roads and elevated roadways. That's kind of what we did before the storm started, topping all in favor of our fuel supply, making sure our vendor had a steady supply for us to make sure operations continued. Kind of what we did during the storm, again emphasizing many of our employees were [1:15:50 PM] experiencing the same outages that the public was suffering from. Fleet as you know supports all departments, all equipment, and we particularly focused on departments that were responding directly to the emergency, public safety especially police, fire and ems. That meant when they went off the road, winching them out of the ditches, thank you public works for responding so we could clear the roads and get the trucks and stuff back out on to the roads. Our mechanics, there's one incident where there was a generator that went down at the water department and it was a critical generator to keep stuff going. And one of the mechanics didn't have the part, but fabricated the part to keep it running until the part came in. It was the little nitty-gritty stuff that they did to keep going, and I'm so proud of my team on that. Again, working, public works worked 1100 hours to treat 28 bridges and clear up 190 miles of priority [1:16:51 PM] roadways. Fleet worked directly with them to keep their equipment up and going during this storm. They also provided sanding escorts a to emergency responders, again helping keep our trucks out of the ditches and reducing our load from that standpoint. Again, as a team, aviation worked to -- they were close for two days. Public works helped sand the runways, teams working together to keep the equipment going, those public works team clearing the runways for them. The aviation also supported -- they had their facilities as -- taking care of this their facilities during this time as well as stranded passengers out there supporting them. The transportation department ongoing response, they were able to restore over 1,000 traffic signals within two days and they were also shoveling critical [1:17:51 PM] sidewalks and crosswalks and what have you to keep our citizens safe. So that's kind of some of the things that we did to support the winter response. Again, I couldn't be prouder of our teams and I appreciate this opportunity to let you guys know of the work we do. I think I failed to mention fueling infrastructure as well. Fueling all the generators, making sure that hospitals, city facilities had fuel to keep their organizations running and assisted living facilities. If we hadn't been able to do that, ems would have to transport those folks to a warming center and that would have just been crisis creep and so trying to keep everything under control and avoid people being more disruptive than they were. So again, hopefully I gave you a little bit of insight into what we do. And our mobility team together is working together [1:18:55 PM] to respond so I'll pass this time to Jan. >> Thank you, Jennifer. Next slide, please. So as you can see, there are lasting impacts to this weather event. As I mentioned a moment ago, we continued to deal with the after effects both in terms of how it effects our infrastructure and how we respond to this. This is not meant to be an after action report, but clearly what the public expect to see are the toll that this took on our roadways, both in terms of potholes and ongoing roadwork that is necessary as we respond to this, whether it's roadwork that's related to repairing some of the water infrastructure and utility work that's out there. But we've mobilized teams as quickly as possible. You know, one aspect of our response in terms of going forward, and during this event, is really the ability [1:19:56 PM] of the public works department to pivot quickly from responding to the event as it's taking place, and now establishing the -- outreach to the public to communicate to them that they should expect maybe some of the toll that the conditions took on our infrastructure, but we'll be out there to let us know where those potholes are and when those repairs are needed. And coordinating with other departments. Another aspect that I think Jennifer maybe touched on is the involvement that -- and the support that our mobility departments had for supporting our community, whether it's through food delivery, water delivery, and now as we support the vaccine distribution centers, all of that really is part of the response of the transportation department and the public works to make sure that the public know where these facilities are and these sites are that they can get to them safely and screenshotly. Next slide, please -- and conveniently. Next slide, please. [1:20:56 PM] So the final aspect of this is really part of our communications protocol. You know, we learned during this event that we have quite a following out there in terms of folks that are looking for information about our mobility outcome. Atd and public works posted 55 tweets and 75 Facebook posts. Total impressions were over a million and those were folks who really got that information that we were sending out. And over 56,000 people responded to those. They sent us their videos, they retweeted and sent out information that we sent out. All of this points to that hunger that the community has to communicate with us. The aviation department, they really led the way. They had several media outlets that were at the airport and communicating to the public in terms of what was happening with our aviation outcome. Folks were concerned about [1:21:57 PM] when the airport was opening and when their flights would be scheduled. They did a fantastic job of communicating that. All of this is really ongoing efforts and it points to how critical our own response was in this effort. We're proud of the work that the mobility outcome did. We supported our community and we supported our sisters and brothers at the city departments. Thank you for your support throughout the event. I know that they were communicating with your offices and we appreciate you helping us to amplify the messages to the community to be safe and how we could help. Thank you. And with that we're here to answer any questions. I have some of my team that are on standby and we're here to help. >> Ellis: Thank you, assistant manager, I really appreciate that presentation. I see councilmember kitchen [1:22:58 PM] has her hand up. Go ahead. >> Kitchen: Yes, thank you for that -- helping to understand. There's been a lot of focus on the power aspects and water aspects of this, but we all know ha how impacted our transportation -- our transportation facilities and staff were. So I really appreciate that. I wanted just to ask you if you have any lessons learned for us out of this. I know that you all will be doing an after action report just like everyone else, but I'm curious about if you have any initial things that you would like to share. And one thing you might think about is one of the -- one of the issues that's really important for our community is preparedness and so there's a lot of thought being given in what could we do to be better prepared. So I really appreciated your slide talking about what you all did to be prepared. So is there anything that [1:23:58 PM] you would share with us that you have learned from this experience? Anything you would share at this point? >> Councilmember, thank you. I'll ask Jennifer or rob to jump in if they have some insights of their own, but really what we learned is really the importance of that cross-department communication, ensuring that we had the structure in place and we had the communication channels, but also that our own staff had a way of communicating with their supervisors as we should have responded to what ended up being sort of for emergency events that converged all at the same time. I'll ask -- I see rob has unmuted himself, so he probably has some insight into how atd responded. >> Thank you, assistant city manager. And councilmember, I will sell you that we lost -- because of the -- we lost power to many of our [1:24:58 PM] signals, most of our signal system. So although we have battery backup, that only lasts four to eight hours depending on the size of the signal. So you can imagine we had a number of dark signals very quickly in the storm. So I will admit that I was holing my breath a little bit so that when power came on that those signals would come back on. We've been investing in technology for a number of years thanks to the committee's support and council's suppo, and I'm happy to report most of those signals came back up, even the ones we had to go drive out and look at were operating by and large as anticipated, as programmed. They came back up themselves. So those investments in technology were good investments and I would continue to recommend that we continue to invest in that type of technology. We did completely lose communication to about 250 of the signals and we're still exploring why we lost that connectivity, but we think that was power related [1:25:59 PM] as well or crash related that took out a piece of equipment. But clearly our investments have paid off and I think continued remote sensing and sort of duplicate sensing to make sure that our system is up and operating as quickly as possible is a good investment going forward. >> Kitchen: Thank you, and thank you for pointing that out. We've had those discussions in the past about how important that is moving forward. So this was a test, not one that we wanted to have, but it was a test of how that system works. So thank you. >> We were able to recement of of our signals remotely from our mobility management center, which just a year or two ago we would not have been able to do. So we had prepared to bring staff in all day Saturday and all day Friday, and by 10:00 Saturday, we were sending folks home. So it was a huge relief to see that system up and running. >> Kitchen: Thank you. >> Ellis: I really [1:27:00 PM] appreciate that. I do see a couple more hands up, but I also want to involve Ms. Dottie [indiscernible] From capital metro. Did you want just a moment to talk about some of your preparation in this storm as well? I know you report to your own board, but we're always interested in the great partnership between the city and capital metro. >> Sure, thank you, madam chair and members of the committee. My name is Dottie Watkins and I'm the chief operating officer for capital metro. And we welcome the opportunity today to give you an update on the impacts of the winter storm on our operations. So we'll start with the next slide, please. The first and foremost, and I think it was apropos that the assistant city manager ended with communications and I will start with it. Was the importance of our being able to communicate with the community. We were using primarily social media and our metro alert system, which is a system where our customers have signed up to receive text messages directly from [1:28:01 PM] us. We sent out numerous social media posts and over 350,000 metro alerts during the week of the winter storms. Our primary focus during that week was on emergency operation center support. We started on Sunday of the winter event, providing shelter transportation support. We regularly partner with the city and local partners in providing transportation for persons experiencing homelessness during cold weather. Obviously the cold weather hit pretty hard and pretty long so we continue to provide that support through the week. We also worked directly with Dell medical to provide transportation support for some of their staff who were being housed nearby the hospital as well as some patient transport. They found that because transportation was difficult, they were having a hard time opening up beds because people needed to leave the hospital. So we were able to provide some people rides home so that they could free up their hospital beds. And then we also supported the emergency operations [1:29:03 PM] center with general population dialysis transport, which was a difficult situation. One of our long time partners has been meals on wheels and the central Texas food bank. And in partnership with them we delivered over 550 meals to individual households that were in need of food. Our metro access service, their primary focus was on life-sustaining trips. We made daily calls to all customers had had dialysis he had asked as well as all the dialysis centers. The first couple of days we only had two centers open in the city and so really trying to make sure we prioritized those trips. Over the two-week period, we provided over 1,000 trips specifically to make sure folks were able to receive that life-sustaining report. Next slide, please. We also very quickly [1:30:04 PM] recognized our ability to support the community in water distribution. So we supported several of the water distribution sites set up by the emergency operations center with our partners in the city and county with shuttles. Most of the sites were reasonably on an existing public transit route, but there were a few that were either not on a route themselves or the bus stop was too far of a walk to reasonably expect somebody to walk back with a case of water. We supported those locations with water distribution as well as providing several days' worth of mobile water sites using our buses. So we went to various neighborhood centers, rec centers, apartment complexes where we knew that folks were having difficulty getting to water and delivered the water a busload full of water to that portion of the community. And then our metro access customers, we asked them to let us know if they needed water and we delivered a case of water to nearly 1300 [1:31:05 PM] individual households of people who aren't able to drive themselves and aren't able to get to the distribution sites to get water. Additionally we had to make the difficult decision on the 15th, 16th, 17th not to operate the transit service because the roads were not safe to safely transport customers. When we were able to restart services we would do so without charging a fare and later announced we would continue to keep the fares three through the end of February so during the recovery period the citizens in our community that most needed to be able to get out and get support and help would be able to do so without that extra burden. Next slide, please. Lastly one of the things we worked hard to do was take care of our cap metro family. As Ms. Walls mentioned earlier, our staff was amazing during this event and were also dealing with the same issues at home. [1:32:06 PM] Many of our staff, their homes went days without electricity, days without water. We provided meals, bottled water and incentive pay to all staff who came to work. And also offered our buildings as warming centers and/or shower facilities. Many of our staff didn't have a place they could take a shower and so we were pleased to welcome them and their households into our facility to take a shower. While all of our operating facilities at some point did lose pier you're -- power, we do have generator backup service. And then we're also focus and continue to focus on responding to urgent needs of our cap metro family. We delivered meals and water directly to folks who needed it, and we operate an employee funded disaster relief fund that we are use to go help people who incurred major expenses as a result of this storm. So we are I think stronger because of it, unfortunately that's how these disasters [1:33:06 PM] work, but are happy to have literally weathered this storm tomorrow. And those are all of our prepared comments. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Ellis: Very much appreciate that, Ms. Watkins. There were so many individuals that -- as awful as each person was experience ING this storm, you really did see the community come together and saw departments step up and capital metro step up and we certainly appreciate that assistance to help people being resilient. I think I saw vice chair Kelly, did you have a question? >> Kelly: I did. It was about potholes as a result of the snow on the roads. I've noticed quite a few more myself and so have the people in the community and so I was wondering if you could provide insight on that for us. Thank you. >> Yes, thank you, councilmember. I encourage folks to report those to 311. The public works department has a team that is ready to respond to those, and we know that will will be a [1:34:09 PM] proliferation of potholes as a result of cold weather we experienced. When we have extremes of conditions like that, it really does take a toll on your roadway infrastructure. >> Kelly: Thank you for that. Could you maybe explain if you've had an uptick in reports of them because of the winter weather and how those are being addressed and a time line for fixing, that sort of thing? >> The public works department has a team in place, so we are tracking those requests and getting to them just as soon as we can. We'll have to get back to your office with an exact number of how many we've responded to, but we will certainly report that back to you. >> Kelly: Perfect. Thank you so much. I know you all are under a lot of stress to try to get those things fixed and you are doing the best you can so I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Ellis: Mayor pro tem? >> Harper-madison: Thank you, chair. I think my question is for fleet. [1:35:12 PM] If Ms. Walls is still with us. Sorry, my layout is weird. There we go. Hi there. >> Hi. >> Harper-madison: I couldn't help but recognize on multiple occasions emergency service vehicles were disabled because of the ice and snow and we're not accustomed to these things. I contacted our acm and asked about snow chains and what that looked like, and what was relayed to me was that fleet signals the chains. When I asked some folks who work directly in emergency services, they were like we install our own chains. In which case I wonder if there is a centralized set of protocol about preparing vehicles for inclement weather was my question, and then the other question I had was the way it was relayed to me was that holt sets of chains were [1:36:16 PM] inoperable because they haven't been used in so long. I wonder if that came across your radar and if so what do we as a council need to do to make sure fleet is prepared for other inclement weather events in the fuse. Future. >> So fleet signals the chains when requested by the department. The department houses the chains in their area. We do not have the facilities to store all those chains, and plus if a department changes its wheel type, it may require a different kind of chain. We allow them to keep the chains specifically for their fleet with them. And if they want to put them on, they can put them on. If they need help, we will respond and put those on. So there were cases people put them on themselves, but we did respond as requested by departments. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. If you wouldn't mind elaborating on the other half of that. [1:37:17 PM] Do we know whether we have enough chains, do we need to order more now that we have good weather? >> We have -- >> Harper-madison: About any sort of shortage there. >> Yes, okay, so we have a protocol as far as our readiness for the storm, is to call those departments and reiterate this is what you are going to need. There's a contract, do you need to order. So we -- to make sure they have those. We do things about making sure they store vehicles inside because they may have freezing of the waterlines in the vehicles. There's a protocol we send out to departments in preparation of a storm. I believe there was a case where the department did order chains because they found when they looked in their inventory and the transport company wasn't able to make it here on time to deliver those chance to them. That's the case that I'm aware of that you may be thinking of. So they didn't make it here before the storm. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. I appreciate that. I would like to revisit the conversation about council can make sure we are fully [1:38:18 PM] prepared and equipped in the future. >> Yeah, okay. >> Ellis: Councilmember alter. >> Alter: Thank you. Mayor pro tem asked some of the questions on the chains. I just do want to underscore I think is part of our after action report, that's an area we need to look at. I understand there were some particular difficulties in our first responders with our ems and our fire with respect to chains breaking and then not having replacement chains, and I know we had several fire trucks in my district that were stranded for days which meant they were not able to respond quickly to folks. And so I want to make sure that we have the backups and the redundancys that we need as well in that area. Were there some problems with some of the fuels as well? I heard there were some fuels that were not working [1:39:20 PM] at the extreme temperatures that we had, which were also hampering vehicles. Can you tell us a little more about that and how we prepare for that in the future? You are on mute. >> Yes, that was one of the things that we were going to look at in our after action. The city as part of climate strategy do use alternative fuels, one of which is biodiesel. That does have the bio part that will cloud or gel at a certain point. There was an additive that you put in the vehicle that will prevent that from happening. [Inaudible] Flies off the shelf in the event of an emergency. This clouding comes below freezing right around or below freezing so we had the additive, we ran out, but we were able to send someone to [1:40:21 PM] the stores and get it off the shelves to help prevent this problem. But yes, hard starts in the morning where vehicles were sitting outside. Even regular diesel does that. As one of our prep plans, when we know there's going to be inmember it weather coming, we do change all of our orders for diesel to number 2 diesel, regular diesel, two days before the event and topped all tanks [inaudible] During the storm. To prevent that from happening. But there's an additive we have to use whenever that occurs as well. >> Alter: Thank you. I think there's obviously a lot of work and a lot of scary times for folks and I really do appreciate what people went through. I had two other short questions that I don't think are for Ms. Wild. Was is txdot facilities, particularly 183, what are [1:41:21 PM] the protocols for shutting down 183? My understanding is we ended up having to deploy a whole lot of our emergency responders to respond to accidents and folks stranded on 183, that was recognized, there were requests made to shut it down and that never happened. And so it just -- and I don't know under what conditions you can do it, but I confirm up north those get plowed and there's not a problem with the ice. But if we're not doing that, how does that work and why wasn't that done? And that may be for Mr. Spillar or Ms. [Inaudible]. >> I think that's -- councilmember, Robert spillar. I think that's a great question to pose to txdot directly. They make all the calls on the ramps in terms of closing down or whatever. [1:42:21 PM] I believe obviously our emergency services have the ability to [inaudible] Them down if there's a clear and public hazard. But the call in terms of shutting down ramps or addressing the interstate system is really txdot's, and I don't really have authority over that. >> Alter: So I understand you don't have authority, but we ought to have a plan as a city for inner operations with txdot, and now that we know that that's a problem that is having a big impact on our response seems to me staff ought to be working with txdot to prevent from future and have protocols and open communication about when that would be necessary. Because I imagine the folks who are in charge with txdot are not aware of how many calls we're having to take to rescue people and what is that doing to our emergency response for folks who are [1:43:21 PM] in need elsewhere. So I would ask that that be followed up with by staff as opposed to council asking txdot on that because I wouldn't be in a position to do anything about it, depending on their answers. >> Right. Councilmember, I understand tucker Ferguson is watching and is willing to help answer this question. Our district engineer. >> Alter: Thank you. >> Are we thinking if city hall could put him all? >> Councilmember, we will include all of this in an after action report. I see txdot is joining us now. >> Ellis: Just a time check, it's 1:43 and we have four more topics to cover. But I'm very excited we already had tucker in the waiting room and ready to answer. >> There he is. [1:44:25 PM] >> Can you hear me now? >> Yes. >> Okay, so just briefly, and councilmember alter, in talking about closing ramps and roadways that is correct is a joint effort when we get conditions that are impassable, many times law enforcement will reach out to us and want to close that. Really our desire when we're treating the roads is to keep them open. They may be slow, they may be -- we want to keep them passable. And one of the reasons behind that is when we have material on to roadway, if we can keep traffic on it even moving slowly it helps out to work. So our desire is keep everything open as much as possible, but in a storm like that at some point it really does get beyond our capabilities with our equipment and materials. That will be a joint decision with law enforcement and txdot. And really also is dependent on what alternate routes we may have for certain [1:45:25 PM] runways. For 183 we may have a frontage system that will allow traffic to get where they need to do. Come into play as well. That decision is done jointly between ourselves, emergency and law enforcement. >> Alter: Thank you for that explanation. I would ask in the aftermath of this storm we have some conversations about what happened and what lessons were learned. And again, I clearly don't have the full picture. I just know there were emergency vehicles whose time were being spent up there again and again and it wasn't clear it was safe for it to be open, but I'm not sure there were clear channels of communication [inaudible] For folks to be able to communicate what they were seeing on the ground. And so I would like to, you know, I don't know who is responsible for that communication. I just know it didn't fully happen. And so would like us to learn from that moving forward so that if we do have a prolonged spell of [1:46:27 PM] cold and this kind of precipitation again that we can make decisions. Maybe it's just certain times of night or whatever, but something might need to change in those protocols. >> We'll be glad to do that. >> Alter: Thank you. >> Ellis: Councilmember kitchen, we really have a the love program to get through. Can it be quick? >> Kitchen: Yes. As part of the after action report, if you request include assessment to the extent there was a problem. I don't want to reach conclusions, councilmember alter, that there are problems when we don't have all the data in front of us. So I appreciate, I think it's an important question to ask, but I also want some assessment of the degree it was an issue because I don't want to leave the impression with the public that perhaps decisions should have been made differently when we don't know for sure. >> Ellis: Really appreciate that. These are obviously very important conversations. It won't be the end of our discussion with the storm [1:47:29 PM] aftermath or how we can support the employees in the departments working so hard to keep us safe. Really appreciate the beginning of this conversation. And to the employees of these departments and to capital metro for joining us today, I really appreciate that. Let's move on to item 3, update from Texas department of transportation on the I-35 project and opportunities for community engagement. >> Thank you, councilmember Ellis. We're going to have our program manager Susan Frazier make this presentation for txdot. >> Are you able to hear me? >> Ellis: Yes. >> Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Susan Frasier. I'm with the Austin txdot district and the mobility 35 program manager. I want to thank the mobility committee for this opportunity to discuss our project and [indiscernible] We also have other -- our [1:48:30 PM] tech for Austin district transportation planning and development director. And [inaudible] Are going to help address some of the questions. Next slide. In this presentation we're going to provide information on the capital project and brief overviews of the north and south project, agency and agency and [inaudible]. Next slide. So we'll start with an overview of the project. I-35, five of the 100 most congested roadway segments according to texas~a&m transportation institute. The goals of the mobility 35 program which include nearly 85 miles from Williamson to [1:49:31 PM] Travis and hays county are enhance safety, optimize clearance, minimize additional right-of-way, manage traffic better, improve east-west connectivity and [inaudible] With neighborhoods and enhance bicycles, pedestrian and transit options. Next slide. And the mobility 35 program aims to -- not just for vehicles but also for bicycles and pedestrians. All of our projects include bicycle and pedestrian accumulations. [Inaudible] Four miles of path, 15 miles are under construction, and we have another 68 miles in Devine. Also when we're reconstructing bridges, we're providing adequate width for bicycle and pedestrian accumulations and working with the city to tie into their current and -- current network. Next slide. And so right now txdot is [1:50:33 PM] developing an environmental impact statement for our central project in Travis county. This project spans approximately eight miles of I-35 between west 290 east and Ben white boulevard. With additional flyovers at I-35 and U.S. 290 east. The project proposes to add to lanes along I-35 and the project [inaudible]. The managed lanes are proposed to be high [inaudible] Also known as HOV. And HOV lanes are separated by [inaudible] Lanes and access restricted to carpools, vanpools and emergency responders. The proposed project also includes reconstructing ramps, bridges and intersections of primary roads and enhance bicycle and pedestrian paths and accommodation of transit routes. Next slide. The last time I-35 received major up great was over half [1:51:34 PM] a century ago when the upper decks were constructed in 2 '70s. A lot has changed since then. Now our average daily traffic is more than 200,000 vehicles and by 2045 that number is expected to grow to 300,000 people a day. We also know this is not mostly through-traffic, only [inaudible] Periods of time of I-35 travel is vehicles not stopping. Only one percent is -- the other 86% of vehicles are local I-35 and this is according to a study conducted by Texas A&M traffic institute. We also know the crash rate on I-35 is about average for a similar road. In 2018, which is most recent data we have available, there were 1,120 crashes resulting in seven [1:52:34 PM] fatalities. 37 crashes were severe. Next slide, please. So what we're showing here is our profile view of the three proposed build alternatives compared with no build. This might look familiar to capital metro. We really liked their profile on [indiscernible] Showing that was a great idea to plan through there. The first profile is no build. Red dots are vague locations where the main lanes are currently elevated over the primary road intersections. All proposed alternatives that are shown under the no build reflect mostly yellow dots and those indicate where lanes would be reconstructed [inaudible]. The main difference of alternative lines compared to the other alternatives are dashed lines. And those dashed lines represent areas that would [1:53:37 PM] be tunneled two levels below if font age road and one level below the main. Alternatives [inaudible] Do in the have tunnels therefore we don't see the dashed line. Alternative 3 is pretty much the same as alternative 2 except for airport and woodland where the managed lanes wobble vaccinated over the main -- would be elevated over the main lanes. No higher than what lanes are today. The red dots represent areas where the main lanes go over the intersection, so the lowering of I-35 will be better understood with the next slide. Next slide, please. This is what I-35 reflects today [inaudible] And then if you can put to the -- [inaudible] The I-35 elevated section and then if [1:54:39 PM] you could click one more time. This is what the same location would look like with all of those -- the proposed alternatives. The managed lanes are lower and some of the elements [inaudible]. Next slide, please. So this is what I-35 looked like today at eighth street facing -- this is what I-35 looked today at sixth street facing southeast. And then if you can click to the next image. If you can go back one more. I think we're missing. Click to the next one. Okay. So here you'll see the ramps [1:55:40 PM] and the bridge in the red shading. These are currently affecting [inaudible] And those would be [indiscernible]. This is what the same location would look like but [inaudible]. Next slide, please. So each build alternative proposes to remove the up ex decks from airport boulevard to martin Luther king, Jr. Boulevard. This is what I-35 looked like today at 32nd street facing west. And then if you can click to the next image. The upper deck columns are shown in red. They are currently blocking much of the view from one side of the road to the other. [1:56:40 PM] Click to the next one, please. This is what the same location would look like without the [inaudible] All of the alternatives. Okay, next slide, please. Txdot is coordinating with multiple agencies and organizations including the city of Austin as part of our environmental process. Our role is to environmentally analyze, design, fund and build the project. The city of Austin is a participating agency in the development of the environmental impact statement, and provides input on alignment with local plans. The city in coordination with the downtown Austin alliance is analyzing the potential to design, fund and build [inaudible] Other some sections of I-35. Another of our person ship is capital metro. They are serving as [1:57:41 PM] [inaudible] In the -- [indiscernible]. And the next slide. One design option being coordinated with the city in partnership with downtown Austin alliance is local enhancement. These could include deck -- shown in the rendering. The main lanes and managed lanes are not visible [inaudible]. During a previous public and agency engagement, we heard feedback about tapping I-35 and all proposed alternatives could accommodate these locally funded enhancements. We're currently in the engineering capability stage and working closely with the Austin transportation department on this concept. Next slide. Another design option is direct transit access [inaudible] Near the university of Texas and Riverside drive south of lady bird lake. [1:58:41 PM] Would provide bus-only lanes that connect from the roadway to the cross street. Similar to the local enhance ments currently in the engineering feasibility stage and we will be coordinating with cap metro and city of Austin. These would be funded by [inaudible]. Next slide. Now I'm going to provide information about [inaudible]. Yesterday txdot posted a second virtual agency [inaudible] And today we launched a second virtual -- which will run through April 9th. The city attended and I do want to thank Mr. Spillar and his staff for providing meaningful dialogue. The first meeting was held late last year. At that meeting presented the draft coordination plan and schedule, the draft purpose and need, the -- and the draft alternative. For the current scoping [1:59:42 PM] meeting, materials are being made available and additionally we're presenting comment on how the alternatives will be analyzed. While the formal comment period will end April 9th, documentation of feedback will continue throughout the development of the project. Two allow for greater community input, txdot is also excited to be -- invite the community to a series of workshops starting after April 9th to attract -- topic [inaudible] We'll host an open house later. And I'll talk more about these workshops further in the presentation. During the -- next slide, please. During the official comment period from that first scoping meeting txdot received more than 2300 comments from the public and agencies and are working to incorporate these materials into our scoping -- these [2:00:43 PM] comments into our scoping material. Comments included recommendations to consider additional design alternatives that incorporate [inaudible], cross-street amenities or open boulevard concept. We also heard recommendations to align with local plans such as the Austin mobility plan and the desire to prioritize safety including safety for bicyclists and pedestrians as well as vehicles. We heard recommendations on exploring financing options [inaudible] Request to evaluate impacts to community health and equity. We also heard requests to analyze climate change and greenhouse gases. [Indiscernible] Facilitating enhanced transit connects and options and recommendations to divert trucks to sh130 or other corridors. I'd also be happy to send [2:01:45 PM] these to [inaudible]. Next slide. As I mentioned, the primary purpose of the second virtual scoping meeting is to provide information about the alternative evaluation criteria. And councilmember kitchen, this exhibit we prepared, it was out of the meeting we had with you to define the public involvement. So after our criteria finalized the range of alternatives including the no build alternative will be evaluated based on the criteria and refined alternatives will be presented to agencies and the public in the summer of 2021. 2 preferred alternative will be identified in the environmental impact statement which will be made available as part of a public hearing for feedback and circulated to cooperating agents. Finally the collected alternative will be presented in the summer of 2023. As part of the combined financial impact statement [2:02:45 PM] and decision. Of course, txdot encouragees feedback throughout each step of the process and all comments will be documented. Next slide, please. We're making effort to reach out to vulnerable populations about public opportunity. We regularly provide -- [indiscernible] Civic organizations. We'll be doing additional engagement through workshops and targeted outreach. Represented organization and population to be further encouraged not limited to low-income population, people with limited English proficiency, the elderly, children, and people with disabilities. We would like to ask for your help in reaching out to your constituents and letting them know about the feedback opportunities. Next slide. Now we're going to move on [2:03:47 PM] to the south project. The south project extends from -- down to sh45 south. It proposes to add 7.6 miles of non-told managed lanes and 13 miles of new heritage path which would be in addition to three miles that have already been constructed. The image on the left shows operational issues with the [indiscernible]. Indicate locations where on ramps directly merge into the outside lane causing congestion. The proposed I-35 eliminate merging at these ramp lotions and will greatly improve operations and safety. The image to the right shows the proposed elevated managed lanes between sh 71 and slaughter. Direct managed lane connections to and from sh 71 and Ben white boulevard and from the northbound entrance from slaughter lane. Direct managed lanes [2:04:47 PM] connection eliminate -- others include improvements which are shown in bright blue. Also wider travel lanes and shoulders which will be 10% and 50% respectively. And the southbound bypass lane system from north of stassney to south of William William cannon drive. This reduces through traffic to intersections. Adding these auction I willly rains will reduce traffic by 20%. Next slide. As I mentioned, the project proposes elevating managed lanes, Ben white interchange for two miles over stassney and William cannon. Better incident management when there's a crash. It also accommodates the southbound bypass lane and integrates those recently constructed [inaudible]. [2:05:47 PM] The height of the managed lanes would vary from 30 to 40 feet above the frontage road, this which is approximately one-third of the highest point of the Ben white interchange. The height of the existing -- airport boulevard and martin Luther king, Jr. Boulevard range from 25 to 35 feet above the [indiscernible]. The renderings shown are from the perspective looking south at stassney and illustrate what the elevated lanes would look like day and night. The project is going to decorative lighting. Next slide. The proposed improvements are expected to significantly decrease travel time on both the managed lanes and the main lanes for the year 2030 compared to the no build option. Would be an estimated -- for [2:06:48 PM] the managed lines and 14 faster -- in the managed lanes and 12 in the [inaudible]. In 2050 the time saving would be minimal for now. Next slide. We held a virtual stakeholder meeting and the purpose was to provide a follow-up to the open house we couldn't in late 2019 and provide an opportunity for the public to review updated materials. We received almost 300 comments. Another 40-plus respondents participated in a survey. Comments included subpoena subpoena -- support, -- opposition to widening the roadway. Recommendations to use lower design speeds and multimodal street design. Opportunity for -- to bypass [2:07:51 PM] signals and desire for multimodal -- connectivity and safety. Recommendations to consider requests for txdot to focus on clean solutions and good wildlife impact and the proposed managed lanes as well as [indiscernible]. We are working to incorporate comments into the design of the project. Next slide. Now we're going to move on to the north project. Next slide. The north project stretches from sh45 north to west 290 east and proposes to add 10 .6 miles of managed lanes. The lanes allow those who qualify to bypass ten miles [2:08:51 PM] of congestion on the main lane system in downtown Austin. Because transit can use the HOV lane [indiscernible]. Also worth noting is the management lanes will allow to get to the -- using the 183 south improvements constructed by the mobility authority. The U.S. 183 route will be critical during construction of the central project. The south project proposes adding three miles of intersection bypass lanes to provide safer, faster access to the interstate and benefit local and regional mobility. Here's a picture of a completed intersection bypass lane fm1431. The "-allows drivers to access main lanes but avoid the signal light intersection. Bypass lanes remove [2:09:53 PM] direct -- and reduce on the main lanes which includes operations. They also improve drivers to bypass traffic signals. The project also proposes 22 miles of shared use path. Hushes horizontal and vertical and optimizes for better safety, local access and overall operational [inaudible]. Next slide. Similar to the south project, the north project is expected to significantly decrease traveling times for 2030 compared to no build option. Morning rush hour 22 minutes faster on main lanes -- sorry, 22 faster on the managed lanes and 18 faster on the main lanes and evening rush hours an estimated 49 minutes physicianer to on the managed lanes and 44 faster on the main lanes. And, of course, in 2050 the [2:10:56 PM] time savings is [inaudible]. Txdot hosted an open house for the north project in October of 2019. We received more than 180 comments. We heard a lot of support for variable [inaudible] As well as some opposition to tolling. We heard general support and general opposition to the project. We received recommendations to improve connectivity, concerns about potential for increased traffic noise and support for multimodal facilities and [inaudible]. The north project is also on a similar time line as the south project, and we're targeting late spring for the public hearing. Next slide, please. I'm going to ask the agency and public [inaudible]. Next slide. [2:11:58 PM] One more slide. The city of Austin has been one of our closest partners in the development and review of a project in the I-35 [inaudible]. Over y'all we have one to two meetings on average each month with various departments. As you may be aware, Austin transportation participated in an empty a multi-day across nine agencies and elected official offices. Safety as well as connections, accessibility, transit and other topics. Following this we formed the -- includes and meets approximately once a month. Very technically focused group of the city of Austin and txdot staff meet monthly for a day-long focused [2:12:58 PM] workshops to further analyze the [inaudible] Of the project. We've also been coordinating with ADT and downtown Austin alliance on the [inaudible] Effort. Our coordination goes back to 2019 when txdot starting participating in working group in a da hosted. Txdot attended every meeting and actively provided information on the presentation feedback to concept. We're now continuing our coordination with monthly meetings. Next slide. As I mentioned, we're also attending meetings with various -- with various neighborhoods and civic organizations. We've met with all the organizations on the slide or representatives from these organizations. Some of the organizations such as the south Austin neighborhood alliance will refer to us by elected officials during our elected official outreach. We very much appreciate these connections and hope you will continue to let us [2:13:59 PM] know when there are interested groups we can reach out to. We are encouraging people to request our participation in their meeting to call or email us, and as you can see we're providing our contact information. I wanted to provide -- sorry, next slide. Before concluding, I wanted to provide a little more information on the community working groups. In an effort to further engage the community, we'll be launching this group for the central project. It will be open to all community members and will be [inaudible] And these meetings we're planning on holding them every other month starting this spring and after the second public meeting. They will continue throughout the environmental study and design phase. The focus will be to provide additional information about the environmental [inaudible] And hear from the community on key issues. [2:15:01 PM] Topics of the workshops may improve safety, urban boulevard concept and community impact among other issues. We're just starting to notify the public about this opportunity with our [inaudible] Meeting and we really would like to ask that you help us spread the word and provide interested groups or individuals to participate. And this concludes the presentation, and at this time we would like to hear your feedback and any questions. Thank you. >> Ellis: Thank you. We certainly appreciate the txdot team being available and being able to join with us today so we can help share your process with our constituents as well. We've certainly heard from a lot of austinites that they have opinions about how I- 35 will be rebuilt. A lot of these points are things that you had in your presentation so I know they are on your radar. But we want to make sure it reflects our community's values and priorities and approved plans. As you mentioned, the asmp. [2:16:04 PM] That means supporting transit, cyclists and pedestrians and eliminating the historical social and economic area of the elevated lanes, improving safety for all travelers, fighting climate change and improving public space. Was know our seat as city council looks very different from txdot's responsibility as the manager of this project. And that comes with different perspectives and we really appreciate y'all collaborating with us and taking the input that our constituents want to provide to you, so we very much appreciate being involved in that process. My only one quick question was when you talked about April 9th being a closing date to receive public comment, you may have said the website and I just missed it, but is there a location people should be emailing, calling or going to a website to input comments? >> Yes, it's my 35 [2:17:05 PM] [inaudible] Dot-com. The special website we set up and one of the first things at the top of the site will be the public -- [indiscernible]. >> Ellis: I really do appreciate. I know these projects are long and intensive and I think y'all have done a really great job collecting feedback and trying to be responsive for the people in Austin to be proud of something that is hopefully going to bring our community together. Do we have any quick questions from the committee members before we move to the next item? Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: I'll let Natasha go first. >> Harper-madison: You all have to forgive me, my ears are so sensitive. There's some really echoy thing. One of my questions is, I [2:18:06 PM] really appreciate the conversation about capping still keeps coming up, but I haven't heard anybody talk numbers. Have we made the assessment around what that would cost, feasibility around where we would do it? I'm very curious about those numbers and is it the city need to run those numbers, does txdot? If you -- >> I can answer that. I don't know if everybody else can mute. Are you having a hard time still hearing me? Okay. >> Mayor pro tem, you are muted. >> Harper-madison: I can't hear, it's really echoy. >> I'll take a stab at answering it and if you don't hear me, maybe somebody else could [2:19:06 PM] reiterate it for me. We are working very closely with the city of Austin and daa. The city has a consultant on board to kind of help us along in the process. Right now we are in the kind of feasibility stage right now. Tomorrow we're actually going to go to the city offices and meet in person and talk about accommodations. In November we have these monthly meetings with the city. The focus is determine how to load and unload downtown from a traffic perspective. We're probably six to eight weeks away from getting a really good plan in place for that. And then based on that, it will determine kind of the right-of-way, but -- right now we're looking between first and fourth as a definite location. We haven't really gone into a lot of other -- we have several other, I think 11th and 12th. [2:20:07 PM] But we definitely have those coordination meetings going with Mike tremble is leading that. I can tell you [indiscernible] But we have determined that we will be vernly environmentally clearing the right-of- way footprint with the cap in mind. And in terms of the locations, we're still working on a -- we will be environmentally hearing with the project footprint. We have an example in the city of Dallas that we've been using in a very similar cap area from first to fourth. A few years ago it was 100 million just for the civil infrastructure. If that could give you a bit of a scale. We're still working on really what our project -- our project might require [2:21:07 PM] drainage and some things that one didn't. It could be a little more. That's a rough -- we're definitely working up a white paper to share preliminary, but we do have in our scope of our schematic contract to get those detailed numbers because ultimately we would need to go into an advance 9 planning agreement with the city to include those costs and that's in our contract for construction. And we have a well laid out plan on timing of all that. The answer to all of that is yes, in due time. And I'm really confident and happy in the plan that we've laid out. We're planning on environmentally [inaudible] In may of 2023. We do have time to work with the team as the design progresses, but that's where we are right now. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. I appreciate it. This next thing isn't a question so much as a comment. You know, I'm hearing a lot [2:22:07 PM] from our constituents. They have lots and lots of questions. They are so curious about what's going on. With so many unanswered questions including, you know, when I say I recognize something needs to be done with 35, but I don't know that building more lanes for more cars is the answer. You know, I don't know that it gets us to our climate goals, vision zero goals, mode shift goals. I don't know it helps to recognize the -- all that to say, I do wish that the public period were open longer. I'm still getting the kind of questions that makes me feel like the community just hasn't had enough time to weigh in. >> So I would like to mention, we spoke with capital metro and they have the same response. We are taking comments the whole time during the process. This is just the time period the federal regulations require us to keep it open and document it. [2:23:07 PM] That does not mean we won't be taking questions. I'm really excited this summer when we're going to be able to roll out some -- show you ramps and access and lanes and really get into the details. Right now we're just not quite there. We have rolled all of our maps out with Austin transportation department, some of our partners. Right now we're just trying to get to a position in the summer when your agency and our agency are in alignment with what we roll out, and then we're able to talk to the public about why lanes are -- we're just not quite there yet. You know, it's a several year process and we're just at the very beginning of it. Where we're at right now is just high level right now in the process. >> Harper-madison: Thank you. >> Ellis: Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: Just a quick question. I want to make sure I understood the slides about the alternatives. I think I saw two [2:24:08 PM] alternatives, if you saw that correctly. And for the south portion, did I see that right that one of the alternatives does not have the raised portion in the south? >> So for the south project, we're much further along and we have alternatives -- a build alternative selected. It's very much further along. We've gone through the process for that and we have the one construction project we're constructing now. Three alternatives we haven't started the environmental studying eases. On south we're close to completing the environmental studies and we'll be having a public hearing here in a couple months. >> Kitchen: Okay, well, but I thought I saw on that sketch on the slide, it showed alternatives for south Austin. Are you saying that there [2:25:10 PM] aren't any alternatives? >> The slide that you saw with the profile views, there were three at the bottom, and those are all for the central project, which is 45 -- I mean from 290 east to the benefit white interchange. And that is the central project. And that is what is so -- >> Kitchen: I'm sorry, I misunderstood. >> Ellis: If there are no further questions, we'll move to the next item. Thank you for joining us. This was helpful to see more into your process and daylight how people can get involved and provide comments. So thank you. >> Thanks for having us. >> Ellis: And our next item, item number 41 -- number 4 is update on the 2016 bond corridor [2:26:10 PM] instruction program. >> Good afternoon. What I'm going to do is provide a brief, we're running short on time, provide a brief update on the corridor program and adjustments we're make to go the program based on the proposition a. Next slide. Go to the next one too. One more. Yeah, there you go. So just a quick background. As you recall, 2016 mobility bond program the voters passed was a $720 million program, had three primary buckets of funding. 137 for local mobility, 101 million for regional mobility and largest $482 million for corridor mobility. And that funding was for nine corridors based on several studies that the Austin transportation department had done for major roadways and how to improve them from multimodal [2:27:11 PM] mobility and safety. Next slide. Along with the bond election ordinance, council also passed a contract with voter resolution. And this provided several stipulation around how the program was to be implemented and mainly that the improvements were to achieve several mobility priorities and community outcomes as well. And so beyond just the -- some of the more standard reduction congestion level service measures also looking at how to support preservation of affordable housing and equitable complete communities. It stipulated we had an so in the first couple of years of the program, staff translated all of the recommendations out of the quarter studies that were done, developed investment packages and a program that council approved in April 2018 and this represents that program, overall all of the recommendations [2:28:12 PM] represent about $1.4 billion so that's the total program but we have the prioritized projects we are doing with the 2016 bond funding and they represent improvements along a every stretch of all nine corridors in our corridor wide multimodal improvement so all corridors are getting improved conduct conductivity, intersections improvement, improved crossings, improved biking and pedestrian facilities and also a set of what we called .. Enhanced multimodal improvements which are more your complete streets, full configuration of the cross-section of for the roadway envision bid the quarter studies so that will include better separation of bike and Pederson facilities, and trees and landscaping along the roadway as well. We will continue to work the whole program outside of the projects that were fully funded, we have projected we initiated design on, next in the prioritized list and seeking additional funding and part shins for all of the different projects in the ram. We now have a funded program of [2:29:14 PM] $530 million so we have been able to leverage and return to the program 50 million additional dollars. For a quarter improvements. Next slide. >> In our timeline, as I mentioned, we got to adoption of the quarter program by council in 2018 and then we quickly pivoted to full design phase and so we are well on our way in that regard. We are now, this Jesus Christ, moving into construction phase, we are looking to move several of our larger projects forward into bid and construction phase and noting we have gotten several projects already completed on several corridors and I will turn it over to my deputy director Susan Daniels to talk a little bit more about that. Great. Thank you, Mike. Go on to the next two slides, please. >> Okay. Good afternoon. I am going to be talking about progress that we have made thus far and what you can expect in [2:30:14 PM] the next year. This slide here shows a number of different projects that we have been able to complete, safety and mobility improvements such as sidewalks, Ada improvements -- and also funded on a lot of signal improvements, and technical upgrades that allow for better operations and reduction in congestion. Next slide. I wanted to highlight here one of our most recent ribbon cuttings. This is -- four different enter sections enter successes on north Lamar boulevard. Next slide. >> We have a lot of work underway. This slide here represents over $40 million in construction contracts for a variety of paths. This contract will allow us to do work on, across our different corridors as well as begin one of our most, one of our larger -- our first project, is north -- is excuse me south Lamar -- [2:31:19 PM] [indiscernible] Next slide, please. We have about four or five big projects coming up this year for your consideration. We have two intersection improvement projects shown here with the slide, the rendering is of slaughter lane -- and this is really one of our most significantly traveled enter successes in our [indiscernible] And we look forward to be able to bid this project this year, and then begin in construction in 2022. Next slide. >> We have three roadway projects that just aren't intersections but this is a longer segment of the roadway, this is where we had two of those. Both of these will be coming forward for the next year forbidding, the first project that you will see come forward is the airport boulevard project, the northern portion of that roadway, as well as the eastern portion of the William cannon drive. [2:32:19 PM] It is also a cam pa grant project that received funding to add capacity to William cannon. Next slide. >> This is another project here on slaughter lane. It received campo grant funding as well to get those improvements in place .. It will allow us to go from four-lane to a roadway to a six lane divided roadway so we are able to add a lot of capacity in those roadway and build upon some of the nearby improvements that have been done to mopac with tx-dot and other efforts that have been going on in that area. Next slide. We have a lot of bicycle and pedestrian improvements coming up over the next year. Some of those efforts are already underway. There is a lot of [indiscernible] Guadalupe and west campus area. [2:33:21 PM] Has Braker lane, near the burnet corridor and that work is going in advance of the Austin fc first game so we are happy to be able to get additional sidewalk and Ada improvements to that area. We also have additional -- sidewalks coming to slaughter lane where we have a a lot of -- we have seen some gaps. Next slide. This slide represents about 20 different projects, really these are intersection improvement projects, signal upgrades, pedestrian -- they allow us to get some much needed safety and visibility for our crossings on these roadways. Next slide. Our gant chart. Let's talk a little bit about how we are moving through final design phase and getting to the end of the program and our construction. The eight-year time frame a [2:34:21 PM] takes us through 2024 and each one of these Orange lines represents the construction of an individual project, so you can see there is a lot of what is going to be going on over the next four years. Next slide. >> 0 so some of our keys to success, it is going to be talking about what we are focusing on and how we are going get this work done. Next slide, please. We have got a fantastic team of professionals and consultants working on those programs and, you know, in the forefront of our mind is all of the critical items, such as real estate acquisition, utility coordination, relocations, program risk factors and how we are going to mitigate any issues that might come up along the way Ford to stay on track with the eight- year time period. We have taken an integrated program management approach working across departments and [2:35:22 PM] across agency wise as well. And we have created a robust coordination and communication channels in order to keep all of our stakeholders informed. Next slide. You all have challenged us in accelerating this bond program into an eight-year program. We have worked really hard in looking for ways that we can find efficiencies in delivering this program and what amounts to about half of the time frame of the typical cip this size. It takes a dedicated resources focused on those most critical items, like I said before, the real estate, utilities, the technical reviews, the permitting, it also takes robust program controls dedicated to analyzing the program information in real-time so we can make effective decisions am leaving so .. We can manage costs and risks in our program. [2:36:22 PM] Next slide. I want to turn now to some of the more external facing efforts we have going on over the next year. We have you know, as proclivity to construction we have been putting a lot of effort into defining an outreach plan for our construction phase and I wanted to highlight just one effort that fed into our planning efforts for that. One of the things that our communications team did was to host several business information sessions and from those sessions we heard three things that were kind of most relevant to the business owners and their staff. What we heard is they wanted effective, consistent communication, they wanted good signage and they wanted a point of cabinet an individual they knew was at the ready to answer any questions that they have or their concerns of what might be [2:37:23 PM] happening on on a daily basis on the corridors. Next slide. >> Another crosscutting effort that we are working on is what we have designated our corridors for complete communities effort. Again this harkens back to the contrast with the those that Mike showed you a slide of earlier that talks about not only the mobility priorities but also the community considerations we needed to be looking at. And so the corridors for complete communities effort really strategically leverages the transportation improvements to achieve those larger community out comes and we do those by partnering with other city departments, nonprofits, other agencies, et cetera, to extend the scope of our projects, all with the goal of amplifying the community and amplifying the culture and the overall mobility experience. [2:38:25 PM] Next slide. And obvious we were always focused on our out comes. These are the various items that when we brought this corridor construction ram back to you, program back to you in about a lgbt back in 2018 saying if we did these improvements these are the type of out comes that we would be able to achieve and so this is always at the forefront of our minds that we are working very diligently to make all of these a reality and now I will pass it back over to Mike Trimble to finish the presentation. >> Thanks, Susan. >> Next slide, please. >> So it really does take a village to get a program like this done and I want to note all of the partnerships we have, our agencies, tx-dot, cap metro and of course all of our city departments that we work with to get this program done. Next slide. And our consultant teams. We have consulting teams working [2:39:26 PM] on each of the corridors to move the design and construction forward for this program and again an extended team. We use our phrase one team, one goal make sure everybody is on the same page and working together to move all the projects forward and to achieve the out comes we seek to achieve. Next slide. Yes. I will talk a little bit about some of the coordination with project connect and some of the adjustments we are looking at. Next slide. So one of the key outcomes for the quarter program in the contract with voters is be trans supportive achievements and and achieve those out comes. There are several components to the program that help achieve that, whether it is crossings, coordinating capital metro on location of transit stops and how we can create connectivity to those, all those things work together to help support transit operations as well. And of course we have Dean lot of coordination with capital metro on the project connect vision plan for the last couple of years our teams have been [2:40:28 PM] meeting pretty regularly to make sure we are staying aligned and coordinated as the project connect vision plan has been developed through voters approving proposition a. Next slide. So with the passage of proposition a that actually afforded us a nice opportunity because project connect is looking at doing the blue line through the Riverside corridor, that actually allowed us to look at are there opportunities to reallocate funding off of that corridor to other priorities in our program. So since capital metro will be coming through with a project connect and doing the full cross-section for that roadway, we are able to get some critical safety mobility improvements done on that roadway but also look at reallocating punning to other priorities so to do that we went right back to our council approved corridor program and prioritization model and just went to the next projects in the list. Next slide. And so these are those projects that were already going into full design because they were [2:41:29 PM] next on the list, so we are looking to reallocate funding off of the east Riverside corridor and allocate those to two enhanced multimodal projects, one on airport boulevard from mlk down to 183 and on north Lamar boulevard from 183 to Von berg lane, noise to helping us further achieve our out comes in the contract with voters for the 2016 bond .. We also feel like these improvements will also support the implementation of project connect, our project will make a nice enhanced multimodal connection to the north transit center and northern terminus of the line as it is right now and then from airport boulevard this will make a nice multimodal connection as well to the planned green line so again supporting transit and supporting project connect high capacity transit as well .. Next slide. Just a quick look ahead. Next slide. >> So coming up on your 0 March 25 council agenda we have [2:42:29 PM] a couple of items related to our program and these items relate to additional authorization to help us finish out our design phase with our consultant teams, also to continue our staff augmentation and our program delivery and project delivery services with our quarter consultant hdr and this helps us to get through design and really start to pivot into construction phase. Again, as Susan mentioned several of our key success factor bless maintain factor on that, as anyone that works on this program tells you it is day to day just trying to stay focused on mitigating risk and staying on the accelerated path to get thing done. And our mantra, mantra is get it down in '21 in this program that we live and breathe it so we are definitely looking to have a big year as we move into construction phase and again as do we that, keeping our focus on our mobility and community out comes. So with that thank you so much for your time this afternoon and [2:43:30 PM] I am happy to take any questions you may have. Thank you Mr. Trimble and Ms. Daniel. It is a heavy lift, you all are doing a really great job keeping everything on track and letting people know in the public what it is they can expect from year to year so we really appreciate that and it is making a big difference in people's lives so we very much appreciate that. Are there any questions from the committee before we move on to the next item? I am trying to squeeze it all N I am so excited about all of these topics I put a little bit too much in this time. Let's go ahead and move to the next item then and that's going to be an update from city of Austin project connect office on the city's role in the national environmental policy act process for the Orange and blue line. So -- will be joining us now. >> Hello. Councilmembers and chair. I am from the project connect [2:44:31 PM] office and I will try to run through this quickly. This is not time sensitive so I am happy to come back next month if there is anything that I run through too quickly and happy to do this again next month and I want to say thank you very much to councilmembers and mayor and council for approving the interlocal agreement locally that is providing staffing, funded by the -- partnership for the city project connect office, it is really exciting we are in a support role to capital metro and the Austin -- partnership as a tri- party you know, Trudeau of agencies working to implement project connect. I am hear towed to give an overview of the city's role in the national environmental policy act, Nepa processes for the Orange and blue line light rail line specifically. So next slide. They pa. [2:45:37 PM] Just to ground can council in the importance of project connect to our transportation policy, in 2019 we adopted the can strategic mobility plan, asmp, with a goal of a 50-50 -- chair meaning our growth of 239 we want much of our peak hour traffic to be able to use other modes of transit, being a big part of that sustainable transportation portfolio, 2039, which currently is at four percent precovid and is looking to quadruple in high capacity transit as provided with project connect is the key to helping to increase that mode share. So the project connect vision plan is included as an integral part of the asmp and both initiatives find a way to solve our challenges. Next slide. This slide you will see a lot, I have seen a lot but this goes [2:46:39 PM] through portfolio of the projects that make up the project connect program with the gray line specific to the -- environmental processes that are going on for each of the types of projects, so today's presentation is focused on the very top, the light rail, for the Orange and blue line and you can see that we are in that process now in 2021 and will continue to begin that through 2022. Next slide. These are the agencies involved and you see visual chart, the federal transit administration is the lead agency, capital metro is acting as the response sponsoring agency, the city of Austin is what we call the participating agency also a strong project partner but as far as Nepa goes we are a partnering agency and Susan Frasier from tx-dot will talk about the participating agency is a process for -- so same [2:47:40 PM] process and then the office transit partnership is for posting -- so what what 0 comes out of Nepa they would be responsible for -- next slide. >> So this is just an overview on Nepa, what it is, and the connects here are it serves to define the need for the project, it develops and screens alternatives to be considered and evaluates viable alternatives. So that has, for the most part been done, the alternative analysis for origin of the line, but we are -- the process allows additional feedback and validation of those decision points. So it also includes looking at mitigation to offset any impacts that are identified through the [2:48:40 PM] process and then it is important to note that each federal agency has to implement Nepa, whether it is the federal highway administration -- or federal aviation administration, FAA, or fta, we have -- there are different guidelines for implementing that because as you can imagine the projects that fall under those different infrastructures are much different, so this project will be under the federal transit administration guidelines for Nepa. Next slide. So this is a rollout of what we are doing with Nepa. High level, it is helping up to learn more about the projects, that are defined in the project, it allows the community to understand how guide project development as we have seen and heard in the presentations today and then it also importantly fills the requirement to receive our funds and as you all know we are pursuing federal funds to [2:49:40 PM] the tune of on average about 45 percent for the program -- on this multimillion dollars program so it is important -- Nepa. Next slide. A thank you. So there are three categories of Nepa, category solution, environmental assessment and environmental impact statement. The blue and Orange line, we are participating agencies in, and the city is, in that third bullet, the environmental impact statement, which is the most robust of the three, examples of where we are doing categorical exclusion, Nepa, which is -- now, these are in comparison to each other, it is not to say they skimp on what they are looking at, it is just in comparison to each other, they build on each other, but they are determined to be sufficient for the scope of the type of work that is being done on the project. So examples for category [2:50:42 PM] exclusion are the bus rabbit transit projects, expo and pleasant valley that are underway now as the first outs for those and the Orange and the blue line will be full environmental assessment and I will know that we -- in the program at this point. >> Next slide. >> So the Eis, focusing on the Orange and the blue line, three overarching stages, early scoping, which is charged planning and environmental linkages process, that was done, that has been done already and now we are going to -- we are in a phase where we are fine tuning that so we are getting comments from the community, from participating agencies, to fine-tune that and that is happening now. The draft and environmental impact statement is planned to come out in 2022 with the record [2:51:42 PM] of decision which is the final out outcome coming out at the end of the calendar year 2022. That's the big picture. Next slide. This is the umbrella of things that can be considered and as you can imagine, you can probably think of our city departments that are responsible for a lot of these things, a lot of these fall into many different departments, have primary ownership over some of these things and so the promise connect office is coordinating and improving a project by which to meet with all of the departments and gather the themes and the items that need to be brought to light, the sooner the better that we can bring things up and work through them to get through the timeline and make sure, most importantly, in how we look at all of these things and more. So that project connect office [2:52:43 PM] is coordinating one voice response back to the Austin transit partnership on behalf of the city of Austin. >> So next slide, just skip the overview of this just because of time I think you know the whole system plan and the initial that's what these slides were meant to do but they are there for the public so if you look through the next slide it just shows the extent of the Orange line. Thank you. >> >> Next slide. Blue Lynn. Which we see from the airport, next slide, up to the north Austin transit center. And again, the solid line is the initial investment. [2:53:45 PM] So next slide. And again, a review of the key elements of the Eis, identifying the purpose and need, that largely has been done with our Austin strategic mobility plan and docket -- policies so I will be validating that with all of the departments and issuing a letter to the Austin transit partnership that the project connect system plan is supported by our transportation policy .. And then going down the list you know, looking at the alternatives, commenting on that, helping with identifying existing conditions and then that fourth bullet is the most important, looking at the environment familiar, environmental impacts, working through those .. And I really like this mantra is our goal is to avoid any impacts, minimize them, or modify if needed, if we can't avoid them completely and then to mitigate, of course, if we are modifying, minimizing and [2:54:46 PM] to the extent we can avoid or minimize we are going to do that. And then again, just reiterating that the full Eis in the spectrum of the three categories of Nepa is what the Orange and blue line is going to. Next slide. I am getting there. This is for the rod the different between according cooperating agencies and participating agencies, the city as a participating agency, because those are defined as state, local and non-- entities. And cooperating agencies are also -- and those are your federal agencies and so they are involved as well. And so we are again a participating agency along with the state agencies and gone governmental entities, for example, the -- Austin alliance has been a participating agency and other nonprofits as well. Next slide. [2:55:48 PM] So we are unique in that we are playing two roles. We are a participating agency officially and also a program partner in the the execution of the program and so we are playing two hats here so as a participating agency we are providing input to the projects specific to our jurisdiction across the whole organization, as I said, coordinating with apartments identifying issues of concern, for project connect, the earlier the better, on both the environmental and socioeconomic matters and providing input to development mitigations that is going to be a really important role. And as a partner, we are collaborating and also we have a stake in moving the project forward and sharing key decision points so it is a unique role for us. Next slide. We serve the departments who [2:56:48 PM] have identified single points of contact at this point. At this point there are many departments that are getting up to speed with the project connect program and we will be allowing you know, departments to come in at any time and comment as our role as a partner and do our best to coordinate that input and I think that's all I have. The next steps are essentially getting initial comments on the scope and the purpose and need as I said, validating that a S&P goal and looking at a phase that we believe should be evaluated in the scope and then we will continue to be commenting agency throughout the next -- throughout the end of the year and next year. So that's all I have. Thank you. And I am happy to take at this questions. I know we are way over time. >> Thank you, I really appreciate that. You know, project connect is such a new innovative way of [2:57:49 PM] looking at public transportation so I know .. There are some early out components that are quicker to get off the ground and then some of the larger pieces of it will have years of environmental studies done, and so I always like to remind people that, you know, we get excited and got -- that doesn't mean it is here today. It is getting built and coming but there is a lot of work involved in getting the project and especially to a point where you can ask for federal funds which is what we are aiming to do so we have just a couple of minutes left and assistant city manager, I know you prepared this lovely mobility outcome report. I know it is kind of a new thing and so if there aren't more questions for an unique we might least .. Assistant city manager explain the report and how we are going use it in the future and what is included in it because it is a comprehensive [2:58:49 PM] place for items to be but also be respectful of everybody's time since we did go to 3:00 o'clock and I am sure ctm at some point will try to get us to wrap up the meeting. >> Thank you, chair. I really just offer the report as a framework for what is happening in the mobility portfolio. You have heard from all of our great division and department heads here from transportation from fleet, from -- and from Mike Trimble and the programs office. There is so much going on but the report is offered for your review and for your colleagues. We will provide this on a monthly basis in advance of the meeting. And we will certainly work with you and your staff if there are any items or issues that you would like to see us address and sort of amplify in more comprehensive way, but really it is a snapshot of what has taken place and what is on our agenda [2:59:49 PM] for some highlights in the near temple. >> I really appreciate it. I know it took work to put it together as I was able to read through it, it just had a really good comprehensive display the of all the work you are doing and the department is doing so I really appreciate that. Are there any last questions or future items that people want to daylight here? >> Councilmember alter? >> >> Alter: This is kind of a question that might go back to Mr. Trimble but quite wins annick's presentation as well with interaction between project connect and the mobility bond. River side and I just want to make sure, it was my understanding that the project connect work on Riverside is superseding the corridor work that is being done and reallocated? Is that what that piece in there was named and still with work going on in east Riverside? [3:00:50 PM] Just switching to the -- is that how I should be thinking about that? >> Right. So the way to think about that is, project connect is going to be building out that multimodal session we would have been building out along the width of the rail and the high capacity transit so it is being incorporated into the design so they are basically getting the multimodal improvement, a part of which we would be doing and now you are getting these additional projects as well. So it really is kind of a win-win between project connect and what they are doing on the blue line and now what we are able to return to our program. >> And how much is coming to our program from that? >> Yes. So the estimate so what we were able to pull off Riverside is about $65 million and right now our estimate is in the range of 25 to 45 for each of those two projects so we need to to refine those numbers and get our coconsultants teams under contract to finish out design and get better numbers on that, the intent is to move forward with the full construction but we need to see what the numbers [3:01:51 PM] come back like. But it is consistent we have been approaching overall mobility bond and trying leverage other funding in order to do more projects that we have planned for the whole -- so see what we had funding for in the original mobility bond, so it is good to have you know, an additional 65 million to be able to fill that out and do more projects. So great. Thank you. >> I really appreciate that. If there are no further questions I just want to show my appreciation. There have been a lot of presentations and a lot of work that went into them, my colleagues provided great input in questioning you all. I could stay and talk about any of these topics for an entire day on their own, but we won't put anyone up for that so thank you all for joining us here today. It is now 302 3:02 P.M. And I will adjourn the committee meeting. [3:02:53 PM]