Title
Maintenance of Enhanced Crosswalks and Landscaping on State Highways (B)
This item involves a request by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for the City of Gainesville to enter into Maintenance Agreements to provide perpetual maintenance for enhanced pedestrian crosswalks and/or landscaped medians for four (4) FDOT resurfacing projects.
Explanation
In September 2007, the Public Works Department received a letter from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) that stated certain roadway enhancements will not be included in FDOT projects on the State Highway System unless the local government with jurisdiction agrees to provide for the maintenance of the enhancements. FDOT has recently presented four (4) Maintenance Agreements for consideration. In particular, the City of Gainesville is requested to be responsible for the future maintenance of the textured pedestrian crosswalks and landscaping within the rights-of-way that exceed the FDOT standards covered by the proposed Agreements. There are currently four (4) resurfacing projects being impacted by this change in policy and they are the following: 1) University Avenue from West 21st Street to Waldo Road; 2) University Avenue/Hawthorne Road from Waldo Road to SE 14th Street; 3) NW 34th Street from NW 5th Avenue to US 441; and 4) North 39th Avenue from NW 24th Boulevard to the main Airport Entrance.
There are a total of 1,430 square yards (sq. yd.) of imprinted asphalt crosswalks to be placed in Fiscal Year 2008 and 4,317 sq. yd. of imprinted asphalt crosswalks to be placed in Fiscal Year 2009. These crosswalks are estimated to have a maximum five (5) year life and then would need replacement. Replacement costs are estimated to be $125 per sq. yd. (2007 dollars); thus a CIP cost of $251,519 would be required in Fiscal Year 2013 and a CIP cost of $736,392 would be required in Fiscal Year 2014. The estimated replacement cost includes not only the actual cost of the crosswalks, but also the cost of mobilization, maintenance of traffic, bonding, insurances, and other cost of conducting business and working in an FDOT right-of-way. Additionally, annual landscaping maintenance costs are estimated at $25.11 per square yard of landscaped area. The current four (4) FDOT resurfacing project plans provide four (4) median islands only on University Avenue between 4th and 7th Streets for an approximate total of 694 sq. yd. This equates to an annual maintenance cost of $17,426 in 2007 dollars.
The adopted MTPO Urban Design Policy Manual requires pedestrian crosswalks to be constructed of brick on all arterial and collector roadways. The life expectancy for brick crosswalks is a minimum of 25 years with no significant maintenance requirements foreseen. The average unit cost of brick crosswalks installed during project construction is $170 per sq. yd. as compared to the cost of imprinted asphalt crosswalks of $70 per sq. yd. These are unit costs taken from FDOT projects and do not contain mobilization, maintenance of traffic, and other general project overhead costs. However, the initial additional construction cost expenditure for the brick crosswalks would be fully recovered with avoiding the cost of the first replacement of the imprinted asphalt crosswalks.
The adopted MTPO Urban Design Policy manual requires that new curb and gutter median islands are sufficiently wide to allow for the planting of shade trees; however, the policy does not specifically require the planting of shade trees. The University Avenue project will require the removal of no existing trees so there is no tree mitigation requirement. The FDOT policy states that their standard design is to address mitigation tree requirements only. Therefore, the standard FDOT landscaping for these four islands is sod. The CRA has secured consultant designed landscape plans for these four islands as well as the re-landscaping of several other existing medians within the project limits on West University Avenue. Only the median islands shown on the FDOT plans for new construction are included in the maintenance cost data.
Fiscal Note
Additional annual funding in the amount of $146,000 for crosswalk maintenance and $17,426 for landscape maintenance is not available in the Public Works Department operating budget.
Recommendation
Recommended Motion: The City Commission direct the City Manager to notify the FDOT that the City is willing to accept maintenance responsibility of enhanced crosswalk features constructed of brick, but not of other materials such as imprinted or textured asphalt and decline to approve the four (4) Maintenance Agreements as submitted by FDOT.
Alternative Recommendation A: The City Commission decline to approve all four (4) Maintenance Agreements.
Alternative Recommendation B: The City Commission 1) approve all four (4) Maintenance Agreements; 2) adopt the Resolutions for the four (4) Maintenance Agreements; and 3) direct the City Manager to include the required funding in subsequent budget recommendations.