Title
NW 16th Avenue Resurfacing and Rehabilitation Project (B)
This item is to discuss the NW 16th Avenue Resurfacing and Rehabilitation Project.
Explanation
The Alachua County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) has requested the City Commission: 1) provide them any formal comments that the City may have regarding the design of NW 16th Avenue; and 2) consider taking over the annual maintenance responsibilities once the project is completed.
Alachua County staff will present the latest design options for your consideration. Regional Transit System (RTS) staff provided comments to county staff for their consideration. RTS prefers 12-ft travel lanes for bus operations because the bus width is 10'6" including the mirrors. However, they acknowledged that they would support a proposal of 10-ft inside lanes, 11-ft outside lanes and 3-ft bike lanes. RTS also provided turning radius requirements to ensure that intersections were designed to accommodate the turning movements of the buses.
Florida Statutes 334.03(3) defines the "City street system" as all local roads within a municipality, and all collector roads inside that municipality, which are not in the county road system. 334.03(4) defines the "County road system" as all collector roads in the unincorporated areas of a county and all extensions of such collector roads into and through any incorporated areas, all local roads in the unincorporated areas, and all urban minor arterial roads not in the State Highway System.
N 16th Avenue from NW 43rd Street to Waldo Road is functionally classified as a minor arterial road. As such, 16th Avenue is appropriate to be included in either the County road system or the State Highway System.
While the BoCC has requested the City consider taking over the annual maintenance responsibilities, they have not defined the extent of those responsibilities. Florida Statutes 334.03(24) defines "Routine maintenance" as minor repairs and associated tasks necessary to maintain a safe and efficient transportation system. The term includes: pavement patching; shoulder repair; cleaning and repair of drainage ditches, traffic signs, and structures; mowing; bridge inspection and maintenance; pavement striping; litter cleanup; and other similar activities.
City Public Works staff has evaluated the potential annual maintenance costs associated with NW 16th Avenue from NW 55 Street to NW 13th Street. This assumes annual maintenance to include maintenance of signage and vegetation maintenance along the entire corridor - mowing on a 30 day cycle; median maintenance two to three times per year; sidewalk edging once per year; and vegetation cutback along sidewalks once per year. The annual costs would be approximately $80,000 with cost of $18,000 for one time capital equipment. If the County's request is to include future resurfacing/restriping and other repairs as noted in the definition of routine maintenance, then the annualized costs will be much more significant than $80,000.
Fiscal Note
If the City Commission is interested in moving forward with accepting annual maintenance responsibilities for NW 16th Avenue the annual cost will be a minimum of $80,000.
Recommendation
The City Commission: 1) hear a presentation from Alachua County staff regarding the NW 16th Avenue Resurfacing and Rehabilitation Project; 2) respectfully decline the request to accept maintenance responsiblity; and 3) authorize the Mayor to sign a letter responding to the Alachua County Board of County Commissioners in response to their request.