HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/20/2001, C8 - ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR THE US 101/LOS OSOS VALLEY ROAD INTERCHANGE PROJECT STUDY REPORT J/
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November 20,2b01
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CITY OF SAN LUIS OBISPO
FROM: Mike McCluskey, Director of Public Works
Prepared By: . Timothy Scott Bochum,Deputy Director of Public Works
SUBJECT: ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR THE US 101/LOS OSOS VALLEY ROAD
INTERCHANGE PROJECT STUDY REPORT
CAO RECOMMENDATION
1. Appropriate an additional $80,000 ($40,000 SLOCOG grant, $30,000 County, $10,000 in
unappropriated Transportation Impact Fees) for the project budget bringing the total budget
to $200,000.
2. Authorize the CAO to award and execute a contract with Dokken Engineering of Rancho
Cordova, California in an amount not to exceed $189,000 to produce the Project Study
Report.
DISCUSSION
On July 10' of this year the Council approved requests for proposal (RFP) for the US 101/LOVR
Project Study Report (referred to as a PSR or PSR-PDS) project. This project is the preparation of a
Caltrans required document that is the initial scoping and investigative report for any new project
proposed on the state system. Council approved an appropriation of $120,000 as a budget to
complete this work. The budget was funded through three sources: $30,000 City, $30,000 SLO
County and$60,000 SLOCOG. '
Five consultant proposals were received on August 16, 2001. Consultant interviews were conducted
on September 13,2001 and a short list and ranking of the consultant teams was compiled. It was the
consensus of the interview team, which was comprised of'representatives from the City, the County,
of San Luis Obispo, Caltrans and SLOCOG, that Dokken Engineering, of Rancho Cordova was the
project team that was most qualified to conduct the project.
All five of the proposals exceeded the approved budget. The proposed costs ranged from $155,000
to $286,000 and depended highly on the proposed level of investigation that was considered
necessary to deliver an acceptable document for Caltrans approval. Since that time staff has been in
discussions with Dokken Engineering to reduce their proposed cost and achieve a revised scope of
work that still reflects the needs of the City and Caltrans.
A revised scope of work and cost estimate that appears acceptable to the City has been achieved.
Dokken's revised cost estimate to perform this work is$189,000.
Council Agenda Report:Additional Funding LOVR-US 101 Interchange
Page 2
Increased Costs
Obviously, costs for this project are quite a bit higher than anticipated. Staff has discussed the
increased costs with many of the consultants and Caltrans to determine the reasons for the cost
overruns. Three major reasons were identified.
Level of Significance—Project Design Issues
All consultants agreed that the US 101/LOVR Interchange was a non-typical interchange design
effort that will require higher levels of investigation at the early stages of the project. These issues
include the adjacent creek system, wetlands, and traffic. While all of these issues are "generally"
covered in a typical PSR-PDS document, the LOVR Interchange requires that more investigation be
performed up front to determine the recommended project alternative.
Traffic Assessment
The City has required that a detailed traffic assessment be performed as part of the PSR-PDS report.
This assessment will include significant traffic modeling using the City's traffic model to forecast
future conditions and perform link analysis that will determine the local and regional traffic mix
using the facility. While some of this work could be delayed until a later stage of the process, i.e.
environmental review, staff believes it is critical at this stage to develop a set of traffic numbers and
forecasts that can be used throughout the project's development and also, be available for use in
comparing and assessing local development projects. Without this detailed information, the
development of a financing plan for the project would be delayed until some future date as part of
the project.
Creek and Wetlands
As identified in the RFP, wetlands and the adjacent San Luis Creek will play a significant role in
determining the recommended project alternative for the interchange. All of the consultant proposals
reflected greater than expected investigations into these issues at the PSR-PDS stage. It is vital that
proper identification of environmental issues take place as part of the PSR-PDS for this project. Both
the wetland and creek issues could have dramatic construction cost ramifications, and project delay
issues, if not appropriately identified at this early stage of the project.
It is important to note that staff believes that the additional costs proposed as part of the PSR-PDS
component to this project, will not be lost costs. Much of the "higher" level of detail at this early
stage is analysis that would have to be performed as part of a later stage of project development
anyway. In other words, these additional costs are occurring because of our need to accelerate the
information in the Caltrans project development process. Staff believes that performing this work
now will reduce project costs for future environmental work or design costs.
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Council Agenda Report:Additional Funding LOUR-US 101 Interchange
Page 3
Decreased Scope
Obviously,getting from$286,000 to $189,000 required dropping some work scope items that can be
picked up later on. Because the PSR-PDS is a "scoping" document with a primary goal of
establishing the low and high ends of the construction cost spectrum, not all project alternatives, as
originally thought, will need to be analyzed as part of this project. The majority of the cost
reductions were a result of reducing the number of project alternatives that will receive full analysis.
A number of alternatives will be developed and reviewed at the early stages of the project. However
unlike the draft RFP, alternatives that are determined infeasible or cost prohibitive will be dropped
from consideration. The reduction in project alternatives that will receive the full PSR-PDS review
has reduced the cost significantly.
In addition, some non-essential tasks, such as high accuracy aerial photogrammetry for the project
area, have been deleted and will be accomplished, if necessary, at a later stage in project
development for the interchange project. The hydrological assessment has been scaled back to
analyze the project specific issues only at this time and coordinate those issues with the San Luis
Obispo Waterways Management Plan — Phase R report being prepared by Questa Engineering
consultants. The Dokken consultant team utilizes Questa as their hydrology sub-consultant and as
such, all of the information and recommendations of that document will be readily available to the
project team for inclusion in the PSR-PDS preparation and alternatives assessment.
Prosect Schedule
A revised project schedule for development of the PSR-PDS:
Milestone Date
Consultant Selection September 20, 2001
Contract Award November 21, 2001
PSR-PDR Preliminary Work December 2001 —March 2002
PSR-PDS Administrative Draft April 2002
Draft PSR-PDS Circulation May 2002
Caltrans Review and Approval May-September 2062-
PSR-PDS Final Draft October 2002
Public Hearing/CC Review and October 2002
Approval
What will be the Council's role and decision-making authority? The PSR-PDS will identify
multiple interchange configurations. The City Council will be asked, as will other stakeholders, to
comment on and state its preference on alternatives and forward that recommendation on to Caltrans
for their consideration. Caltrans, as owner,has the ultimate responsibility to choose which option to
implement.
Council Agenda Report:Additional Funding LOUR-US 101 Interchange
Page 4
FISCAL IMPACT
At its October 2001 meeting,the SLOCOG Board approved an additional $40,000 in funding for use
on the US 101/LOVR Interchange PSR-PDS development project. This money.requires a 1-1 local
match to access the money. Because SLOCOG staff participated in the consultant interview process
that was held in September, they were aware that a significant cost increase was likely and
subsequently recommended that the Board allocate additional funding for the project.
The County of San Luis Obispo has determined that no additional money is available at this time to
devote to the PSR-PDS stage of the project.
In reviewing this issue, staff discovered that the original project budget was approved as part of the
FY 1997-99 CIP Financial Plan and included use of$60,000 of City Transportation Impact Fees for
the project (see Attachment 1). Because the County committed $30,000 as a match for this project
only $30,000 of these TIF monies were recommended to be used as part of the revised project
budget recommended to Council as part of the RFP staff report. Therefore, $30,000 in City TIF fees
remain budgeted for this project that can be used to match the SLOCOG grant source.
Staff recommends that the full $40,000 approved by SLOCOG be accepted, to allow for
contingencies such as additional meetings or drawings. Utilizing the previously budgeted monies
leaves a shortfall of$10,000 to leverage the entire $40,000 approved by SLOCOG, as required by
the 1-1 terms of the match. Staff recommends that $10,000 in reserve TIF fees be appropriated by
the Council at this time to take advantage of the full grant source amount and keep the project on
schedule.
Because subsequent budgets to the FY 1997-99 Financial Plan never reflected (appropriated) the
$30,000 contribution to the project from San Luis Obispo County, it is necessary to formally
budget/appropriate the following amounts to the project to make the budget whole:
Revised Project Budget/Appropriations
Amount Source Status
FY 97-99 Financial $60,000 TIF Appropriated
Plan
FY 97-99 Financial $60,000 SLOCOG Grant Appropriated
Plan (RSHA) .
City $10,000 TIF New appropriation
SLOCOG $40,000 SLOCOG Grant New appropriation
(RSHA)
SLO County $30,000 County Funds New appropriation
Total Project Budget: $200,000
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Council Agenda Report:Additional Funding LOVR-US 101 Interchange
Page 5
ALTERNATIVES
The Council may choose to not increase the project budget at this time or only approve some
additional budget. This alternative would cause a major delay in project delivery and would require a
major rescoping of the PSR-PDS work scope. Minor reductions in the project cost are possible,
however the project will be,delayed until such time as a revised scope of work can be developed and
revised cost estimates approved.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment 1: Except FY 1997-99 Financial Plan
A full copy of the Dokken Scope of Work is available in the Council Reading File.
L\Council Agenda Reports\LOVR Interchange Additional Budget Requestvldoc
ATTACHMENT No. 1
CAPITAL IMPROVEMcNT PLAN
{ PROJECT EXPENDITURES BY SOURCE- TRANSPORTATION IMPACT FEE FUND
r
1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01
BUDGET BUDGET PROPOSED PROPOSED
TRANSPORTATION IMPACT FEES
* LOVR/Hwy101 Interchange study
Railroad crossing improvements 60,000
100,000
TOTAL TRANSPORTATION IMPACT
FEE FUND
$160,000
F ' P+'aleM./nanced by more than one source
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