1 STAFF REPORT
DATE: December 5, 2023
TO: Justin Hess, City Manager
FROM: Patrick Prescott, Community Development Director BY: David Kriske, Assistant Community Development Director
SUBJECT: Approval of a Design Services Agreement, Utility Relocation Reimbursement Agreements, and Amendment to Engineering Services Agreement to Complete Final Engineering and Permitting for the San Fernando Bikeway Project ; and Approval of the Landscape Engineering Services Agreement for the San Fernando Bikeway and Metro Railroad Landscaping Project
RECOMMENDATION
1. Approve the following agreements and findings related to final design and permitting for the San Fernando Bikeway Project , and authorize the Community Development Director, as the City Manager’s designee, to execute such Agreements and any necessary amendments thereto:
a. Design Services Agreement with the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (Attachment 1),
b. Utility Relocation Reimbursement Agreement with Sprint Communications Company LP (Attachment 2), finding that it is in the best interest of the City and necessary for completion of the San Fernando Bikeway Project to allow Sprint Communications Company LP to complete this work on their facilities, c. Utility Relocation Reimbursement Agreement with Plains All-American Pipeline (Attachment 3), finding that it is in the best interest of the City and necessary for completion of the San Fernando Bikeway Project to allow Plains All- American Pipeline to complete this work on their facilities, and d. Amendment Ten to Engineering Services Agreement with Kimley -Horn and Associates, Inc. (Attachment 4) for additional final project design services.
2. Approve the Engineering Services Agreement with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc. (Attachment 5) for landscape design services for the San Fernando Bikeway
COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT
2 and Metro Railroad Landscaping Project, and authorize the Community Development Director, as the City Manager’s designee, to execute such Agreement and any necessary amendments thereto, and finding that it is in the best interests of the City to award this Agreement on a sole-source basis.
BACKGROUND
The San Fernando Bikeway Project (Project) is a three-mile Class I bicycle path located along San Fernando Boulevard, Victory Place, and the Burbank Western Channel between the northern City Limits and the Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station. The Project would provide one of three completely separated, off-street bike paths planned as part of the Citywide Complete Our Streets Plan and Bicycle Master Pla n. These bike paths serve as the backbone to the City’s “8 -to-80” fully protected bike network , where riders of all ages (from age 8 to 80) and abilities are able to travel with minimal conflicts with vehicles. When complete, the Project will close a critical gap in the regional bikeway network by extending a 12- mile regional bike path from Sylmar, south through the cities of San Fernando and Los Angeles to Burbank. Further, t he Project also completes the final gap of the related Chandler Bikeway Extension, which is also currently in the planning stages . A map of the proposed Project alignment, along with other related facilities, is attached as Attachment 6.
In 2007, the City received a Metro Call for Projects grant which secured $6,172,836 in federal funds to construct the Project, along with a local match of $1,543,209 funded with Transportation Development Impact Fees. Staff conducted preliminary design of the project between 2010 and 2012, and entered into an Engineering Services Agreement with Kimley-Horn, and Associates, Inc. (Kimley-Horn) to prepare final design documents.
A majority of the project corridor lies within the Metro/Metrolink railroad right of way along San Fernando Boulevard and Victory Place, where the bike path and related landscaping are planned to be constructed between the City street and the existing rail line. This area was part of the construction zone for Caltrans’ Interstate 5 North High Occupancy Vehicle / Empire Interchange project, and due to the delays caused by that project, design of the bikeway was suspended in 2012. However, in 2021 staff resumed active design of the bike project and restarted the work of its consultant, Kimley-Horn. In addition, because of the significant delays, staff also secured an extension of the grant funds from the Federal Highways Administration and Caltrans so that design activities could be completed. As part of that grant extension and the need to preserve the majority of the grant funds , a portion of the project alignment that was disturbed by the Interstate 5 project was removed from the project scope of work but work on the remaining project has been actively proceeding since 2021. In 2022, the Council approved an amendment to the Engineering Services Agreement with Kimley-Horn to conduct additional design wor k that was required due to changed project conditions caused by the adjacent Caltrans project.
3 DISCUSSION
Staff and the consultant have resumed design and have advanced the bikeway plans to the 90% level, while also preparing submittals for review by the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, Metro, and Metrolink, who must all approve design of the bikeway to be built on their right-of-way property. With project design in this more detailed state, several agreements must now be approved to move the design to 100% completion. Below is a summary of the agreements necessary to finish this design work.
Design Services Agreement - Southern California Regional Rail Authority (Metrolink) Staff has been coordinating with Metro and Metrolink since 2021 to prepare plans for the portion of the P roject that lies within the Metro/Metrolink right of way. Now that more detailed design plans have been prepared, Metrolink must review and provide comments on the City’s design in anticipation of plan approval. Metrolink requires the City execute a Design Services Agreement in the amount of $166,000 to provide plan review and approval of the project plans. Metrolink will use these funds to hire third-party consultants to perform this work. The cost of this agreement reimburses Metrolink for its third- party consultant review and comment on the plans. Under this agreement, both parties will mutually indemnify each other for claims relating to their underlying respective work.
Utility Relocation Reimbursement Agreements with Sprint Communications Company LP and Plains All-American Pipeline
The portion of the bikeway project located in the Metro/Metrolink right of way is located near several utility vaults that provide access to fiber communications for several telecommunication companies as well as a large oil pipeline. The tops of these vaults need to be adjusted to accommodate the new bikeway so that the vault manhole covers will be flush with the surface of the bikeway. The City has coordinated with all relevant utility companies to develop design plans for this work, and agreements are needed to reimburse the utility companies for relocation work that will occur during construction.
The estimated cost for the Sprint vault relocations is $78,588 and the estimated cost for the Plains vault relocations is $184,737. Because these utility vaults are owned by private utility companies, the construction work necessary to complete these relocations must be approved and completed by the private utility owners through the proposed reimbursement agreements and it is the utilities’ requirement that the utility company performs such work on their own facilities. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the City and necessary for the safe completion of the San Fernando Bikeway Project that the City’s informal competitive bidding process otherwise required for these projects be waived.
4 Amendment Ten to Engineering Services Agreement with Kimley-Horn As design has progressed, additional consultant services are necessary to complete the project design plans that were not originally contemplated in the original agreement or the amendment approved in 2022. The proposed amendment would allow Kimley -Horn to address City-requested revisions to the signalized bikeway crossing of Buena Vista Street at San Fernando Boulevard, prepare safety lighting plans for the bikeway and adjacent Victory Place roadway that were not anticipated in the original scope of services, conduct an updated landscape soils analysis to ensure that the bikeway landscape design will be compatible with the updated project’s site conditions, provide for additional project team meetings due to the project’s extended schedule to complete design, and update the project’s original Phase 1 environmental survey as requested by Caltrans. The fee to prepare these additional services is $104,900.
Engineering Services Agreement with Kimley-Horn for the San Fernando Bikeway and Metro Railroad Landscaping Project
On July 18, 2023, the Council approved a Master Agreement with Caltrans to receive $3,000,000 in state grant funding sponsored by Assembly Member Friedman to enhance the railroad right of way landscaping adjacent to the San Fernando Bikeway and remediating portions of the larger railroad right of way that was damaged by the Interstate 5 North HOV / Empire Interchange project. This proposed engineering services agreement with Kimley-Horn would provide design services to prepare landscaping and landscape irrigation plans for the upgraded landscaping, which will run in parallel with the ongoing San Fernando Bikeway Project. Staff is proposing to execute a new engineering design contract with Kimley-Horn on a sole- source basis due to Kimley -Horn’s existing knowledge and expertise of the project area and ability to design this new landscape project within the San Fernando Bikeway P roject that they have already subs tantially designed. Furthermore, because the bikeway project and this landscaping design project will run in parallel, Kimley -Horn is best suited to assist on both efforts to ensure overall sequencing and design are coordinated efficiently and seamlessly between the two projects. Based on these reasons, staff recommends it is in the best interest of the City to award this engineering services agreement to Kimley -Horn on a sole source basis. If approved, the fee to prepare these design plans is $277,300.
Staff recommends the Council approve the proposed agreements relating to completing final design of the San Fernando Bikeway Project. These agreements are needed to finish project design, secure approval from outside agencies, incorporate additional project and railroad landscaping funded by new grant funding, and provide for required utility relocation. The Utility Relocation Agreement costs and the Engineering Services Agreement costs for the new landscaping will be reimbursed by grant funds. The Metrolink Design Services Agreement and Tenth Amendment to the Kimley-Horn Engineering Services Agreement costs were not originally anticipated, and therefore may not be reimbursed by the project grant funds unless the construction cost is lower than 5 originally estimated and allows the grant to reimburse for a larger share of the construction costs to offset these additional design costs. It should be noted that regardless of reimbursement, all project costs are being paid for by Transportation Development Impact Fees and are not paid for by the General Fund.
Approval of these agreements will allow the City to finish final design, seek approval of the plans by Metro and the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, and prepare documents for construction. They will also allow the City to incorporate expanded landscaping along the project and in the neighboring area to be funded by the additional $3 million in state grant funds approved by the City Council in July. Staff expects construction of the project to begin in late 2024 and be completed by early 2026.
Separate from the San Fernando Bikeway Project, staff is currently preparing to release a Request for Proposals to prepare design plans for the Chandler Bikeway Extension.
This related project would extend the Chandler Bikeway from its existing terminus at Mariposa Street via fully protected Class I bikeway and Class IV protected bike lanes along Chandler Boulevard, Victory Boulevard, and Cypress Avenue, including utilizing an unused City street easement to connect Cypress Avenue to the Burbank Western Channel. This would then intercept the lower portion of the San Fernando Bikeway and would carry cyclists to the Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station. Design and construction of this separate project will track closely to the San Fernando Bikeway Project. This project is also funded by a co mbination of federal grant funds and local transportation funds, which the Council approved in February 2020.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
Approval of the proposed agreements and amendments identified in this s taff report for the San Fernando Bikeway P roject is part of the larger Project, which was found to be categorically exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15304 (Minor Alterations to Land) because the project involves the creation of bicycle lanes within existing rights-of-way. Notice of Exemption was posted by the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk on January 22, 2014.
Approval of the Engineering Services Agreement for the landscape design services enhancement project is similarly exempt from CEQA pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15304(b) (Minor Alterations to Land) as the landscaping project will consist of minor public alterations in the condition of land which do not involve removal of healthy, mature, scenic trees, and instead includes the installation of new landscaping along public right of way. If the project description changes through the completion of the engineering plans developed by the proposed Engineering Services Agreement, additional environmental analysis will occur prior to the City’s approval of the final project in compliance with CEQA.
6 FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact to approving the agreements described above. Sufficient funding is available in project account 127.CD33A.70002.0000.19056 (Public Improvements, Transportation, Street Improvements, San Fernando Bikeway). Most of the cost of these agreements will be reimbursed by grant funds secured for this project.
CONCLUSION
The San Fernando Bikeway Project provides an important link in the buildout of the City’s Bicycle Master Plan and Complete Streets Plan to create a backbone of fully protected, Class I separated bike paths. Approval of these agreements are needed to complete project plans and prepare project plans for construction.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment 1 – Design Services Agreement with the Southern California Regional Rail Authority
Attachment 2 – Reimbursement Agreement with Sprint Communications Company LP Attachment 3 – Reimbursement Agreement with Plains All-American Pipeline Attachment 4 – Tenth Amendment to Engineering Services Agreement with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.
Attachment 5 – Professional Services Agreement with Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc.
Attachment 6 – Rendering and Proposed Cross Section