DATE: January 23, 2024
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Director of Public Works
SUBJECT: Adopt a Resolution Authorizing the City Manager to Accept and Appropriate $506,242.46 in Highway-Railway Crossing Program Funding from the California Department of Transportation for the Preliminary Engineering Phase of the Tennyson Road Rail Crossing Safety Improvement Project
RECOMMENDATION
That Council adopts a resolution (Attachment II) authorizing the City Manager to accept and appropriate $506,242.46 in Awarded Section 130 Fund from the California Department of Transportation for Tennyson Road Rail Crossing Safety Improvement Project.
SUMMARY
The Tennyson Road at-grade rail crossing was identified for funding of safety improvements through the Federal Section 130 funds distributed by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). The Section 130 program is a federally funded program administered by the States for the elimination of hazards at highway-rail at-grade crossings. Staff recommends adopting the resolution to accept and appropriate the $506,242.46 Federal Section 130 funding awarded to the City from Caltrans.
BACKGROUND
The State of California, through the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and Caltrans has identified that the Tennyson Road at-grade rail crossing would benefit from the safety improvements fund. The Railway-Highway Crossings (Section 130) Program is a federal program that provides funding to the States on a formula basis. Projects funded through this program are 100% funded for both the railroad and road agency and do not require a local match. These funds are used for safety improvements to reduce the number of fatalities, injuries, and crashes at public railway-highway grade crossings. The Section 130 Program for California is administered by Caltrans and provided through Caltrans Local Assistance.
The Tennyson Road Rail Crossing Safety Improvement Project was previously identified as a grade crossing in need of upgrades and previously managed by the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC) as an element of ACTC’s Rail Safety Enhancement Program (Phase A), which was funded with state and local funds. After the initial obligation of Section 130 funds, ACTC informed Caltrans that they could not receive and use the Section 130 federal funds due to ACTC’s consultant teams not being eligible to be reimbursed with federal funds. Therefore, in September of 2023, Caltrans requested the City to manage the project. Caltrans will also separately contract with the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) for costs to design and construct UPRR’s improvements at the crossing.
The Tennyson Road rail crossing consists of a four-lane, generally east-west oriented roadway and one track of the UPRR Roseville Division, Niles Subdivision, intersecting at a 100-degree crossing angle. The roadway has a width of 91 feet, which includes 5-foot bicycle lanes in both directions and 18-foot-wide raised concrete medians on both sides of the crossing. There are concrete sidewalk approaches to the crossing. UPRR and Amtrak currently operate trains at the crossing. From October 2016 to June 2023, there were four train-involved reported incidents at the Tennyson Road rail crossing; out of four incidents, two were pedestrians, one was bicyclist and one was a motorist-involved collision. One of two pedestrian and bicyclist incidents resulted in fatality and the motorist collision resulted in injuries.
DISCUSSION
The purpose of the project is to improve multimodal safety at the Tennyson Road at-grade rail crossing. This will be done in multiple ways, through (1) the reduction of queues during peak hours due to the signalized intersection of Whitman Street/Beatron Way and Tennyson Road east of the crossing, (2) improvement of facilities for the significant pedestrian and bicycle traffic at the crossing, (3) improvement of the pedestrian crossing on Tennyson Road near the track, and (4) limiting of trespass activities on the railroad right-of-way near the crossing.
The project includes the design and installation of traffic signals located near the railroad crossing to prevent queuing over the tracks, additional warning devices, roadway narrowing to accommodate both vehicular warning devices and pedestrian facilities, and pedestrian and bicyclist facilities improvements. The City’s scope of work for this project includes two phases: preliminary engineering and construction. Under preliminary engineering, the traffic and pedestrian studies will be prepared to develop the design plans. The $506,242.46 of funding is for the preliminary engineering phase only. Under the Section 130 Program, Caltrans will provide funding for the construction phase at a later date. Additionally, the scope of work for UPRR includes but is not limited to removing and replacing the existing curb- and median- mounted warning devices and installing new warning devices for pedestrians, new concrete surface and requisite track structure, and new signal house and circuitry.
The funding agreement with Caltrans will need to be executed following the approval of this resolution. The budget for the City’s scope of work for the preliminary engineering phase is $506,242.46, which is 100% reimbursement-based after the contract is executed with Caltrans. There will be no contribution required from the City.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
The road users, including motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists, utilizing the Tennyson Road rail crossing will benefit from a safer and more accessible crossing.
FISCAL IMPACT
The total cost for the City’s scope of work will be fully reimbursed by Caltrans through Federal Section 130 funds. This agenda item requests that the Council authorize the acceptance and appropriation of $506,242.46 to complete the preliminary engineering phase of the project. There is no fiscal impact as this phase will be fully reimbursed by Caltrans through Federal Section 130 funds.
STRATEGIC ROADMAP
This agenda item supports the Strategic Priority of Invest in Infrastructure. Specifically, this item relates to the implementation of the following projects:
Project N1: Continue to implement major corridor traffic calming initiatives.
Project N4: Implement Safe Routes for School, with a focus on Cesar Chavez and Palma Ceia.
SUSTAINABILITY FEATURES
There are no sustainability features associated with this action.
PUBLIC CONTACT
There is no public contact associated with this action.
NEXT STEPS
If Council approves this request, the City Manager will enter into a funding agreement with Caltrans for a total amount of $506,242.46 Section 130 funds. Once the funding agreement is executed, Section 130 funds will be available to reimburse project costs.
Prepared by: Jade Kim, Assistant Transportation Engineer Byron Tang, Senior Transportation Engineer
Kathy Garcia, Deputy Director of Public Works
Recommended by: Alex Ameri, Director of Public Works
Approved by:
______________________________________
Kelly McAdoo, City Manager
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