City Council - Public Works and Natural Resources Committee

I'll go ahead and bring us to order here this is the um uh committee meetings of the Bellingham City Council on June 17th 2024 our first committee meeting is public works and natural resources and that is chaired by council member Hannah Stone thank you very much president Hamill good morning I am joined on the public works and natural resources committee by council members Anderson and Lil Quist we have several items before us today the first of which is agenda bill 24154 so is wash do presentation on I5 Meridian fish passage project Sr 539 the Washington State Department of Transportation is beginning the design and construction of a fish passage project in the vicinity of the intersection of Interstate 5 and the Guide Meridian which is State Route 539 the fish passage improvements will be made in the Spring Creek and Baker Creek drainages um Megan bospar from wash dot project the wash dot project engineer and Chris Deo um wash do assistant regional administrator for the Mount Baker area will share information about this project okay and I will turn it um directly over to Chris Deo and I apologize if I did not pronounce your name correctly good morning well good morning and thank you um and thank you for the opportunity to share with you this morning about this important upcoming Department of Transportation project again I'm Chris deio and I'm the assistant regional administrator for the Washington State Department of Transportation as you noted we have an important

project we're about ready to advertise in the city of Bellingham and we wanted to share that project with you this $80 million effort will correct five fish barriers in the vicinity of the I5 Sr 539 guide marinian interchange this is a huge undertaking and we'll have some impacts that we wanted to share with you with me today is Project engineer Megan mosar and she will be leading this effort and she's here to provide you with some of the details good morning Megan mbar project engineer um so yeah I will go kind of numerically through uh these fish bearers as shown on on the map here on the slide was kind of start at the North and work our way South the first being West Fork Spring Creek uh the picture on the left shows the current pipe that crosses underneath East Bellis Fair Parkway um this is an approximately 80 foot long pipe and um it travels South and then the picture on the right is just south of where this uh ties into Spring Creek um this picture um on the right there's actually under you can't see it but there's gabian basket walls that are underneath those bushes that will also be removed um as a commitment to the to the tribes the next slide is Spring Creek so the picture on the left is Spring Creek and this is CR diagonally through the intersection of 539 and East Bellis Parkway um these dual uh corrugated metal pipes um Carry Spring Creek over to where it ties into the previous slide and then the picture on the right is the uh 100 foot corrugated steel covert

pipe that crosses underneath the I5 northbound onramp from Sr 539 the fourth barrier is Baker Creek this is a approximately 400t long corrugated steel covert pipe this crosses underneath I5 northbound offramp um there's a big kind of grassy median in between i5 and that offramp crosses through there and then underneath Sr 539 and so while this is technically one barrier we will be fixing it by installing two structures one underneath the offramp and one underneath Sr 539 itself so what to expect when we build these uh Travelers can expect Lane reduction on SR 539 we plan to at least have one lane open in each Direction while we do this and then um there will also be uh Lane restrictions on East Bells Fair Parkway kind of on both sides of of the intersection as shown on the picture and then uh We've also will ask the contractor to keep access to businesses open while they while they do this and moving over to I5 so the the fifth barrier is uh where Baker and Spring Creek combine and then they cross underneath i5 and McLoud road so it's again it's one pipe it's 4 approximately 400t long but it it crosses underneath I5 northbound I5 southbound and McLoud Road and so again what one barrier but we'll replacing it with three separate structures so what should Travelers expect when we're building these uh similar to other fish passage projects we'll most likely build a temporary bypass roadway just adjacent to I5 um while we build those there might be single Lane reductions of i5

and we'll move traffic over to the bypass roadway um build the structure on I5 and then put traffic back in basically in its existing configuration one when traffic is on the temporary bypass roadways there will likely be speed reductions um and then for the McLoud Road structure uh we expect lane closures while while that structure is built so this slide kind of shows our expected schedule uh we're currently in procurement as Chris mentioned uh to procure a design Builder we plan to short list the the proposing the shortlisted teams next week and then uh we're currently tracking spending um and as long as the Statewide bids are as we expect we anticipate that we will advertise the RFP in September to those shortlisted teams so we'll kind of continue procurement this year into next year hopefully get under contract with the design Builder by next year they'll spend most of 2025 completing the design process and then hopefully uh start construction in 2026 at least that's what we expect and we think it'll take about three years to to build all these these eight structures and our total estimated project cost is approximately 85 million uh so just wrapping it up there this kind of again shows you those those five barriers as I went through them $85 million project it's five barriers but eight structures that we plan on building uh and traffic impacts we know this is going to cause a lot of a lot of traffic impacts um don't have a lot of answers to those questions yet as the

design builder needs to design their traffic control they need to design these structures figure out how they're going to build them and at that point we'd be more um able to share more information about the exact traffic impacts to expect with that any any questions we can answer thank you very much for the presentation I'm I'll first turn to committee members council member list yes so I have a question you say the one um barrier I think it's number five is a 400 foot long tunnel at this point you said it'll be three projects does that mean it'll be kind of daylighted in between yeah that's that's um and so I I guess if it's supposed to be a fish passage project I what do the fish experts say about that degree of lighting and whether or not fish will actually enter those all these tunnels in a row I mean what do the what do the biologists say about fish still going through all these like the the intend is right now it's a tunnel but we're intended to Daylight it so even if there whether it's a bridge or a buried structure that the contractor builds underneath I5 it will be much much larger than it is now and so there still will be daylight coming in from both ends because it'll just be the the structure that is on I5 and then yes there will be daylighted in the median and then um and so again we're still we have preliminary hydraulic reports but the design Builder would will take those further and and look more into that a followup um are fish seen in the lower portion of

Baker Creek South of of barrier number five at this point um I'm not sure about the fish counts we're seeing right now in the lower portion but typically we always you know padon would be an example and others were after we get done we always see an increase in the fish numbers um the other thing it does as you know our cooperative uh process with padon we start seeing other culverts up and down the system start being improved in companion with ours thank you Council Anderson thank you um I was a little bit curious about the uh rerouting of traffic because with a couple of the um on-ramps being closed for a period of time that's going to Route traffic through sections of Bellingham um so I would appreciate when that decision is made that information is shared with us um as a council because I think it'll be important to be prepared for our constituents I can imagine a few areas that it'll get routed um along the highway uh so but my question the gaban that will be taken out I'm familiar with this area because it's my route driving home and in wintertime the water can be extremely high and very fast and you have a hill going up towards the mall and pretty close you have the road and I'm wondering if you're going to take the gabian out um what how are you going to engineer that in order to keep it somewhat channeled I mean are you going to have to take out some of the Hillside and do rock or I'm just kind of curious because that's always been a conundrum for me how to handle

that part of the creek based on the increased volume um but also the safety of drivers so we don't have water coming over the roadway or any kind of level of undermining that road um I'm sure it's going to be engineered I'm just wondering how you're going to address it be almost say on the design Builder to address that but in the preliminary you know us doing our conceptual design and kind of looking into it yes we do expect to um basically cut into that Hillside and to widen the creek CH it's it's very constricted right now and we need to widen it so it's more of a natural stream and that that also will will help with with any po you know hopefully help with any flooding potential um what type of wall how much we're taking back that'll all be engineered by the the design Builder but um we do have architectural criteria that you know that say what so whatever wall type or whatever they do there um is appropriate but um so in regards to the gabian yes that we hope to widen the stream plane to hopefully alleviate some of that I'll be interested to see how you guys address it because it's pretty steep and then you have a parking lot right above it so I've always wanted to see it wind but I just didn't see a economical way of doing it so I imagine this will be an expensive part of the project a challenge for sure and then your your previous question about the the on and off ramp closures um again we we'll learn more I mean the design Builder might build a little bypass roadway

and keep the ramp open if they can but yeah there will likely be some nighttime or temporary closures at some point and we will coordinate with you on that along that same project um you'd mentioned just in the decision the commitment to take out those gambians just about work with the tribes and I was just curious through this project um if you're able to speak at all to to how or in what way the tribes are included or involved in in these projects so in the in the pre-design phase kind of prior to us getting into this procurement um the tribes are engaged as we develop the hydraulic design they're the design teams are constantly presenting to them on you know what do you like and that's how we we can't with this commitment there's also actually a I forgot to mention a concrete Flume it's it's just to the east of McDonald's right right before the off ramp there's a concrete flum that we've also committed to to removing as part of this project and rehabilitating that part of the stream um yeah they're they're involved in the predesign they're involved during the the design like the design Builder will be presenting to the co-managers and then the tribes and all of the pering agencies on their design and getting feedback and incorporating it as best as we can Council Anderson um out of curiosity when do you think some of these components like the traffic plan um will be decided so that we'll know um this is such a high traffic high volume I completely understand the work has

to happen but it will impact access to some of our businesses just the aspect people will probably try to avoid this area as much as possible and so businesses would be impacted by basically the backed up traffic um even now with the lanes open it will back up towards Kellogg um during rush hour and that's I can well imagine it even being worse than that um and then the ability to turn into the businesses will be a little bit more difficult depending on how the lane structures are so I would again be very interested in seeing how that's going to look um and wondering when that would be available so we expect that as they get into design that that's when they'll be developing their traffic control plans but even during design there there's requirements in the RFP that they're going to have to coordinate with businesses do Outreach to businesses making sure that they're engaged they know what to expect um we've begun some of that with with some of the larger businesses already kind of letting them know what to expect and we don't know a lot right now but we do you know we know there is going to be impacts and it will be on the design Builder to help us work through that with with the businesses and with the traveling public we have um we're going to have a lot of requirements for communication and Madison is here with our Communications and we'll be doing a lot of Outreach to the public you know hey there's going to be these closures on these days doing what we can to to

hopefully notify people to use alternate routes um but understand that comes with impacts too um I answered all your questions I guess I was just wondering like when you think you might have it like December next year at this time as far as like a a timeline when definitely next year as the to get under contract with the design Builder they'll get into design and take them several months to to get into the design and and really figure out what their plan is and run that by us and then we can run it by you thank you as Megan noted um hopefully we'll we'll award this project spring next year so I would hope maybe December of 25 or so we'll start having a a picture of what the traffic impacts are and part of the reason we're here today is we wanted to let you know that there are going to be impacts there's just no other way to do this and we certainly want to be communicative about that and be proactive in working with you and the citizens and the businesses but um part of it is there will be impacts and we just want to work with you um and and the team and try and minimize that as much as possible much appreciated um good to know that we have about a year before we're really start to look at that thank you mayor Lind as we think about a plan to communicate out traffic impacts it looking at the Timeline I just want to note that this construction could be underway um just in advance of the World Cup and we anticipate additional through travel from Seattle to Vancouver for some of

those games and so we could have some compounded impacts and we might have to communicate regionally about any I5 link reductions or things of that nature so Wash's working on a a plan for how we're going to address World Cup and it will be in the contract that if whenever those we're still kind of working out the details but whether it's going to be just on those travel days between Vancouver and Seattle or if it's going to be the whole duration of World Cup that all I can think is maybe we'll have like a temporary bypass roadway in place on I5 possibly depends on the design Builder Schedule but again that would still be two lanes of I5 but we would hope that 539 would would remain in its existing configuration during the World Cup not seeing any other questions this item was before us for information um and discussion only and grateful for the presentation um and thank you to both um Chris deio um and Megan mosar for joining us today and for the presentation in the advanced notice um obviously there will be impacts in the short term but I think it's clear that the you know fish passage project and just the long-term benefits um to that area and to the to the fish and um the environment there is going to be far far worth the you know temporary inconveniences but look forward to that coordination and communication and sounds like it may be regionally um so thank you very much and we look forward to hearing from you again we're welcome to come back whatever good luck an update

thanks so much okay so with that we will turn to the next item before committee this morning so this is a genda bill 24155 this is a contract award for the Meridian sewer m I5 to Van Wick EU 184 the Meridian sewer M I5 to Van Wick project will install approximately 17,000 ft of sanitary sewer pipe from approximately 300 ft north of the Birchwood Avenue Meridian Street intersection northly um to approximately 800 ft north of the Van Wick Road Meridian Street intersection the project will relocate sewers in conflict with the planned fish passage project by the state and accommodate future future growth as outlined in the 2016 Wastewater conveyance plan the city publicly opened three bids on May 29th 2024 Ram Construction General Contractors LLC is the responsible bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of 6,874 5551 including sales tax the engineer estimate is 10,247 18819 the low bid exceeds the engineer's estimate in large part due to night work to minimize traffic disruptions staff recommends the city council award the contract to Ram Construction um and for this item I'll turn first to Public Works director Eric Johnston thank you Miss Stone So speaking of messing up traffic on the Guide Meridian we are to recommend a ward of project to replace the sewers along the Guide Meridian and this is in large part driven in terms of schedule by the Dot's fish passage project so uh much of the work there centered around that I5 interchange there from Baker viiew South down to

Birchwood uh and the primary driver for the need to do this now is to get the project done before the dot comes in for their major project in about 2026 as was just as was just mentioned uh the project need however is not necessarily driven by the do's uh needs to replace their fish berries but also for us to replace the sewer pipes that are needed to be appropriately sized for future growth to the north of of of the city of Bellingham so this project was identified in the 2016 Wastewater conveyance plan and number of these segments were identified as needing to be uh increased in size to accommodate future growth for uh to this area of the community uh it also resolves some of the current constrictions that are occurring and some of the problems that we're seeing on the on these sewer remains uh it resolves all those all of those concerns as were identified in the Wastewater conveyance plan a couple years ago the project is expensive uh it the the price came in around $16 million uh $16.8 million with the original estimate by the engineer at around $10 million which is also even higher than what was identified in the Wastewater conveyance plan and I don't want to sugarcoat the increase in cost of what was predicted back in 2016 uh this is a very very expensive project yet is a necessary project to meet our needs for the community to grow North and to replace the sewer pipes that are going to be in conflict with the Dos project so while it is expensive unfortunately this is

one that we do need to move forward with we are confident the contractor has has given us a reasonable price the uh three biders who submitted on that the first two biders were reasonably close to each other both are very reputable and local contractors we have a trust in their numbers uh based on our analysis of what they put forward uh that the contracted Consulting Engineers estimate was simply just low uh and uh the price submitted by Ram is an appropriate price for the scale of work and the type of work and the nature of the work a significant element driving the high cost is the is the traffic control associated with doing this work these sewers are not shallow they are deep and Mr smads can speak more to that here in a minute if if you'd like uh and it's in order to minimize the disruptions to our to our community in terms of traffic flow there the vast majority of the work will be done at night uh which drives the cost quite bit more quite a bit more expensive and so a big a big difference between what was originally estimated in the conveyance plan to this bid is the difference between doing the work in the daytime and doing it at nighttime uh and that's just the nature of how we are at a very high level planning for these projects uh so the impact will be large to the Sewer fund uh and we'll see those impacts not in this first early years as we're reasonably confident we can afford to pay for this now but what's unknown is what will be the future years you know

years six seven 8 nine and 10 out to the Future how that will affect our ability to fund future projects so with that with all that kind of being said Mr smatters can speak a little bit about specifics but our our staff recommendation is to award the project and Eric can you talk a little bit about the details so the project is the depths of the pipe are about 18 ft to 12T deep uh pipe sizes range from 24 in down to 8 with the 24 in going from the south end to Baker view and then north of Baker view it's between 18 and 12 um this covers like Eric said it covers two full projects listed in the conveyance plan and parti of another one on Telegraph Road um one part another part of it is there's the sewer M along West Fork of uh Spring Creek that the current pipe is directly under the creek we didn't want to go through all the mitigation and destroy the creek to rebuild that so we're actually moving a new pipe into Baker view um so that will reduce we won't have impacts to the creek there otherwise this would have been a much more expensive project um in the limited access of I5 the we have to case the pipe and also directionally drill portions of the project um there's about uh 1,700 ft of pipe that is case encased and um some of that is large steel casing and steel costs are expensive right now that's another reason the costs are so high and so the directional drilling will be a pilot tube directional drilling augur bore which first you you install a smaller diameter tubing and

then you augur in a larger pipe and Inc and move the casing forward so that it's a slow process that section will probably take two to three months to complete their under i5 and any questions we answer any questions Council might have Council list um think you have a couple questions you already answered them I was going to ask how deep it is 12 to 18 ft uh on size you said currently 24 down to 18 or 12 um will they be at the same depth in the future and what will the new diameter be and when you say steel cased pipes I've seen the huge big black plastic ones that we use going down the seage treatment plant they were like I don't know 36 inches are these basically steel around that kind of a plastic lining so it'll be uh steel wrap and then you'll install a PVC pipe inside it PVC and the that's a requirement from wash for one the steel is required in order to do the augur boring if you try to augur through plastic pipe it'll just tear the pipe apart so um we may try to do some casing outside of that area with with a different material but currently it's all steel casing and the diameter and and question about the diameter maybe you should answered a different way uh I'm curious to know the diameter in inches but also capacity what kind of capacity are we getting in terms of the future anticipated need are we at 100% capacity now are we at like 95% capacity So Co when you answer size can you also talk about capacity I don't have the numbers for the capacity but we're we're

close to the full capacity of the current pipe so we're we're in as far as like percentage wise we're we're shooting for keeping the new pipe to be within 90% of the future capacity so we oversized a bit to make sure we we could have future capacity and and even have some some um excess capacity in the pipe that'll be 36 in I don't know you go numbers it depends on the slope yeah so so there's a complexity with the size of a piece of pipe right so the size of a pipe is not solely related to how much flow you can put down to it because also is how steep that pipe is sloped right so in order and and and what we're trying to achieve is not simply getting the water from point A to point B but doing it in such a way that the pipe quote cleans itself so we want to M we want to maintain a certain velocity of the flow through the pipe to get to that point so the pipes are sized appropriately to plan for the next 50 years of growth that we will have in this area of town as as I doubt outlined in the conveyance plan that pipe size is determined by that need for capacity but also the need to get it underneath various things including and bridges and other utilities and so slopes and sizes of pipes are dependent on lots of factors generally speaking as you go from the upend of the system down it's going to get larger in size right so like in your house you start with a 3-inch pipe then a 4inch pipe and a 6inch pipe so you don't clog things up we do the same thing here at the bottom end

where it goes into Birchwood so that from Telegraph down to Birchwood it's about a 24in section of pipe there's sections at Telegraph Road that are 8 in pipe that are being replaced with that larger 24-in pipe to accommodate for future growth and to resolve deficiencies that we're seeing today there's there's an 8 in pipe on Telegraph which is at or exceeding capacity today that would be replaced with the 24 as you head further north you're going to go to smaller 18inch sizes some of the branches might be as low as 12 in or smaller so pipe size is is very highly variable and we leave that to the engineers to make those decisions about that but but the basis on their design for choosing those is based on the need to keep the maintenance of the pipes relatively simple and to plan for that plus 50 years of growth that we anticipate based on the comprehensive plan and the zoning that's that's laid out in the types of development that we'll see uh currently with within the city limits in the ug but also potential future capacity that might uh come to Bear all that's laid out in the conveyance plan be happy to review that if if you'd like Council Anderson thank you um you kind of answered a little bit of the questions I was having as far as the depth and the size of the pipe um and given that we're looking at expansion in order to deal with future growth I know that we have the new pump station that we're working on I'm just wondering because of the depth because if we're using a

lot of gravity fall to get to our postp Point treatment are are our um are we looking at in the future needing to install some pump stations um and also do the current ones that we have going to be able to handle the The increased capacity and time uh the answer to those questions is yes yes yes and yes okay so but but that's really kind of outside the scope of this project award so this so so the answer is to that question is yes we are planning for future growth we are sizing pump stations to be to accommodate that growth we pump stations are somewhat tricky because you want to build them large enough to handle the flows today and to the future but not so big today that they become non-functional and create problems for us so that's a bit of a delicate balance and sometimes we'll we'll install a pump station and then 20 years need to upsize that uh we see that with the rotor Avenue Pump Station so that's been in place for many many years we're replacing that the system is getting older needs to be upgraded and increased in size to handle the growth of the city for many years into the future so when we when we approach these sewer projects uh we we are thinking about fixing as as they are but critically thinking about where the future is going to come in we saw that with the wurn sewer project where that sewer was upsized to accommodate future growth and more housing being developed up towards the Barkley area uh this is a very similar approach all those things are are based

within our comprehensive plans that connect our our growth plans our zoning our projected population increases or maintenance needs along with the current condition so this is very consistent with that and hope that answers the question yes but just to um this is a large project for an extended distance so when I'm thinking pump stations do we have any in this location we do and with that is there any upgrades needed to happen in these locations with this additional work um or is there any pre-work that could be done um in order to address any future in order to save cost on that future if that makes sense so a lot of times when a construction project is happening you know and you know you're going to be building another building next door you might include the groundwork at the same time in order to be able to offset the cost in the future not necessarily groundwork here because that would change but I'm just wondering if if there's a pump station in this area with this expansion is it enough to deal with it or are we going to be looking at replacing that pump station and if we're relook if we're looking at changing or doing that pump station does it make sense to do it now with this project again complex questions but I think that that that there are I the sizing of this pipe will accommodate whatever flow will come from the pump stations that pump into this into this pipeline uh but we are not seeing a need to upgrade the pump p pump stations because of this project it's

the it's the opposite of that uh this pipe this project will accommodate future growth in which case some of those them that growth will be required to pump into these gravity sewers so it it it we'd have to look very specifically at at specific locations to get a more specific answer than that but again this project is sized to accommodate all the future growth that would come from all of the ancillary contributing basins including those which are pumped thank you knowing that the pump stations currently in place could handle this additional capacity is kind of the answer I was looking for thank you any further questions or discussion president Hamill uh thank you chair I don't serve on this committee but I have a question uh regarding the Delta between the engineers estimate and the um the two lowest um responsible and responsive biders which are I think they're within about 10% of each other maybe 9% I I guess I'm not understanding some of the um the comments um that were made or regarding the night workor and the depth of the or the the necessary depth of the um the work contributed to the higher uh cost but I guess I'm I'm just not understanding why there's such a a large Delta between the estimate and what the the two biders came back back uh with I think the best way to explain that is that the Consulting engineer who designed the project had a wrong number and the number is more appropriately closer to that 16 or1 19 million way the way that Engineers will produce

their cost estimates is on projects that have been done in the past and contractors are looking at projects pricing that is current and so when you see this large gap between uh and we'll see this on these next bid estimates in the two two subsequent projects we Council consider there's a variation between the estimates that were produced by the consultants and the actual work so there's a large gap um our significant amount of work we've done the last two weeks about is this the right price to pay for this project one of the things we look at is what's the what's the likelihood of scaling the project back or doing it a different way or or revising something that will result in a lower cost so we so kind of ignore the engineers estimate which is comes from a consultant based on prior work say if we were to rebid this would we get a better price and and our our look at that based on what we're seeing here based on what the both of those two low bid contractors we set the third one aside because that's that's outside the the range um that if you were to rebid the project you would not get a lower price so regardless of what the engineer's estimate was the price that is being proposed by the two contractors is within a reason and they are good numbers we've talked with them about those numbers and they uh they identified during the bidding phase that the that the Consulting Engineers number was too low so we knew that it was going to come in a little higher um but to explain why

the Consulting Engineers number is low so much lower is is frankly just a bust in on on that side it's not an error it's just a number that's uh they they made their best reasonable professional guess and it was not uh what not high enough list I'm going to ask about conduit this is a three mile long project I think we have fiber up Meridian at least we have some I think I saw maps that we have some dark fiber capacity up to Baker view maybe we have fiber which goes further north to run facilities up there is and but given the depth of this I don't know and how it's being done is there an opportunity for uh putting in some redundant lengths of conduit and what is our capacity up Meridian already and for that matter long Baker view because there's going to be a big spur that way so the project the existing pipe on most of this project runs under the sidewalk and the uh franchise U utilities have stacked their conduits on top of our pipe so we actually have to move out into the road and we don't want to Stack another pipe on top of that CU it's already can't maintain it if you put a pipe on top of it so there's not there's not a good if we were to put something in we'd need to go along the sidewalk and and where our current facilities are cuz we have Street lighting conduit all the way up already so the to to install it in the trench we we'd we'd have to dig another trench to do it and with the cost we already have I don't know that that's a good option at this point um what is

the the this a good explanation thank you uh so we have conduit it it's currently located um in the right way but not under the street that's actually sounds pretty smart um what is our current do you have a rough idea what our current um capacity is and any if that is is excess again because I'm I'm thinking about Community Broadband which really depends on us Having excess capacity beyond our current needs so I think the answer to that question is is and again this is unrelated to the to the recommended Award of the contract for this this bid but the uh we are still working on the comprehensive fiber plan I expect to come to Council in later this summer with recommendations about how that plan and where we have existing capacity and where we can expand capacity and how to do that uh but our our look based on early look at that need uh suggest we do not should not be installing additional capacity for the city's fiber system in this along with this project but we are looking forward to an opportunity later the summer to talk with the council about what that fiber comprehensive plan and where we can both increase our redundancy and reliability and increase our capacity for the city fiber system eventually leading to the point where we could do dark fiber releasing that would come later this summer other questions I'm going to go ahead and move approval of awarding the contract okay so we have a motion before us to um move to award the contract for the Meridian sewer this is

EU 184 to Ram Construction General Contractors LLC okay there's no further discussion I'll call the question all in favor we say I I any opposed or extensions okay seeing none that passes 30 and I'll bring that recommendation forward this evening thank you for your time okay so the next item that was on the agenda just to mention briefly so agenda bill 24156 this was an ordinance regarding temporary right of way use permits amending chapter 13.14 of the Bellingham municipal code to wave certain permit requirements for protected speech um understanding that item's been pulled but we'll be coming back to Council in the near your term right okay um just wanted to make that announcement in case members of the public had seen that published previously so that will be coming forward um At a next one of our upcoming meetings so with that the next agenda item before us is agenda bill 24157 this is the fire station number two R roof and solar panel installation project this is Bid number 35b d224 so the Fire Station 2 rof and solar panel installation project includes roof replacement solar panel installation and related Construction on the existing structure together these improvements will preserve the facility and offset 100% of the building's electrical costs the city publicly opened five bids on May 21st 2024 Cameo construction was the responsible bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of $468,500 including any applicable sales or use tax the engineer estimate was $981,000

um for this item I'll first turn to Public Works director Eric Johnston let me just look straight to Joel fun to talk about this project thank you um and I am having a little trouble finding my presentation there there we go thank you for your patience uh chair and uh committee members so um yeah I am here to talk about the fire station re-roof and solar panel installation project and I'll just we have a few quick slides we're going to go through here um so first of all just basically the site overview fire station number two is located in fan on Harris Avenue um it currently has a 40-year-old asphalt shingle roof that needs to be replaced and um during our evaluation we found that the the roof the the location and the roof are ideal locations for um installing solar panels so um real quick project overview uh roof was designed by King architecture the solar design was done by Cascade Renewables we had uh five bids low bid um of a little uh over $468,000 uh which was uh under the the engineers estimate um we will be conducting this construction during 2024 with the goal of being done by the end of the year and during operation during the construction operations will be maintained at the the fire station so um the solar panels they'll be generating a little bit over 62 kilow uh kilowatts um it is anticipated to cover a little over 100% of the existing electrical costs at the fire station which are $6500 per year and um it's estimated that that is a 971 ton reduction uh offset

of uh CO2 and so with that happy to answer any questions thank you very much turn to committee Council what's not to love about this project it's uh under budget and it hits on a number of our uh public priorities and it'll pay for it so over the years to come I would uh move that we vote to approve uh this contract or bid contract contract contract thank you I would move to approve the contract so there's a motion to award the contract for bid number 35 b-224 um to Cameo construction any further discussion okay seeing none I'll call the question all in favor we'll say I I any opposed or exensions okay seeing none that passes 30 and I'll bring forward that recommendation this evening thank you very much the next item before the committee is agenda bill 24158 this is another contract award this is for post Point rough project group number two this is Bid number 34 b-224 so the post point R roof project group number two includes roof replacement and related construction on six existing buildings at the post Point water wastewater treatment facility the project includes h back upgrades new lighting and ceiling grid repair the city publicly opened three bids on May 29th 2024 high-tech Roofing Inc was the responsive bidder who submitted the lowest responsive bid of 1,822 258 including any applicable sales or use tax the engineer's estimate was $1,500,000 and the project includes an apprenticeship hour requirement um and so for this item I will turn first to Public Works director

Eric Johnson thank you Miss Stone so we're we're going to try to find a graphic here to to show this we don't have a presentation about this there we go so the this this this roof project is for at post point and it's specifically on the buildings that house our uh uh solids incinerations as well as the admin building and the lab so when we decided to scale back the resource recovery postp Point project we still have a need to uh reinvest and fix and repair and restore those buildings so that they are redundant reliable and have some resiliency as we'll be using these facilities for many many years to come so as we are we are anxiously and working hard to bring the incineration facility into both current standards and a and a state of Readiness we also need to make sure that the Rifts don't leak and that the staff have a place to work that's uh a good place to work so uh what this project does is it it it replaces the heating vation air conditioning system as well as the roofs at those buildings which are in a poor state of repair we've talked about this in the p in the past that we we were in a we were in a state of deferred maintenance on many of the facilities with the resource recovery project uh this is one of a series of examples where we are needing to now bring them up to current state uh this is not taking away from any of the work that we're doing to make sure the incinerators are both operable and and compliant with the regulations that we would like to comply with

uh but this is necessary to bring this building into functional and usable state for staff so our recommendation is to award the contract uh the the bids are the bids and again the same conversation about pricing versus engineer estimates uh we are recommending that contract be awarded to the low bid contractor Council M Anderson um much like the previous example where new Roofing we took the opportunity to install um solar was that examined for this or is it the type of um material being utilized that is not ideal I know metal roofs work really well with solar but I was wondering if this was looked at as an opportunity to expand that Roar I'm Superintendent at Public Works um yes we did look at solar for this building but unfortunately the structurally we would have had to add some significant beams that go all the way AC cross to to both sides of the um the edges of the building and it would have created some maintenance problems as well as um uh concerned with the incinerators any of the any of the um area up there so we did look at this site and we have looked at all the buildings on the site that we're replacing and it's just um it's not working very well at plants but we do evaluate all our buildings before we go for roofing thank you other questions or discussion Council Anderson move approval so we have a motion before us to move to award the contract for bid number 34 b-224 to Hightech Roofing Inc there's no further discussion I'll call the question all in favor

we'll say I I I any opposed or extensions seeing none that passes 30 and I'll bring that recommendation forward this evening the last item before the committee this morning is agenda bill 24159 this is regarding adoption of the 2025 to 2030 Transportation Improvement program also known as the tip so state law RCW 35.77 point10 requires cities to annually adopt a comprehensive Transportation program for the ensuing six calendar years the draft 2025 to 2030 Transportation Improvement program includes projects to construct new facilities for people walking and biking enhance Transit use repair and resurface streets and sidewalks replace Bridges make roadways safer and more convenient for everyone and facilitate movement of freight subsequent to the public hearing regarding this draft six-year tip held on June 3rd 2024 a resolution has been prepared for city council to adopt the 2025 to 203 tip staff recommends adoption of the resolution um and just noting that the draft 2025 to 2030 tip includes more than 1 million 177 million um in planned projects and so for this item I will first turn to Public Works director Eric Johnston thank you Mr members of the council so this is a continuation of the public hearing that was t two weeks ago uh we are looking for rec uh recommending Council adopt the resolution uh we do have it in the packets and Joel's going to speak to this some degree request from Mr lillquist or the council about the equity scores and so that information has been

included in the packet uh will mentioned here as well there's an item later in the afternoon for an emergency declaration related to the electric avenue bridge that project was previously included in the six-year tip and it continues to be in there to replace that bridge uh knowing that that's got some interest from the community lately but with that I'll turn to Joel for more so um wanted to note briefly um that the memo provided in the packet uh summarized the the the comments that we heard during the public hearing on June 3rd and then we also did provide background on the 10 projects that were identified as benefiting vulnerable vulnerable populations based on using the social um vulnerability index that uh has been developed by um our Planning and Development Department we also did as part of that evaluation um of look at those projects not just because they were approximate to those um areas of the community but also um you know in some cases we might do a project that would be more impactful or harmful to a a community um certainly something that has happened in the past is construction of Transportation projects that benefit other areas are put in areas that are more vulnerable but in this case we felt like all these projects were um you know specifically uh moving people and a a benefit for mobility in those particular areas so um with that I'm happy to answer any questions any members council member list uh not a question well maybe a question too but uh first of

all uh this is an excellent map it summarizes a great deal of information in a very useful way because we do think about uh Equity issues geographically and so it's really nice to see the projects located the equity uh issue I assume by the way that a higher vulnerability score means greater need and a greater need to redress Equity concerns so dark blue are the areas we want to benefit okay I understand it correctly that will that map be included in the tip itself now if not I think it ought to be okay the the the implant what is attached to the exhibit but currently does not include that map specifically I would just request it to be added as an appendix or something I think that might be useful I know that I go and I I try not to save the tip over and over again but I download the darn thing over and over again and I clear my drive and so it'd be nice if I know where I could go and get this uh when I go to that web page thank you Council Anderson thank you um just as a um update so I can put on my calendar the Holly Street uh we're gathering information on those changes and I believe it's going to come back for review in the summer do we have an idea of the date that that will come back to us when that uh gathering information I know my inboxes had plenty of Correspondence about what's happening down there and some of the concerns about the street Aries and the ability to make that turn down by um wild buffalo so I'd like to be able to pinpoint a little bit more my

response to the public when we will be reviewing that again so I think we are scheduled to do the our our next round of traffic counts more towards the end of August September time frame so we if if we were to come back to council it would be after that that period of time frame uh with regard to the street Aries or the street cafes we are in in conversations with some of those folks uh and I last I uh I the potential is there for change to that particular block later this fall but we want to be sensitive to restaurants who are at the height of their busy season uh and and we we are we have made a number of changes along that Holly Street pilot the the intent of that pilot was to have it functioning for for a longer period of time we often find that when we Implement a new change in traffic pattern particularly when the construction is kind of acute like it was with this nature uh that that heightens the the concerns we've made a number of changes along Holly Street over the last month or so uh we may making additional changes as we develop through the pilot program uh but the the next data point the next gather point and and if there's a need to come back to council will be later this later this summer like September October maybe a November time frame uh but the idea is to leave that pilot in place uh through 2012 uh through the end of this year and into 2025 uh and we'll note that in the six-year tip there is a future project to make adjustments or changes to that so so

the the changes to Holly Street if we were to see them um would come with that future project implementation uh and and as that project envisions extending that project from L Street all the way to Broadway uh and so be much broader scope as to how that might factor into that we are seeing some benefits for the project as we are seeing some slower speeds admittedly that has the benefit to our pedestrians who are needing to cross the street uh so while the bike lane is kind of the visible aspect of the Holly Street project uh A major benefit is that we are seeing uh a reduction and speeds which are of benefit to pedestrians trying to cross the streets well just as a quick followup I do really appreciate the additional signage that has been showing up um I think that's a great Improvement for assisting people with the transition so kudos for the the team for getting those up in a um timely manner any other questions mic on move approval okay um so we have a motion to adopt the resolution as presented in the packet um and just noting that again so this is a resolution of the city of Bellingham Washington adopting the 2025 to 2030 Transportation Improvement program there's no further discussion I'll call the question all in favor we'll say I I I any opposed or abstentions seeing none that passes 30 and I'll bring forward that recommendation this evening thank you very much council member list yeah this is public works and transportation related you mentioned the Streeter I've

been tracking on that issue I have a communication with uh uh Darby from the planning department uh there was a a 2023 streetery assessment and she indicates that that will be brought forward to the city council for discussion po proposed possible policy changes based upon the feedback received over the last couple years and they're looking at August or September anything further for committee anything from staff no okay thank you very much um with that we are adjourned and I'll send it back to you president Hamill okay uh the the council will um reconvene at 11:30 in the Flag Plaza for the juneth uh celebration thank you [Music]