June 9, 2025 — Transportation Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:03] Okay. All right. Hello, everyone. We're here for our June 9th meeting of the Transportation Advisory Board. We have 3 members present, so I will call the meeting to order our chair. Trini Willerson is not available to attend tonight, so as Vice Chair, I will run the meeting. My name is Darcy kitching so Sydney Schieffer is our technical host this evening, Sydney, would you like to review the rules of the virtual meeting? Please. Yeah. thank you for attending the Transportation Advisory Board meeting to strike a balance between meaningful, transparent engagement and online security. The following rules will be applied for this meeting. This meeting has been called to conduct the business of the city of Boulder. Activities that disrupt delay or otherwise interfere with the meeting are prohibited, the time for speaking or asking questions will be limited to 3 min. No person shall speak except when recognized by the person presiding, and no person shall speak for longer than the time allotted. Each person shall register to speak at the meeting, using that person's real name. Any person believed to be using a name other than the one they are commonly known by, will not be permitted to speak at the meeting.

[1:23] No video will be permitted except for city officials, employees, and invited speakers or presenters, all others will participate by voice. The person presiding at the meeting shall enforce these rules by muting anyone who violates any rule. The Q. And a function is enabled, and it will be used for individuals to communicate with the host. It should only be used for technical online platform related questions. Only the host and individuals designated by the host will be permitted to share their screen. During this meeting. Great thanks very much, Sydney. We are going to shift a few items around on the agenda this evening while we wait for another member who can

[2:02] help to approve the main minutes. So we're going to skip 1st to the State legislative update presented by Jean Sanson. Jean, you ready. I am ready. Thank you, Darcy. Can you hear me? Thank you very much. Give me just a minute to share my screen. Sure. Hmm. Great. We can see that. Thanks. Oh, perfect, alright and just one more thing, and I'll be ready to go. Hi! Good evening. I'm Jean Sanson. I'm the city's transportation and mobility policy advisor, and each year I work alongside Carl Castillo, the city's chief policy advisor to track and advocate for those State bills that help advance our city's legislative priorities, and many of which address transportation initiatives. So this year the Colorado General Assembly adjourned in early May.

[3:19] and the results, as they relate to the transportation bills I would describe as mixed. So over the next few slides, I'm going to share highlights from a handful of transportation bills covering E-bikes, transportation mode choice, Rtd reform, safety project funding. And then I'm going to end with a quick recap of the state budget as it relates to transportation funding. So, to begin with, as we know, across the street, the number of people riding e-bikes for transportation and for recreation has exploded. and with all the advantages that have come. With the adoption of this new mode of travel comes the potential pitfalls of this changing technology. And what we're seeing across the state are vehicles that may look like e-bikes at 1st glance, but are actually closer to electric motorcycles with higher motor power and speeds that can only be reached with a throttle, and these products are often marketed and sold

[4:18] as e-bikes with an e-bike mode, but they also feature things like off-road or sport mode, and they technically exceed the legal definitions of an E-bike. And I know we've all seen them across town. and you know this creates confusion for consumers, especially for parents of children as well as law enforcement, land managers and other road, and quite frankly trail users. So in response to this House Bill 1197 was passed to ensure that there's a clear distinction between e-bikes and other electric vehicles, and the law addresses. How these vehicles specifically can be marketed or sold. So here's what it does. It's several things. So e-bike classifications.

[5:00] So 1st defined in 2017, Colorado continues to recognize 3 classes. Class one, which is pedal, assist up to 20 miles per hour. Class 2, which is throttle, assist also up to 20 miles per hour, and class 3 pedal. Assist up to 28 miles per hour. So this hasn't changed, and the bill also introduces multiple mode e-bikes which can switch between classes and require compliance with each mode's rules, so that relates to classifications. Next are labeling requirements. So, starting in January of 2027, all e-bikes must have a label showing their class, their top speed and motor wattage, and for multiple mode e-bikes the label must indicate the highest class they can operate in ensuring. Riders know their bikes, capabilities regarding safety standards. This is an important one. Lithium Ion. Batteries and e-bikes must now be certified by an accredited lab to ensure that safety and to ensure safety, and to prevent hazards, like fires or malfunctions

[6:04] regarding the sale and advertising. It's now illegal to sell or market a vehicle as an E-bike. If it doesn't meet the State's definitions, which I covered earlier and misrepresenting a vehicle as an E-bike is now considered a deceptive trade practice under Colorado law. The city of Boulder lent our support to this bill, and we're glad to see its adoption, as it's just one more tool in the toolbox for the continued adoption of e-bikes and the promotion of E-bike safety. So we're very pleased with that bill. Switching gears if you will. The progression of this next Bill Senate Bill 30 through the Legislature this year is an interesting but not an uncommon story with the bill sponsors 1st wanting to require local governments to adopt mode choice goals for increasing trips made by biking, walking, carpooling, and public transit like we have here in the city of Boulder. In our transportation master plan.

[7:07] So this requirement was met with pushback from local governments concerned with the administrative and cost burdens, the State would be imposing on them. And so, after hearing these concerns, sponsors spent months negotiating with the Denver Regional Council of Government and the Colorado Municipal League to amend the bill. So, as it is as it's signed, the bill now requires the Colorado Department of Transport Transportation or Cdot and Mpos, like Dr. Cogg, to create a quote transit and Active Transportation Project inventory by July of next year. and that inventory should identify gaps and list projects that would improve safety and connectivity for transit biking and walking. What this means for us in boulder is that we will now simply be submitting a list of planned active transportation and transit projects to Dr. Cog for them to complete their regional inventory. So, while local governments are no longer required to

[8:02] dot mo choice goals, the bill does encourage them to do so. and one other component of the bill to note is that Cdot and Mpos must define and separately report road capacity and repair projects, and this is in to advance, or this is to effectively increase transparency and better assess progress on climate, safety, and mobility goals, which has been somewhat hard to decipher among some of the state and regional plans. So, while some may perceive this as a somewhat watered down Bill, at least inventorying what you have to understand where you need to go is still an important step toward achieving the Governor's transportation. Vision 2035. So that is the recap on the transportation mode choice. Next up we have Senate Bill 161. This, similar to an Rtd. Reform Bill that was introduced in the Legislative

[9:00] last year, but it fizzled out, mainly due to issues with some proposed changes to the Rtd. Board composition that met quite a bit of resistance. The bill that passed this year was in many ways the results of a series of meetings that the bill sponsors held over the last year, and I believe that Darcy was participating in many of those they were held with Rtd. Riders, board members, staff and other stakeholders to brainstorm ways, to improve the agency's operations and generally to increase ridership. It's a big bill. The 23 page bill reflects this input. As I mentioned, our staff participated, and it generally makes broad reforms to improve Rtd's performance. Governance and transparency by aligning planning with State climate goals enhancing accountability through strategic plans and public dashboards and strengthening workforce retention policy. The bill also authorizes new service partnerships, modernizes fare programs, including the ecopass program establishes an Rtd accountability committee to evaluate, to evaluate governance and funding strategies. So it's a pretty long list.

[10:11] And all of these changes are in service of creating a better, more useful, and dependable Rtd. Which is critical for the region and quite frankly for our community. Here's an important statistic that Chris Haglund shared with me that, I think, really drives the point home for us with over 60% of jobs in boulder being filled by non-resident employees. And these employees living further and further away. The one-way work trip distance for non-residents is now longer than what the average boulderite drives for all trips during the day. So while we've seen significant reductions in single occupancy, vehicle trips by boulder residents, non-resident employees, single occupant, vehicle use has not changed, and the key to changing this is providing more frequent, reliable, and affordable transit service. And so we are very much tied to the success of a reformed and modernized Rtd.

[11:08] so again, lots of components of this bill, and happy to answer answer more specific questions about it. When I wrap. let's move on to the next bill. The next Transportation Bill is one that unfortunately did not advance in this year's legislative session. But I think it's important to continue to highlight, as I suspect we'll see it again in another form or fashion, in a future legislative session. House Bill 13 0, 3 would have imposed a $3 fee per year on each vehicle in every insurance policy that's auto or vehicle insurance policy issued in the State. This would have generated approximately 16 million dollars in new State revenue every year that would have been put in a newly created crash prevention enterprise at Cdot. The enterprise would have spent 70% of that revenue on grants to local governments for vulnerable road user infrastructure and 30% on infrastructure to reduce vehicle collisions with wildlife.

[12:09] The bill was stymied by similar objections as in past years about the overall impact to Coloradans with excessive fees and the regressive nature of the fee. Possible amendments considered opt out options or smaller fees for people with lower incomes. But ultimately these solutions would have been pretty difficult to implement or wouldn't generate enough revenue to be worthwhile. So, as a result, the sponsors committed to working another year to finding a way to increase vulnerable road user infrastructure in the State. So I would say, stay tuned, and we'll be continuing to advocate for a solution in the coming years. And then, last, but not least, is the State budget so overshadowing much of the legislative session. This year was the major issue of addressing a 1.2 billion dollars budget shortfall for the fiscal year 2025, 26. This gap was primarily driven by rising Medicaid costs and constitutional spending limits under Taber.

[13:10] These tight physical constraints will have impacts to transportation across the street, across the State. Undoubtedly, for example, the Joint Budget Committee approved a 71 million dollars. One-time sweep from the multimodal Options fund to help close the budget gap. But Cdot expects that future revenues will backfill this loss. and, fortunately for our community, Boulder has already spent the multimodal option funds awarded to us for projects such as the Broadway and table mesa and region intersection improvement projects. Among others, however, we know that other communities will see their multimodal option funds clawed back. Unfortunately, lawmakers also cut 64 million dollars from the State Highway Fund in the 2025 fiscal year, and another 50 million in the following fiscal year money that will eventually be repaid by 2033. But the cuts will mainly impact Cdot's 10 Year Plan for capital projects, and that plan represents hundreds of planned and ongoing infrastructure initiatives throughout the State.

[14:15] We're currently in conversations with Cdot to understand how this impacts the update to their 10 Year Plan and specifically projects of importance to us like continuing to invest in safety improvements along our regional state highways, such as Co. 7. But we do not know the annual. Oh, but we don't know the precise annual forecast, but we have been told that they will be approximately half of what they had been in Cdot's Budget for prior years of the 10 Year Plan to keep the the bad news going. Unfortunately, the Joint Budget Committee also opted to eliminate funding for the revitalizing main streets program, a funding source that we in the city had previously tapped into to help fund projects like the improvements that we see in Colorado Avenue.

[15:02] So to state the obvious. While these changes help balance the budget, they will also limit funding for local transportation programs, which is why exploring ideas like a local transportation maintenance fee are so important as we look to diversify transportation funding within boulder. and with that I am happy to answer any questions you might have. Great thanks so much, Jean. I'm actually really glad that we got to start with this, because I think it'll help inform the rest of our conversations tonight. Just based on priorities. Anybody have any questions or comments for Jean. I have one so, and and maybe Darcy, you would have the answer to this. But this the Senate bill, 25, 1, 61. The Rtd. Reform. Talks about enhancing transparency. And I looked at the text, and it sounds like, you know, they're requiring the the development of these dashboards. But it wasn't clear to me whether the the data that is expressly called for is system, wide data or route specific data

[16:13] which you know to me would be is a critical difference. Right? They can. Just. There's a lot of useful information that just would get homogenized if it were system wide. But if you're, you know, wanting to know about fare, recovery, and that those kinds of things you'd probably want that in route specific format. And I didn't know whether there was some legislative history or something else that speaks to that. Yeah. Sure Jean. Oh, yeah. And actually, you know, Sydney is here as well, and she spends a lot of time looking at this data. She says she also might be able to help. But the intent is that it would be route specific. It's very difficult for us, as a local jurisdiction, to attain that information related to like things like on time, performance, ridership, boardings and alightings, etc. So the intent is that it would be route specific.

[17:07] But again, to your point, like the devil's in the details, and as we follow the progression of these dashboards with Rtd, it may mean that, like many of these bills the following year. Fine tuning needs to be made. Okay. I was also wondering if if any thought was given in this, the process of developing this to rewarding communities that have established bus. Only lanes with higher levels of service sort of create an incentive structure for Rtd to. you know, treat us right when we're when we're when we're developing infrastructure that is meant to facilitate. you know, commuting. Yeah, that's a great question. I wouldn't say that there's a formula necessarily to incentivize additional service for those communities that provide transit priority. But I will say that in all of the projects that we do do to provide transit priority, we work closely with Rtd. To understand how

[18:15] we can enhance the transit that's currently running on that corridor. Take Broadway, for example, continue to increase flat iron flier service along that corridor or Arapahoe. For that matter, as we add bus only lanes. It's a pretty complicated formula for how Rtd sets their performance standards. And I think that's a really interesting idea that I think that we should keep in the mix. Yeah. Good question, Michael. I'm especially excited about the spread of the neighborhood ecopass program and the promise of bringing neighborhood ecopasses to more people through focusing on multifamily developments. And I'm really excited about that. And we have some fun plans for that

[19:03] to help promote that part of this bill. So anybody else have any comments on the legislation for from or questions for Jean. No, okay, not seeing any. Thank you so much, Jean. I really appreciate it. Oh, Michael. Sorry. On the electrical assisted bicycle requirements. Legislation. I saw, you know this. I don't know if if Tab provided input or you know, kind of what the history was on this, but I'm wondering if some thought was given to the fact that some of the labeling that's described. I'm I'm just wondering, like most of the labeling I have on. My bike has just fallen off. Is there? Was there some thought to making these like making the labeling more or less permanent in some way. On the bike itself rather than in the materials when in the purchase. I know that this is really focused on the purchase.

[20:00] Oh, okay. Of those bikes and sort of the the process of you know, when you buy an e-bike, it needs to be fully disclosed what that E-bike can do I misunderstood that. Then. So yeah, it's just about like the advertising and sale point of sale. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So it's the point of sale. Got it. Okay, never mind. Sorry about that. Good question. Er now. Hey? So I had a question just in just for for my own knowledge. these any of these bills were were any of these bills drafted by the city of Boulder, or or which ones, I guess, were like supported by the city of Boulder, like, I know, like. I think it's Carl, plus Carl Castillo that is the one of the city's lobbyists like how involved was the city in I guess lobbying for this for these bills, or were there any of them that were like drafted by your department? I was just curious.

[21:06] Yeah, that's a great question. So Carl Castillo has helped us to testify on at least a vulnerable road user bill in this legislative session, and we do. We have taken a position of support on all of the bills that I shared with you this evening. What that means is that we provide input and feedback to the sponsors of the bill. So basically the drafters. And we were pretty successful in getting some changes made. Like, for example, Darcy, you mentioned the Neighborhood Ecopress program one of the the last additions to that bill, the 161 bill was to modernize the way that the neighborhood ecopass program pricing is structured to streamline it and make it more efficient and affordable for neighborhoods. So it's a lot of back and forth. It's a lot of conversation with the bill sponsors, did we? The city of Boulder actually draft the content of the bill. We did not, but we did help to shape many of them.

[22:12] Yeah, that. And we were we were consulted directly on the on 161 because of Boulder's leadership in the neighborhood ecopass kind of program boulder actually has the most neighborhood ecopass holders in the entire region. And so we were consulted as kind of experts in that in that area and our leadership in that area did inform the the content of the bill. I see. I see. Okay. And Hernan. It's such a good question, because another another way that we advocate for these bills is through our regional or in statewide organizations like the Colorado Municipal League and the Northwest Mayors and Commissioners coalition. So our elected officials are part of these larger organizations that also take positions. And so our elected officials will oftentimes provide positions of support, either through Dr. Cog or Cml. Or our Mcc. Amongst other organizations.

[23:13] Okay, okay, that's good to know. Thank you. Thank you. Great questions. Yeah, thanks again. Gene. Really appreciate your. Person, you. Bye-bye. Yeah, so we can keep all that in mind as we go forward. Okay, so we're going to get back on track. And we're going to go ahead and go back to approval of the May minutes. But I just wanted to announce that because there was an error in the zoom link for public comment this evening. I want to let everyone know that that's been fixed. And so if anyone would like to participate via the zoom link. you can go ahead and connect that way, and we will get to public comment right after our discussion of the the May minutes, so we'll get back on track in that way. Okay, so the next item is approval of the May minutes. Not all of the tab members were able to attend the May meeting, so only those who were in attendance, or who have listened to or watched the posted recording and emailed the Tab secretary about having done that

[24:19] is eligible to vote on approval of the May minutes? Has everyone who was able to attend the May Tab meeting and had a chance, had a chance to review them. That would be Michael and Ernan. Mike. Did you review the meeting and email the top secretary. I I I watch parts of the video, but not all of it. Okay. So it's really only Ernan and Michael. Were you able to review the minutes. Me! No! Oh, I'm sorry, Michael and Ernan. Yes. Okay. Great. Do you have any corrections? I do not. Okay. Nope.

[25:01] Great do you want to make a motion to approve the minutes. And move to approve the May minutes. And. Okay, all in favor. Raise your hand and say, Aye, Hi. Great anyone opposed. All right, the motion passes 2 to 0. Thank you. Excellent. Okay, great. So now we will move into public comment. So tonight we have a public hearing regarding the 2026 to 2031 transportation capital improvements program or sip. you'll be given a chance to comment during the public hearing. So please save your thoughts about that matter until that time of the agenda. Otherwise we welcome your comments on anything pertaining to transportation and mobility in the city of Boulder right now. So please use the raise hand function on your screen to be recognized, and state your full name. You'll have 3 min to speak. So, Sydney, do we have anyone wishing to speak.

[26:10] Yeah, Darcy, we have one, Lynn. I'm going to give you permission to talk, and then, if you can unmute yourself, I'll start your time. Yeah, this is Lynn Siegel. This you've got me in the middle like I couldn't patch in. And I'm I'm at a Una meeting, and I'm making this great pasta with scapes, you know. Scapes are only good now. So, but I have frozen ones, and Fennel. and just an Alfredo and Parmesan. So I'm like in the middle of all these things. But 1st of all, free, free Gaza, free Palestine! That's the best thing you can do, as the tab is. Make your advice to the Council. because we spend a hundred or 10.4 million bucks on this crap when we could be spending it on so that I don't have to ride my bike down Spruce Street

[27:08] and 6 with ruts and ruts and ruts. I'm a high speed bike rider high speed. This is this is not recreation, folks. This is serious getting from one meeting to another, from one thing to the next. I need less frigging potholes and less danger, and less like the bus system like. For example, I'm trying to go up to Chautauqua for a memorial service for this climbing friend. And then for a history historic Boulder Film Festival about demoing, you know, historic homes and really interesting stuff. And I've got to get up there from the Jewish festival, which I already was a clusterfuck. because there's so many people there which is very good. I support the hostages. I'm pro-palestinian, but I missed my thing at trident. So I'm a busy person. I need to really cruise on my frigging bike, and when I look up carefully on the site for park to Park Shuttle, you know.

[28:19] I expect to be able to exactly know where the bus stop is. Well, there's there's only silver on one side, the side facing west, and that's the direction I was coming to from the Jewish festival, and from the other side you can see that it's a bus stop, and I knew it was right there, but I couldn't see where there was a bus stop. So could you get enough money from the Israeli fund of that 10 point 4 million to put a bus stop sign on the other side. You know what I'm saying. Do you understand? Like it's aluminum on one side. It's it doesn't show from both sides. People might be coming in different modes. They might be walking. Why don't they want to see it from one side from, you know, versus the other. Also Arapahoe. I'm turning right.

[29:12] and there it's so congested in boulder that you know I'm crossing the street half at a time on my butt. I'm going to get killed one of these times, and you aren't going to have to listen to me anymore. Thanks. Lynn. Thank you, Lynn. I don't see any other hands. Okay, all right. Thank you very much. So now, the next item is, Our public hearing on the 2026 to 2031 transportation capital Improvements program. Tab has heard information on this topic in April and in May, and will be asked to make a recommendation to city Council tonight. We will hear Staff's report, ask clarifying questions and then open it up for feedback from the public again. You'll be given 3 min to address the board on this topic, after which Tab will deliberate and form a recommendation to council. Valerie, would you like to introduce this item.

[30:22] I'm gonna hand it over to Garrett to to go straight away. For part 3 of 3. Thanks. Okay, great thanks very much. Take it away. Gary. Good evening. My name is Garrett Slater. I'm the Senior engineering manager for capital projects for the Transportation and Mobility Department, and it's good to be with you again this evening to talk about the capital improvement program here that we are recommending for 2026 to 2020 to 2031, and the information that you will see this evening will look very similar to what we presented last time. You might recall that meeting. 2 of 3 was to provide a draft overview, and this evening we are presenting the recommended overview of the capital improvement program, and there have not really been

[31:11] many changes to what we are recommending. So if it looks familiar and the materials in the memo, and what you're seeing this evening, that's because it is very similar. so I am joined by Karen Steiner again this evening, as well as Lindsay Mers, who will be providing some of the content presentation as well. And so we will again briefly review the difference between the capital improvement program and the operating budget, our funding situation, the review of the programs and projects, and then next steps and have the public hearing portion of the meeting. So again, the reminder that the capital improvement program, the primary purpose, is the way that we make investments in taking care of the system that we have, and whether that is, infrastructure, asset management, and maintenance, or be it safety, improvements, or operations, and in general efficiency all the way to to the lower

[32:20] priorities that are identified in the transportation master Plan. The capital improvement program is how we make advances, whereas the operational budget is where we take care of the routine, day-to-day type of activities in the department. So all of the investments that we choose to make within the capital improvement program are to be consistent with our city sustainability, equity, and resiliency framework, the Sara framework, and which they must be safe, healthy, and socially thriving, livable, economically sustainable. Excuse me, environmentally sustainable, economically vital and livable.

[33:03] So the cip that we are recommending as staff for you to recommend to planning board and city council this evening represents a total of 102 million and and total investment, including 27 million in grants. The average per year fluctuates considerably due to the timing of larger projects and the programs component comprises approximately 9 million dollars per year. And so I will now hand it off to Karen Steiner, our Senior budget analyst for the Transportation and Mobility department, to talk about our funding. Hi, everyone! I'm Karen Steiner. I'm glad to be here this evening to talk about the funding for our capital improvement program. Our capital improvement program for transportation and mobility is funded out of 3 different funds. Our largest fund is our Transportation fund. Next is our Transportation Development Fund, which is funded by development and excise taxes, and

[34:14] occasionally has cip projects in it related to growth and development around the city. Our 3rd fund is the Boulder Junction fund. We currently don't have any projects, but when we head into phase 2 of Boulder Junction Development, we will most likely have some projects there. But, like I mentioned. Our transportation fund is the largest source of funding for our capital improvement program. The graph on the left shows the breakout of the entire cip for transportation and mobility based on funding source. You can see the large blue section of that pie chart that represents 70% of our revenue is our sales and use taxes.

[35:04] The 2 next highest revenue sources for our capital improvement program are highway users, tax fund and our Grant funds. and then, last, the 2 smallest pieces of the pie for our revenue side of things on the cip are miscellaneous, and our development and excise fees that I mentioned, that are associated with our Transportation Development Fund. On the next slide we will focus on the sales and use tax, which, as I mentioned, is the largest portion of our revenue for our cip funding at 70%. We have recently, as you may have heard, had some changes in our sales and use tax projections, and the chart that you see here shows different sales and use tax scenarios.

[36:03] The yellow line which for 2025 was projected 179 million of sales and use tax throughout the entire city, not just associated with transportation and mobility. That yellow line represents our original forecast that was performed last summer and given recent changes in the Federal landscape uncertainty with tariffs and multiple factors, we have seen a significant decrease in our sales and use tax. So when we we well, we partner with Cu boulder economists to work on the sales and use tax projections. and during this spring in April and May. As we were working on these projections with the economist from Cu Boulder.

[37:04] there was a 3.2 reduction in our sales and use tax for 2025 projection and also a decrease for 2026. So when we're working with the economists from Cu, we typically look at an optimistic scenario and a pessimistic scenario. And then we kind of land. Somewhere in the middle you can see our optimistic scenario. In this case the blue line is still 2 million dollars less than our original forecast, and our pessimistic scenario was 7 million dollars less down at 172 million for the forecast that we have gone with for the time being is a mix of the optimistic and the pessimistic scenario, 35% optimistic, 65% pessimistic. And that is the green line. So that is our revised sales and use tax forecast the implications of this. As I mentioned.

[38:06] it's our largest source of funding for the transportation Fund. And so it impacts our ability for new cip projects and agility within the transportation fund that decrease in projection for 2025 represents 1.1 million reduction in sales and use tax revenue for 2025. There are still a lot of uncertainties, and, as you are all aware. Sometimes it feels like things change on a day by day basis. Our plan is to work with the economists from Cu Boulder again in late June early July for a revised forecast. So things are still up in the air, and we're definitely keeping a close eye on on what our sales and use taxes are doing, because this has a great impact on the city's ability to fund

[39:04] different projects. So the next slide I will shift to talking about summary of our existing grants. As I mentioned, typically, our grants make up about 10% of our revenue and some of the existing programs that we currently have grants for transportation projects include our Federal transportation improvement program. That is through Dr. Cog. It's a major source of our external funds, and we utilize the Federal transportation improvement program and cost share to really leverage our dollars. And so oftentimes we match 20% city dollars with 80% Federal transportation improvement program dollars. So we're able to really leverage and stretch our dollars to do more.

[40:01] A few of the other programs that we currently have grants are with the highway safety improvement program, transportation alternatives, program. safe routes to school and the safe streets for all Grant. So now that we have talked about the revenue sources related to our cip. I want to transition to talking about the expense side of our capital improvement program. So this graph is really showing on the expense side of things, our purchasing power. If we look at the blue line, that's an example. If one, there was either no inflation and everything remained flat, or if our budgets were always keeping up with inflation. So if inflation was 3%, our budgets going up by 3%. And so that power of the dollar stays the same in that situation.

[41:03] But what happens when our budgets are not keeping up with inflation is what we're seeing in the orange line with a example of 5% inflation. where, if inflation is 5% and our budgets are remaining steady and not increasing over 7 years, the dollar that we were able to purchase with in year one erodes to about 77 cents in year 7. Again, with this example, if inflation was 10% and our budgets were remaining flat. That dollar, that purchasing power erodes to about 55 cents in year 7. The next slide is also another way of looking at our declining purchasing power of the dollar. So the the previous slide was talking about

[42:03] inflation in general. This slide specifically talks about the Colorado construction cost index. And I know there's a lot here on this table. First, st I want you to focus on the green line that is showing the annual increase based on the Colorado construction cost increase. So, for example, in 2019, construction inflation went up by 5%. And then in 2020, it went up by an additional 3%. So those numbers are just the individual year. So you kind of have to add that on so 5% in 2019 plus 3% in 2020, 2021. That was an additional 20. Excuse me, 17%. And when you look at the the additive impact over all the years of the Colorado construction cost index.

[43:03] What we were able to purchase with a hundred dollars in 2019, with the cost of the construction cost index in 2024 cost us $178. And so it's a very substantial impact on how far our dollars go. And all of this to say that even though we have been increasing our budgets by a small amount each year, and you will see that again this year, that, especially in our capital improvement maintenance programs, we're seeing increases. But we're not keeping up with inflation or the Colorado construction cost increase. And so it just limits our ability to be able to do other projects and enhancements across the system. And last, I just want to talk about the breakdown of our cip funding on the the types of

[44:07] items that it funds. You'll see here in this chart that almost 40 million represents our multimodal projects and 55 million or 54% of our total cip are multimodal programs. Those programs are ongoing maintenance programs. While our projects are one time projects on a specific area of our transportation system. and with that I will hand it off to look a little closer at our capital maintenance programs. Hi, everyone. So my name is Lindsay Mers. I am a civil engineering manager in the Cip Workgroup. and I'll be talking about the different programs. And so this table lists, the overall view of the recommended allocation of funding to the various programs for the 2026 to 2031 transportation cip and the programs listed on here are the pavement management program, sidewalk and pedestrian programs, the multi-use path, Greenways Bridge asset management

[45:17] vision 0 with the Pmp integration and our streetlight maintenance program. We're going to pull a few of these out, and I'm going to step through them just in a little more detail. And so the 1st program is the pavement management program or the Ppe. And this program keeps our streets safe and in good condition. The program maintains about 300 miles of streets, and inspects all of them every 3 years, and these inspections help the city understand the current condition, and then we use that to plan where future repairs are needed, and so from spring to fall the prioritized streets receive payment treatments based on their condition. So we can have preservation methods like the crack seal and the chip

[46:01] chip seal which are used for streets that are actually in good shape. And then there's more intensive treatments like mill and overlay, or full reconstruction when the streets are in poor condition. and so the Pnp also supports other city efforts like Vision 0 and the Cam or the core. R. 2 network program by including safety upgrades, for example, like bike lanes or better sidewalks into the annual street, resurfacing projects and a recent example of this is the Moorhead Avenue, which was resurfaced last year there was striping that reconfigured and created wider, I think, buffered bike lanes, and then there they added some Median islands to help reduce speeds. and so to decide which streets to fix. 1st the Pmp. Uses something called the pavement condition index or the Pci, and this rates streets on a scale of one to 100. And so if a street gets a score of 75, or above. It's in good condition. Maybe no major repairs 45 to 75, or that mid range needs some structural work, some structural repair, and then below 45, it more than likely would need full replacement.

[47:10] And the city we try to. We aim to try to keep our average rating at the 75 or higher, which is a good condition. And so the payment management program is identified in the Tmp as a priority, one investment. And so next, the city has several programs where we focus on improving our sidewalks and pedestrian safety. And this includes the pedestrian facilities enhancement where we're building the missing sidewalk links. And we're connecting enhancements to crossing treatments. And then there's the pedestrian facilities repair and replacement program. And then the sidewalk maintenance program and so the sidewalk maintenance budget funds. The miscellaneous sidewalk repair program which shares sidewalk repairs anywhere in the city with the property owners, pay for half of the repair for the cost of the sidewalks that are adjacent to their property and the pedestrian facilities. Budget is an ongoing funding program that includes the installation of missing sidewalk links as well as the pedestrian crossing and safety treatments.

[48:14] and these crossing treatments are prioritized citywide, and they could include things like the Median Refuge Islands, crosswalk, lighting signs, neck downs. pedestrian signals. And so these programs are identified in the Tmp as a priority, one investment and the various implementation locations are prioritized where we use condition level. And then program guidance documents as well. And so next are our multi-use path programs. And these include the multi-use path enhancement budget and the multi-use path, capital, maintenance budget. And so these programs are dedicated. We want to enhance, and we want to maintain our current 80 plus miles of path within the city, so that we can meet all of the needs from the pedestrians and bicyclists that are using these paths.

[49:02] So the maintenance budget is charged with providing our major maintenance of the multi-use path network. And these can include activities like concrete panel replacements. And we'll do flood proofing of underpasses. Sometimes we'll redeck pedestrian bridges. So that's what we'll do with the maintenance budget. the enhancement budget. We use this budget to expand our path system where we're either building new paths or sometimes we'll even convert our existing sidewalks into paths. And so this budget is currently funding the Belmont Multi-use Path Project, which is a can corridor project. And so these multi-use path programs are identified in the Tmp as a priority. One investment and the projects are prioritized. We use condition level pedestrian bridge inspection reports and then our maintenance frequency. And then we have our bridge asset management program. So this funds repairs for around 300 major and minor bridges and structures that are aging or even near the end of their life.

[50:07] And so this funding provides the ability to complete some of the capital repairs that are not typically eligible for the grant funding with the goal of extending the service life and reducing or even avoiding total replacement. That's always our hope is we don't have to do full replacement, and so repairs can include lining existing culvert pipes or applying waterproofing membranes on existing bridge structures or completing structural repairs to concrete and steel elements. And you can see this on the bottom picture, where there's a collapsed wing wall on 48th Street Bridge over Goose Creek, and that's where we are able to just do a partial reconstruction of that wall. and so, if structures, though, do require full replacement, and this would be shown on the upper image, which is the 15th Street box culvert. This budget could refund those replacements as well. And then, just to know minor and major structures aren't always the commonly see roadway bridges and the pedestrian bridges which are easy to see. But it could be all the box culverts and pipes that are under the roads that

[51:13] typically some people don't see. And so this is identified in the Tmp as a priority, one investment. And we use the bridge health index to prioritize this work. And this is just a bridge performance measure which rates the overall health of the structure, and it uses a rating of one to 10, and so then at the end. Finally, at the end of 24, the city acquired all the streetlights from excel, and we're now responsible for maintaining them. And so the streetlight capital maintenance program will fund this work. And so, as we transition from excel to city management, we're definitely finding more issues than expected, such as damaged or corroded poles, and they need repair or even replacement. And so to keep up, we have to expand our maintenance efforts and ensure that there's funding to respond quickly. As we're finding these problems and so on the slide, you can see a map of the current conversion progress. And so this program was also identified in the Tmp as a priority, one investment. And we're currently working on creating an inventory of the streetlight conditions. So that all of this work can be prioritized as well.

[52:20] And that's for the program. So thank you. All right. So now I'm going to walk through some of the projects that are included in the 26 to 31 cip. Before doing that I did want to highlight that immediately after this agenda item, we have James Smith and Daniel Sheeter and Lucy O'sullivan on deck to do a deeper dive in the pavement management program and mobility enhancements. Lindsay gave it a light touch. They're going to do a deeper dive to talk about the exciting work that has been taking place over the the last year, and

[53:03] what lies ahead. So this table, of course, was in your memo as an attachment, and it provides a summary of the projects that are forthcoming. And we'll talk about some of the projects that are representative of the cip one that is represented in each year of 26 to 31 is the the transportation improvement program, local match and Tmp implementation line item which provides the match for our Grant pursuits, such as tip and safe streets for all the transportation alternatives, program safe routes to school and highway safety improvement program type projects. So without that dedicated line. Item, we would have a much more difficult time. Being competitive with pursuit of grant opportunities. One of the key reasons the city of Boulder has been so successful over the many years of winning Grant funds is that we have this dedicated line item funding in our cip that allows us to be at the ready for grant pursuits, because typically between the call for a project

[54:16] grant opportunity and the time those applications are due is anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks, and a lot of local agencies have to go to their city council and request funding to be able to provide that local match. And we as an organization are proactive and have this dedicated line item, so that we are able to, as staff working in partnership with Tab, be ready to pursue those opportunities as they arise, and so super important for us to continue to maintain that as a line item going into the future. so a project that does not have grant funding in it, but is funded by the culture, community. Resiliency and safety tax is the Violet Avenue Bridge Project, which will be getting into design here in the coming weeks, and is directly adjacent to Primos Park. This is a really great example of a project that symbolizes the one boulder approach.

[55:14] and that we have partnership and funding from parks and recreation, and the utilities and floodway team, as well as transportation to deliver a comprehensive public works and benefit and enhancement project that consists of parks and recreation and floodway benefits and transportation benefits. And this work will provide another important connection to the 4 Mile Canyon Reach of Greenway, that started with work upstream at Broadway, and is happening currently at the 19th Street underpass which we visited on the Cip bicycle tour this past week, and we'll continue here at violets to make that important connection with this barrier that we have now along the Greenway.

[56:07] And so this is targeted to to go into design soon, and will continue into 2026, with construction slated for 26, and 27. The next project is our safe streets for all implementation of 30th Street to the diagonal, and this will come on the heels of the preliminary design and the seep recommendation that Tab will be meeting about 2 weeks from this evening, where the team will be coming and asking for your recommendation to City Council. We will be able to advance the designs that have been prepared for 30th Street, and so this project will, of course, provide multimodal enhancement and safety benefits for all users of the 30th Street corridor between Pearl and the diagonal and represents a 9.3 million dollars. Total project investment.

[57:06] The next safe streets for all Grant project is already underway in design. And that's final design of East Arapahoe or Colorado State Highway 7 from 28th Street to Foothills Parkway. So a reminder that we completed in partnership with Colorado Department of Transportation a 15% level design of East Arapahoe from 28th to the Eastern city limit. That concluded last year, and now we are underway with a final design between 28th and foothills, so that we are prepared to use our C streets for all money for an implementation project between 28th to 33rd Street, and that represents a 12 million dollars project with implementation scheduled for 27 to 28 timeframe. and of course this connects with the 30th Street corridor. It's the Southern terminus of the 30th Street preliminary design. So the recommendations for the design treatments from the 30 Street effort will be rolled into the East Arapaho final design, and that portion of the the work will carry forward in the East Arapaho Project.

[58:21] The Sumac Avenue project is one that will provide better connections and improved infrastructure for the Sumac Avenue corridor between Broadway and 19th Street is an important corridor because it provides access to crestview elementary where there is currently lacking pedestrian and bicycle separate facilities for students and parents and families trying to access the school, and it's an interesting one in that we are working with the residents and the landowners all along Sumac Avenue to participate in the funding because of annexation agreements that exist from a number of years ago, that we are working with various stakeholders to bring that funding to fruition, and we are scheduling this for construction in 2026.

[59:09] As design is underway and final design, it will be wrapping up this fall as an example of a larger capital maintenance project. The Folsom Bridge deck will be need needing to be replaced, and it's scheduled for 2028, and this is approximately a 5 million dollars project to replace the bridge deck, and you might look at that and say, Well, what's the problem? The images? And when I travel over the the bridge it looks fine to me. What you cannot see underneath the layer of asphalt is that the concrete decking below the asphalt is degrading at a rate much faster than we would typically see because of a chemical reaction that's occurring in the bridge superstructure here. So it's important. We take action before that chemical reaction spreads to the substructure, and we look to have to replace the entirety of the bridge structure, taking action sooner with the superstructure. Just the bridge deck allows us to preserve the

[60:17] remainder of the bridge without having to do a much more costly replacement, and that, like, I said, is scheduled for 2028. The next project is the South 30th design and construction effort, which will pick up the improvements from 30th and Colorado and head south toward Aurora, and this will provide the treatment that was recommended in the 30th and Colorado corridor study from 20 18, and of course that will provide separated bicycle facilities. We got to see what those facilities look like on the segment between Arapahoe and Colorado on our bike tour, and we're excited to see those similar types of treatments being implemented on the section south of Colorado, and this is made possible through a tip grant

[61:10] from Dr. Cog, and it's approximately 7.3 million total and scheduled for construction in 27 to 28 timeframe. So after this evening, the next steps are that the planning board in August will here and update and make a recommendation on the entirety of the citywide capital improvement program. So not just our department, but all the other departments, cips as well, and then Planning board will make a recommendation to City Council at that which study sessions will be held in September, and public hearings held in October. where both the capital improvement programs, as well as the operational budget for 2026 will be approved and moved forward by city council. So that's the immediate next steps. Your next step, as the tab for this evening is, of course, to hold the public hearing, where our request is for Tab to recommend the 26 to 31 cip to planning board and city council.

[62:23] Okay. great. Thank you so much. Garrett. Appreciate it very much. So now we will entertain clarifying questions from tab members. So tab members any clarifying questions specifically about the material that was just presented. I? I have a quick question. I think so pretty much every slide that that mentioned what the priority was. The Tmp priority was listed things as priority. One I'm wondering what priority 2 is, what the lower priority items are.

[63:05] All right, I will bring back the slide presentation. Yeah, actually, let me. Okay. okay, so be the priority 2, according to the transportation master plan. Shows the medium or priority. 2 level investments are operational improvements and enhancements of the transit pedestrian bicycle system, person carrying capacity improvements and electrification. So the highest is going to be focused on overall system operation as well as capital, maintenance, vision, 0 and travel safety. So those are much more system wide focused, whereas the medium priority, 2 or a little less macro and more micro focused in nature. And since the great majority of our cip right now is focused on the delivery of the

[64:11] core arterial network, which is a system-wide improvement. That's why it's generally falling in the priority. One investment category. So yeah. And it, actually, I'm glad you brought this this slide back, because this is the one that kind of prompted this question or this this cause, some confusion for me. So in the high priority category, you have vision 0 and travel safety. And then in the medium category. You have enhancement of the transit, pedestrian and bicycle system. So am I to interpret that the enhancements that we're talking about in the medium category are ones that don't relate to vision 0 and travel safety. I would say that

[65:00] it's it's think of it sort of as a spectrum of investment or a continuum. It's not like this binary, it is or it isn't, it's is it more great? A greater investment in that sort of a category is how you might view it, and so that it's not to say that a medium level investment wouldn't be focused on vision 0 or travel safety. It's just the the highest is is more focused in that area than than in 2. Okay. Ian, I'm asking, because as our financial picture grows increasingly grim, I'm wondering about trade-offs that we may have to make between maintenance and things that relate to safety. And so I just wanted to be sure that you know there's room in this 2019 tmp. To vigorously pursue improved safety. even as we have maintenance obligations. That we're coping with, and I think you know everything I've seen so far, you know, like all the Pmp stuff is mixing the 2 right. There's there's safety improvements and maintenance going on simultaneously, but just kind of wondering aloud about scenarios in which

[66:21] the budget gets so grim that we're having to make you know, binary choices that we'd rather not make, and. Michael, I let's delay that until our discussion later. This is really just for clarifying questions. So you asked a good, clarifying question. Thank you any other clarifying questions. I have one for Lindsay. I'm just wondering if there is. You mentioned the Pci scoring for streets, and I'm curious if there, if that scoring is across the street surface, or is there specific scoring for, like the bike lane portion, and the car portion of the or sort of the the main portion of a street. Is there a difference between

[67:10] scoring for the pavement condition on different parts of a street. I don't. Darcy, if it's if it's if it's okay. I I see James Smith is with us. He's probably the most qualified to answer that question, since he actually manages the contract that does the Pci scoring. Okay. Great thanks, James, can you answer? Yeah. Yeah. So the Pci covers the entire payment surface. So it doesn't delineate between bike Lane or or or travel lane. It's. It's basically an inspection of the entire width. And we catalog distresses and then count and then calculate the pci from those distresses. So whether they're in the bike lane or not, we should be catching them throughout the surface.

[68:01] It does not include curb and gutter or sidewalk, though just the asphalt driving surface. Great. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, I was curious. If it extended to the entire surface. Okay, great. And I have one other question. You know, Garrett, I'm very intrigued by this this, the chemical reaction that's affecting the concrete on the Folsom Street bridge, and I'm curious if you can say a little bit more about that. I think people might be really curious about what that chemical reaction is. Yes, it's it's commonly known in the industry as alkalized silica reaction. And it's where some of the chemical compounds in the cementitious portion of the concrete. So cement, of course, is like the paste that holds all the aggregate, the sand and the aggregate particles together. There is a chemical that starts in the cement that starts attacking the aggregate

[69:00] and so, for lack of a better term to help explain this in layperson terms, the industry has taken to calling it concrete cancer. and and so because once it starts to take root, it does, it spreads like cancer does in the human body. And so you you want to get it cut out as soon as you can. And it's actually a very common problem that airport pavements have to deal with because of the de-icing chemicals. They sort of trigger that reaction in the cement of the concrete pavement that you'll see at airports. And so their de-icing type of chemicals are not something we typically see on our streets, but sometimes it just naturally occurs without those accelerators. Oh, that's interesting! So would the new like formulation for a replacement, for that. Would that do we have better solutions now, or is it? Would we replace it with the same material, and then risk the same.

[70:02] Yes, the current mix designs that the that we use all follow the Colorado department of transportation, latest technology for concrete mix designs. And there are like a lot of agencies working aggressively to create mixtures that resist this type of reaction. That's interesting. I know that there are people in the industry who spend their entire careers on the chemical composition of roadway surfaces which is fascinating. So thank you very much. I appreciate that clarification. Okay, any other clarifying questions from tab members before we go to public comment. Yeah, I had a question. could you repeat the ratings you said like you used to categorize what street needs repavement? I didn't. I didn't. I didn't take note of those you said like, I think, if it's below a certain score, or how does that work? I guess if it's below a certain certain score. It goes to the top of the list kind of deal. Or

[71:02] how do you choose which streets to repave. James, can we put you on the spot again. Yeah, sure, no problem. So sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier. I'm James Smith. I'm the pavement manager. So the Pci is is a condition rating based on the distresses that we inspect every. So we inspect every street every 3 years, and kind of measure the distresses. But that score kind of helps guide us. There's not like a 1 we we try to kind of focus our treatments of, like our preservation treatments on on better condition roads like 75, or higher, but we we do sometimes select a little bit lower street streets that are below that maybe a little bit, just if there's an opportunity doing to increase that life and and extend it just a little bit longer before we're able to repave it.

[72:02] Streets that are like 45, or below are typically mill and overlay. But sometimes you know, the the other other factors, like traffic and and stuff like that help us kind of pick the the correct treatment. So it's not. It's not the guiding. It's a it's a guiding number. But it's not the only thing that we look at? If does that help answer. Yeah, so it's okay. So then, how does that work? Like, for example, I see South Boulder has a lot of green, dark green. The area between powerful baseline between Broadway and Moorhead a lot of yellow pink. The hill has a lot of yellow and pink. so I mean, you have that map. Now you have the data, you know, which streets are, I guess I think Pink is poor. Yeah, poor. So then what do you wait

[73:00] on like, how do you put that that? How does that work, I guess? Do you put the street in some list that the city goes from? Does something about like, once you have the data, what's next with what's the threshold for being like? We need to. We need to repave this street or do something about it at least. Soup. So the score is kind of just helps us guide us. And that tells us that it's where it's at in the condition level where it's going, and then other factors like traffic or usage. Kind of where we're where we're at. Help us fine tune. how we'll decide. But some streets. We may not be getting to as soon as we like, so sometimes we'll let them slip down into a reconstruction. But we'll be spending more money on better condition streets to extend their lives.

[74:01] So hopefully, I'm trying to answer, Yeah. Let's come back to that. In our deliberation, too. I think that we can talk a little bit more about that, Ernan, when we get to the after public comment. If that's okay. Sure. Okay, thanks. All right. So members of the public, if there are people who would like to comment on this, thank you for your time and your interest in this topic and making Boulder a better place to move around. We're now ready for your feedback. Please use the raise hand function on your screen to be recognized, and state your full name. You'll have 3 min to speak, Sydney. Do we have anyone wishing to speak on this topic? Yeah, so far we have one raised hand. Lynn, I'm going to give you permission to unmute yourself. and if you can just state your name again, and I'll start your time. Lynn Siegel, and on Sunday, a week ago, I was 15 feet from the fire attacker. I am pro-palestinian, but I am the only one for one year that follows behind them.

[75:05] So I want you to know my dedication to how you're funded in your cip and your can. And everything is like this guy was, you know, like he watched, waited for his daughter to graduate from from high school to go into medical school, and the New York Times took out the medical school part. I mean, this is utterly ridiculous. The reason I bring this up is because this money we're sending to Israel could be used for all of these cip processes. They let's see. And as I was starting to tell you, when I'm crossing Arapahoe at at Folsom, I'm going across there.

[76:00] and I have to go half and half across the street at a time, because it's you know, I need to get places on my bike, and it takes forever for the lights, and there's no occupancy sensors. And so I cross halfway, and then I see there's a yellow arrow for the guy and I watching the people so they don't run me over. And then I wonder, why isn't he going? Well, I look left, and he's backed up from the light before. So it's that my point is too much congestion. You need to talk to the city about advising on population jobs, housing, and to lower the congestion in Boulder in general. you need. I want this Israeli money. Okay, I want it for Maxwell, or excuse me. Concord, from 9th street. There was a pedestrian bridge there. Why did you take that pedestrian bridge down?

[77:03] I like that pedestrian bridge. It's faster for me to get home, and it was really nice bridge. you know, and that's a luxury, I'm sure, Garrett, you know. But but I want luxuries. I want simple luxuries because I want people not dead. you know, with Rpgs in Israel, I call it. It's Palestine. Okay, I want that money at home. Let's see. street lights was not repaired the lighting. So $3,700 for a you know, new converter, catalytic converter. I hear you about inflation and supply chain. And all of this. Yeah, we all know we are experiencing this. You know. How much does it cost you every day to live? Thank you.

[78:00] Thanks. Lynn. Thanks. Lynn. And does it any other raised hands. Okay. no one else wishing to comment on this, we'll go to our Tab Member deliberation and the resulting recommendation that we can for City council. So Staff is recommending Garrett. Would you put up that slide again with the recommended motion? So Staff recommends that tab consider the following motion. tab recommends approval of the proposed 2026 to 2031 Transportation Fund and Transportation Development Fund, capital improvements program or sip which supports the vision and goals of Boulder's transportation master plan, and the sustainability, equity, and resiliency framework. Do you have the text of that on a slide, Garrett? I have it here on my notes, but I don't have. I don't.

[79:05] You're muted. Give me one moment, and I'll put put the exact language on the on the on the slide. Here. I thought maybe we had the exact language. Yeah, just so everyone can read that. okay, well, he finds that. So we are. We're recommending approval. Staff recommends that we recommend approval of the proposed 2026 to 2031 transportation Fund and Transportation Development Fund capital improvements program or sip

[80:02] which supports the vision and goals of boulders, transportation, master plan, and the sustainability, equity and resiliency framework. Does anyone have feedback on this? There we go. Thank you, Garrett. Anybody have comments, feedback or not. If you would like to ask more about the Pci prioritization, you're welcome to do that now. Yeah, I guess. Let's see. Try to explain a little bit better. so yes. So the Pci score tells me. What's the most appropriate treatment for that that street, and as we look at the streets every year we don't. We only have so much funding, so kind of looking at those scores and the funding that I have. Then it's trying to optimize which streets

[81:06] will get that treatment to extend their life and optimize the funding as best they can. Not every street will get a chip seal that is, in that chip seal kind of range we try to optimize which streets get done with the funding that we that's available same with overlay and and others. So I hope that explains it a little bit better. Yeah, yeah, no, that makes sense. But I guess my question is more to like in general to staff, like. what kind of feedback. Are you looking from us right now. like you already have this document ready to present with basically like a budget proposal. It seems to me right.

[82:00] You're presenting a budget, and you're asking for approval of the budget. So is the goal. like I mean, if you if you ask me, it's I'm new here, so like it looks good. And I'm sure, like, you know, I trust you guys, you did a good job. But it's like, what kind of feedback. Are you looking for me at this point, like I can tell you, for example, like, I would like to see more budget allocated in a certain thing, or I mean, is that what you I don't understand what feedback you're looking for me, I guess. Let's let's start with that. So this is Valerie Watson for the record interim, director, transportation and mobility. I think one thing that that you can consider as Tab members is alignment with the city's transportation master plan policies, the city's sustainability, resilience, framework and the citywide strategic plan. So those are our kind of overarching policy documents. So alignment with those is something you'd want to see

[83:04] in our proposed cip and so we're asking for your feedback on that alignment. Garrett. Is there anything else that you'd want to mention? The only thing I would add would be. That city council, of course, has a priority for us to be focused on the core arterial network. So, in addition to those overarching plans that and policies that we try to advance towards, and so would you consider the the cip as we presented it to you this evening, to be consistent with the the core arterial network as a priority. Yeah, thanks. That clarification. I mean along those lines. I guess this was has probably been asked before. But so we looked at the overall, decrease in the expectation of available funds

[84:01] and kind of the way that that some things have been reprioritized a little bit within the cip to kind of mesh with those expectations. Have we heard? Have you heard any? Do you have any reason to believe that any of the Federal funding might not come through like this. S. 4. A funds, I mean. I know that these things have been allocated, but maybe that they have not yet hit the bank account. So are we looking at a risk there about any Federal funds, for instance. At this time. We we don't have any any indication. And so we, you know, want to go ahead and proceed. Based on that. Yeah, great. I mean, that's something that that I hear the community asking about. You know, what's the what's the landscape? As we look at these projects. So I'm glad to hear that we haven't been told that any funds are actively being withheld or or removed.

[85:04] so given that I mean, tab members. Do you have other feedback things? You want to deliberate a little bit with staff here about their prioritization of these funds, adding money to the vision. 0 mobility enhancements, portion increasing, funding for the pavement management program. Things like that do these align with the goals that we perceive that the city is holding from their various policy document documents. I see, Michael, you're shaking your head. Yes. Seems well aligned to me. I'm you know, and I don't. As yeah. I was, you know, asking prematurely questions about future scenarios where you know the the trade-offs are a little more grim than we're contending with now, and you know we can save deliberations on that for next year or the year after. I do understand correctly, don't I, that you know this kind of gets revisited? with frequency, because you can't like, you know, these these estimates of cost, for example, are are right now simply estimates. Right? So you you'll presumably have to make adjustments along the way.

[86:20] Yes, and every year Tab will provide feedback and input on the development of the capital improvement program. So what is locked in is 2026, but 27 to 31 is subject to change as we come back next year, and then add another year on top of that of 20 to 32. That's what I understood from last time. So we can. Yeah, we can. We can wrestle with the grim scenarios if and when they arise. And I'll just add that, you know, last month Chris Hagelin, with our team presented on the transportation maintenance fee that we are you know, pursuing a nexus study on at the moment that you know I know we talked about it a lot, but I'll just

[87:11] put out there when you consider this Cip, that the Department is actively working on how to shore up multiple sources of funding to give us more certainty and flexibility with our funding due to what Karen and others presented on tonight, that the sales tax is not predictable or reliable year to year. So as we consider our multi-year cips in that that fashion of, you know, every year we're we're kind of going to the next iteration, adding, the next year things like the transportation maintenance fee, were it to be enacted, would just give us a lot of flexibility. For things like enhancements. So moving from that priority, one to that priority. 2 category that we were mentioning earlier.

[88:03] Yeah, I just wanted to say, I'm really impressed with the the cip, and and it seems in line with our goals. And obviously, the the concerns you've raised about funding are serious. If we're not going to move into a maintenance phase. And in addition to this transportation maintenance fee that's being studied now, which, hopefully, wouldn't have to be ballot approved. There's a there's another property tax issue that will be on the ballot in November that goes by various different names. And I'm recalling that one year ago in June, when we had a sip presentation here, I believe. There was an item about the the matching funds that are the Transportation Fund capacity. There was a line item that it said was proposed for reduction from

[89:06] 4 million dollars per year to 1 million dollar per year. And I, I believe, going back and forth with Staff on this I came to understand that that was something that varies a lot year to year, depending on what projects are happening? Or is that is that the case? Can you remind me about that? Yes. So that's the the tip line. Item, the Tip Tmp line item that provides local match for our Grant opportunities that I was speaking of in the presentation that gives us such a competitive advantage in the Grant pursuit, so that number historically fluctuates, depending on the amount of grants that we're pursuing, and in the more flush times we've seen that number grow and leaner times we've seen that number get reduced.

[90:01] but we always want to maintain a foothold on that line item, so that even as our ability to pursue grant opportunities might be diminished, we don't lose that opportunity altogether, so we might not be able to chase 10 million dollars projects, but we can still chase 2 to 3 million dollars projects and still go do lots of good, because if we're doing 2 to 3 million dollars projects. That means that we really need 7 to $800,000 toward a local match. And as long as we're maintaining that in the line item, we're still able to be competitive, and, as we like to say, turning our dimes and quarters into dollars. Right. And, Mike, I'll also just add to Garrett's spot on. With that you'll also see that dollar amount go up or down, depending on what year our local match money is programmed for us to then need to spend on a grant when it's awarded. So both of those things together kind of

[91:05] influence the the up and down nature of that line item. And I'll just also mention now that I'm talking that that transportation maintenance fee would not require a vote of the public. It can be enacted by Council. Right, yeah. The tax, But the there's another tax, the public realm tax, or it goes by a different name. That would is on the ballot. Okay. Okay. Other feedback questions. Deliberations there. None. Yeah, I guess. Still, on this pavement thing. Sorry guys. there does. I mean, like, I'm looking at the map of like streets and neighborhoods with low scores. It seems like, you know, around the university below baseline, between and above table. Mesa.

[92:08] I mean, like, okay. So if I look at this, and I look at a map of rental licenses. There does seem to be some correlation between neighborhoods that are more heavily leaned towards like rentals. and you know, yellow oranges and pink colors. but I I mean, it's not. It's not super clear, like I'm just, gonna you know, a visual inspection. It kind of seems like it. So I mean, is that equitable? I don't know. So I guess if you're asking me for feedback, I will say, like. can this be explored? Can this? Is it a correlation like? Are neighborhoods that are more rental based? Maybe neighbors don't complain as much about their streets, so they don't get as much attention. Should we try to like Allocate more funding for repavement?

[93:03] And I say that out loud. But I don't know this is a fixed budget, right? So if you put some more money in a bucket, you're gonna take money from another bucket, and I have no idea what that means. So so I guess that's just kind of where I, you know, throw this idea. But I don't really understand the consequences. I'm gonna be honest. So I can chime in on to the, to the question there, I can assure you that we don't look at income levels or home ownership status when we are prioritizing streets for paving. It's also not based off who has called the hotline or filed the most complaints. We don't do any of our prioritization on any of those those metrics. It, as James indicated, is guided largely by the Pci. But there are a host of other factors that come into consideration. So if we've got a cluster of streets here with certain scores and a cluster of streets over here, we try to group our pavement activities as close as possible for economic efficiency.

[94:12] We don't want our contractors doing one street here and then going 5 miles away to do another street, then going 5 miles back to do another street. We want to keep them clustered in an area. It's it's more efficient for them. And it's it's more cost effective for us. There are other considerations such as if we know that there's going to be a large development happening, we're likely to hold off on doing any major repaving of a street, because we know that that street is going to get cut up with all kinds of utility cuts, and there will be a lot of patching going on. We don't want them to cut our brand new pavement. We know if the utility department's going to be doing any water, main replacement or sanitary sewer. We're keeping track of their 10 year plans, because if they're going to come in and do mainline work, we want to make sure that we're not paving streets. They're just going to come and tear up the next couple years.

[95:05] So those are a host of factors that go into deciding where exactly we're going to prioritize. And so you will see sometimes on the map, and one other sort of little indicator is that we don't survey the entire city every year. We survey 1 3rd of the city every year. So some of the data that you're seeing might include some streets that have been paved that have or the score hasn't been updated because the survey hasn't gone back to reflect. So all the streets that we are paving right now that are going to be a Pci 100, they won't show up for 2 more years in the Pmp map. We don't update. Okay. As soon as they get paid we wait until the survey comes in, and so sometimes the data lags a little bit in the mapping. Okay, okay, that that makes sense. And you you did say, I think, Lindsay, you said this, that is this in the budget. Already you were aiming for an average Pci for the entire city.

[96:05] I mean, like like, this, data may be old, but it says, average Pci is 62.7. Was it a a goal, Pci, for the city. It's 75 is our is our goal. So that will be by, and that's within. That's in this budget. Yes. So we currently have a 75. And so our goal, our our goal is a 75 in our and so we're currently we currently are at a 75. Okay, I'm sorry. Okay, yeah. This map says 62.7. That's why I was. is this a different map then, or is it old? The one in the slide this is on the pavement management program slides. Slide 3. Okay. 62.7. Is that a different thing then? Or that's only for the that might be for Colorado maps. Okay?

[97:06] 76. Okay. I got. I see. I see I was getting. I was looking at the wrong legend. Yeah, we have a higher. The 62.7 is for the cdot own bill. Colorado roads. Okay. Yeah. Okay? And so the goal. So we are at 76, and the goal is to keep it 75. And above. And with this budget. We can do that. Yes. Okay. Great. Okay. Okay. Sounds good. Yeah, thank you for that question, and thank you for the explanation, Garrett, because I think it was that was really good to hear more about how that process happens, and to make sure everybody's clear about the order of things. And yeah, and how how, how it's happening every year. I really appreciate hearing about that. Were you gonna put up the slide? Okay, here we go.

[98:01] Okay. So any more deliberations just along those lines, I just want to add a little bit about, you know. I we understand that council is prioritizing, can, and that this that the sip really, you know, is prioritizing the the core arterial network and to the the points that have been made here tonight. I hope that we are also providing enough resources to ensure that the connections to the can, that those neighborhood streets, that the everyday experiences that people are having as they get to the Can streets are also positive and aligned with our values, and I do. I do believe that this

[99:01] covers that. I just want to make sure that that's you know, that remains a top priority for us, that even though we're prioritizing the can overall, that we understand that the connections to the can or also very important in people's everyday experience. So I'm not sure how to say that anymore. Clearly. okay, any other feedback. Okay, so let's go to the Let's go to the motion here. Okay, so anybody want to move? May I have a motion to approve? Staff's recommended motion, which is tap, tap recommends approval of the proposed 2026 to 2031 transportation Fund and Transportation Development Fund, capital improvements program or sip which supports the vision and goals of boulders, transportation, master plan, and the sustainability, equity and resiliency, framework.

[100:01] I so move. But I'm not gonna say all those words. Okay? All right. Mic moves. Anybody want a second. Second. Okay, all in favor. Raise your hand and say, aye. I. Hi, all right. Anybody opposed none opposed. Okay, so the motion passes unanimously for 0. Thank you very much. Thank you. 4, yeah. 4 to 0. Yeah, thank you very much. Garrett. Appreciate it. And thanks to Leslie and Karen as well. Okay, that was our public hearing. Now we will move on to matters from Staff. where we have more detail. As Garrett mentioned about the pavement management program, mobility, enhancements. Valerie, you want to get us started on this. Thanks, Darcy. I'm actually going to hand it over to Steven to introduce this item. Thank you.

[101:02] Awesome. Thanks so much, Valerie, so Hello! My name is Steven Riho, and I'm the transportation planning manager. I'm really excited to introduce the following topic of the mobility enhancements which are part of the pavement management program. You just heard a little bit about. You've heard us present on how we've refined this program over the past several years. and this season has continued to raise the bar with advanced concrete coordination and high value improvements on corridors, including Colorado Avenue, while we still have to live within our means, which limits the amount of capitally intensive treatments we can make. The mobility enhancement program has proven to be a very cost, effective way to implement improvements across the city with regular repaving. So with that I'll hand it over to James Smith, Daniel Sheeter and Lucy O'sullivan to take you through the presentation. Thanks, Stephen. I think I'm up 1st to start us off, so I'm James Smith. I'm the pavement manager, and we'll describe a little bit more about the payment management program and then jump into

[102:01] the mobility enhancements that are kind of now tied into that. So the payment management program, also known as the Pmp. City of Boulder Budget. Priorities for transportation funding are the safety and preservation of the transportation system, including maintaining all streets in a good and safe condition. The Transportation Division has established the pavement management program for Boulder's 300 Mile Street system. which includes inspecting and rating all streets on a 3 year interval to maintain awareness of existing conditions and guide where payment repairs will be made in the future. From these inspections we developed the Pci, the pavement condition Index. The Pci is a numerical rating system, commonly used by transportation agencies to indicate the general condition of pavement infrastructure developed by the Us. Army of army corps of engineers. The Pci is based on a visual survey of the number and types of distresses in a pavement.

[103:03] Pci ratings range from 0 to 100, with 100, representing the best possible conditions. Here you can kind of see what what a distress payment in the poor condition would look like good and now excellent pavement preservation. So the goal of a Pmp is to identify optimal level of funding, timing and renewal strategies that will keep the roadway network at or above a good Pci rating. The end result is that the best strategy may be to defer costly reconstruction on one street in order to complete less expensive treatments on other streets, to minimize their deterioration into more costly type treatments such as reconstruction streets that need reconstruction may stay that in that state for a longer period of time, while other streets are moving down the deterioration curve.

[104:01] An early and inexpensive treatment may prevent streets from getting to the point of needing the next level of costly treatment. Here's a kind of a oops. There we go. Yeah. Some common treatments that we use for preservation are crack sealing and chip sealing. The chip sailing will extend our life about 8 to 12 years. Crack! Ceiling 3 to 5, and you can kind of. See the pci ratings that that generally get these treatments asphalt, resurfacing, and reconstruction are more rehabilitation type treatments, and but they extend our life longer. and then you can see the Pci ratings for those treatments as well. That kind of help guide us next slide. So Boulder Street system is classified by road type, local collector or arterial, with local streets comprising 71% collector streets, comprising 12% and arterial streets, comprising 17% of the city's street system.

[105:13] currently roughly, half of the city streets have a Pci rating in very good and excellent ranges, with nearly 75% of the street system rated good or better. a summary of the condition and streets by street classification is provided below right here. Sorry next one here. This is a nice comparison between local agencies that the Colorado Asphalt Paving Association puts together each year. This is kind of a little outdated. I don't think we've gotten an Updated one from them recently, but each year agencies will report what their budgets are and what their current Pci levels are. Oh, just helps us understand where, where our funding levels are as well so

[106:04] and go to the next slide. So that was just a recap kind of of the payment program. And with that we have mobility enhancements that are tied in. Now with these mobility enhancements, enhancements are coordinated with the payment management program as a cost effective and efficient way to make boulder streets safer for people walking, biking, rolling, driving, and taking transit due to available resources. Mobility enhancements are typically limited to signage and striping changes, such as new crosswalks or restraed bike lanes, but can sometimes propose more complex elements. 2 benefits that I'd like to highlight related to aligning with the pnp are the striping changes that can be incorporated into already planned repaving work and traffic impacts can be minimized, since traffic control is coordinated with the overall Pnp scope

[107:02] and go to the next slide. So the Pnp mobility, enhancement process. We identify opportunities for mobility enhancements, hinges on early identification. of which streets will be candidates for repaving. This allows for interdepartment coordination of repaving needs to coordinate with project led by other departments, sorry projects led by other departments, such as planned utility work within transportation and mobility, a multidisciplinary team of capital projects, operations, maintenance and planning staff develops design designs that are informed by existing conditions. Analysis, I'm sorry

[108:00] my slide kind of got a little. I guess. What we want to say here is that we? We have a process of looking at the streets and identifying and prioritizing which ones and interdepartmental coordination help us kind of develop those. So I apologize for that. You know no worries. Keep going. On to the next slide. Here. Great Good evening, Tab members. My name is Lucy O'sullivan transportation Planner in the Transportation Planning division, and I'll be sharing an Update this evening on our 2025 mobility enhancements, corridors, including the work on these corridors that has been done to date and planned work that will be completed this summer. so many of our 2025 mobility enhancements, corridors are proposed, neighborhood green Streets, which are low traffic streets prioritized for making, biking and walking comfortable for people of all ages and abilities.

[109:11] and we typically use safety signage, crossings, pavement markings, and other installations on these streets. To reach these goals this year Martin Drive, Ash Avenue, 6th Street and 11th Street are mobility, enhancements, corridors as well as proposed neighborhood, green streets, and these streets will receive additional signage and pavement markings. After repaving. we also have Colorado Avenue between Folsom Street and 30th Street on our list of 2025 mobility enhancements corridors. Colorado avenue serves as an important multimodal corridor in our city's transportation network with high frequency transit provided by Cu's Buff bus service and significant volumes of people walking, biking, rolling and driving every day.

[110:07] So we'll jump into Martin Drive. where we're looking from Moorhead Avenue to Table Mesa Drive. We completed advanced concrete work this past fall and winter, and this included curb and gutter repairs as well as curb ramp upgrades to comply with the Americans with disabilities act. and while upgrading these curb ramps. We also reduced curb radii to slow turning vehicle speeds and make pedestrian crossings safer and more comfortable during community engagement with Creekside elementary school, which is on Martin Drive. Last fall we heard a desire for improved access between the school's sidewalk and the sidewalk that connects to the Bear Creek multi-use path.

[111:00] and so, during our advanced concrete work, we slightly widened the sidewalk here to improve this access. and so, moving on to the planned work for Martin Drive, which will take place this summer. We will relocate the crosswalk in front of the school to provide a safer and more direct crossing to get to the school. and after collecting speed data along the corridor, the team is also finalizing a set of traffic calming devices which will likely be speed humps that will be installed in the next couple of months. moving on to Ash Avenue, between Lashley Lane and Moorhead Avenue last fall and winter. We also completed curb and gutter repairs here, as well as curb ramp upgrades. To comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and similar to Martin Drive. The team is also finalizing a set of traffic, calming devices, likely speed cushions for Ash Avenue that will be installed in the next couple of months.

[112:15] 6th Street, between Pearl Street and Baseline road is our next 2025 mobility enhancements corridor. and in addition to curb ramp upgrades throughout the corridor, we relocated the crossing at the Boulder County Justice Center, and added a new pedestrian Refuge Island to enhance pedestrian safety. When crossing the street at the 6th Street and University Avenue intersection, we added curb extensions, and relocated the crosswalk to shorten pedestrian crossing distances and increase pedestrian visibility. and at 6th Street and Pleasant Street we relocated the Crosswalk and added a new short section of Ada, compliant sidewalk to increase pedestrian visibility and safety.

[113:09] and this improvement provides an enhanced route to flatirons. Elementary school, which is about 2 blocks away. and finally, at 6th Street and Euclid Street we reduced turning radii to slow turning vehicle speeds and improve visibility. Our last 2025 mobility Enhancements corridor. That's a proposed neighborhood. Green Street is 11th Street, between Arapahoe Avenue and Grandview Avenue. This spring we constructed new sidewalks on 11th Street, to close gaps in the important pedestrian corridor between University Hill and downtown boulder. These new sidewalks, which are located at Grandview Avenue and Marine Street, follow the path of new pedestrian scale lighting that we installed on University Hill a few years ago, and improve the walking experience along 11th Street, creating a safer and more pleasant alternative to walking along Broadway.

[114:13] You can see the new sidewalk at Grand View Avenue here. and the new sidewalk at Marine Street here. and I'll pass it on to Daniel now to share more about the planned improvements for Colorado Avenue. Thanks, Lucy, for sharing all those great advanced concrete work that we did in in preparation for repaving this summer. And good evening, tab members. My name is Daniel Sheeter, principal transportation planner and the transportation Planning Division. The final project we'd like to highlight for you tonight is mobility enhancements to Colorado Avenue. You may have already seen construction underway. as the milling phase was completed last week. The team is coordinating closely with the Folsom Street Safety Improvement project as well as Cu staff, due to the proximity to main campus.

[115:04] while the repaving scope is only between Folsom and 30.th The enhancements will also include the extension of bus and right turn lanes to East campus. These mobility enhancements will achieve 2 key objectives supported by the 30th Street and Colorado Avenue corridor study, closing a key gap in the low stress bike network connecting Cu, Maine and East campuses and improving the speed and reliability of Buff bus transit service before detailing the enhancements. I'd like to briefly walk through some recently completed projects that have contributed to comprehensive multimodal safety improvements to this key arterial corridor. moving east to west. The 1st is construction of an enhanced crossing east of 33rd Street that connects the adjacent neighborhood and eastbound bus stop to East campus on the north side of Colorado Avenue, and I'll highlight. These are these these projects I'm mentioning here are not part of the Pmp mobility enhancements. These are kind of broader capital projects led by the Department, but something that our mobility enhancements does coordinate with. Here, as we work across across the entire capital program

[116:12] moving west. The city's 1st protected intersection at 30th Street and Colorado Avenue, which also includes, includes new underpasses, was completed in Fall 2023, and the city's second protected intersection at 28th Street and Colorado Avenue was completed the next year in Fall 2024. Finally, upon completion of the 28th Street and Colorado Avenue protected intersection project, Bus and right turn lanes were installed between Folsom Street and 30th Street to provide faster and more reliable service for the approximately 10,000 buff bus riders who use the corridor daily. That brings us to this summer's mobility enhancements, and, as I mentioned, the Folsom to Regent Block is the final missing link to provide a direct low stress bike facility connecting Cu's main and east campuses.

[117:03] additionally, bus and right turn lanes which were installed only to 30th Street last summer will be extended east to Discovery Drive, kind of beyond the limits of repaving to support buff bus transit service that's highlighted on this map. Here work is underway. Now, as the paving phase began today. the striping layout between Folsom and Region is shown on this slide and the roadway will be reconfigured to install improved bike lanes with vertical separation to close that kind of final missing link in the corridor for a low stress bike facility. The eastbound bus and right turn lane on this block will also be made permanent. and finally a pair of floating bus stops on either side of the Folsom Street intersection will be installed in 2026 in coordination with Cu. The separate citywide speed limit setting project will also be implementing a speed limit. Reduction on the corridor.

[118:01] In coordination with completion of the mobility enhancements and the overall over the overall project, including the speed limit reduction is expected to be complete in 2 to 3 weeks. so that brings us to our next steps, paving operations and restriping not just on Colorado Avenue which is slated for completion over the next couple of weeks, but also on those other corridors that Lucy mentioned, and some additional neighborhood streets are expected to be complete in July. We'll follow that with supplemental Green Street signing and striping to corridors like like Martin Drive and 6th Street later this summer. You may have also seen some parallel cdot lead repaving projects to the Canyon Boulevard segment of Colorado, 119, and the Arapahoe Avenue segment of Colorado, 7 within city limits. So staff has been coordinating on those efforts as well. But those are outside of our department's pmp.

[119:01] and the photos on this slide were from today on Colorado Avenue, as crews completed paving the westbound lanes between 28th Street and Folsom Street. and that concludes our presentation for this evening. The team's happy to answer any questions you may have. Great. Thank you, Daniel and Lucy appreciate it. Any questions. I've got one probably a pretty simple one. I the I'm just wondering if. like Martin, just having been repaved, and they're not being any traffic calming right now, apart from the changes in turning radio, I'm wondering if this is an opportunity to study vehicle speeds on Martin and similarly on ash so that we could evaluate what the impact of those traffic calming devices is once they're installed kind of like kind of like was, you know you all were doing I think, on warhead

[120:02] with a sort of post, repaving consideration of what the impact of the of the absence of the center stripe. Yeah, that's a that's a great idea, Michael. I think the team can take that back and consider it. yeah, we we would be, you know, as Lucy mentioned. you know, one to 2 months from installing those traffic calming devices on those on those corridors. So there is kind of a window. Now, with paving being complete. Prior to when the devices would go in. That is a window to kind of look at at what speeds are before and after them. So yeah, we'll take. Take that back and and discuss with the team. Thanks for the idea. Yeah, this would be a good opportunity for that. Hold on. Yeah, I have a question like, what?

[121:00] What is the what will be the budget line item cost per increase of Pci for the city like, let's say we want to set a stretch goal of like 80 instead of 75, or even like, what is the increase? Do you know what will be the increase from like 75 to 76 to 77 like, is it like half a million per point? Kind of deal like? Is that possible to calculate. Good question. So I'll jump in here, and James feel free to jump in and correct anything if I'm off track here. But it's difficult, Hernan, to say, there's a direct correlation. If if you put a half 1 million dollars, it's going to move exactly this number of points, because there's so many variables in a given year on how the pavement might degrade, so we know that it all degrades over time. But there's so many variables that go into it. How severe are the next 2 or 3 winters going to be! How many freeze thaw cycles? Is the pavement going to be subject to how much precipitation, even sometimes when we have really wet years, or if we have really really hot years.

[122:17] it can all have such an effect on the way a payment performs that it can be difficult to have that that high level of certainty that if you say I'm going to put an additional 1 million, it will guarantee this this level of outcome? We know it will go up for sure. But can we guarantee that it will go up a full point? That's something that I as the capital project manager, I wouldn't be comfortable committing to, and I don't know that very many others around the State. What I can tell you is that if we have been keeping pace with this, the level investment that we had in our payment management program 10 years ago, when our Pci levels were a little bit higher than they are now. Then we would be investing 7 to 8 million dollars per year versus the 5.5 million dollars that we're putting in to it right now. So

[123:16] that extra couple 1 million I'm again. I'm very uncomfortable saying it will guarantee that it will give us 2 or 3 more points, but it's that that's looking backward. We can extrapolate that out from our own data set. But right now I mean, the the city has a goal of 75. Alright, I mean is that is that correct? Did I get that right from the budget. That's correct. So you must have calculated that somehow, right? Or is that based on like things are good right now, I guess things are 76 right now. So 75 is a safe bet. The rationale for the 75% goal.

[124:01] What? What's the rationale for? The 75? Yeah, that. So that is It was set when we created the pavement management program back in 2010 we did a peer evaluation of what other communities had set it at, and we determined that 75 seemed like a reasonable level. It seemed to be higher than others, and not at the highest levels that some other communities had set theirs at, and in consultation with the leadership of the department at that time 75 was the goal, and and we've stuck with it since. So you asking that question probably means that we should ask ourselves. Is that still a goal that we should continue to pursue? It's been one that we've had for for 15 years now, and maybe we should revisit that where I could see us starting to fall short because we've been really driving home the point about the loss of purchasing power over the coming years. If we continue to fall behind at the rate of investment and the pavement, we might see that 76 fall to a 75, and then a 74, and then a 73.

[125:17] So. But but I guess, like what I was asking is. you say it's hard to calculate, you know what will, what, how much it will take to increase a point or 2 in the average Pci. But right now that 75, it is a line item in the budget. So you must be accounting for that 75 somehow. Right? That's the part that I'm not understanding. You're you're saying how? How? So? The the we have, we. We know that 75 is our goal. We're we actually have a score of 76 based off of our our survey data. How do you? How do you calculate the line? Item for that? 75. Right now.

[126:04] So. At least to maintain it. You know. I see. So how did we come up with the 5.5 million dollars for the pavement management program? Okay. So we know that the pavement that we have comprises our largest asset, sidewalks, multi paths, bridges, or other large assets, but pavement by far is the largest asset, and so we know that approximately half of our cip goes into taking care of assets, and if pavement is the biggest sort of our rule of thumb is, we want about half of our total capital improvement program going into the payments. Just the fact that it's it's it's such a large asset. So that's sort of the rule of thumb that that we've used with with financial programming. Okay. So I guess you know, I don't know if this is an informational item

[127:04] like in the agenda right now, or if you're seeking feedback. But I do wonder if it's time to revisit that goal? I mean, I don't know if comparing boulder to adjacent communities is a good metric. just because Colorado has, like some of the worst roads in the country. So it's it's, I mean, like, just because we're better than other communities doesn't mean like we're in a good spot, right? I mean, it seems 75 is decent based on the map. That said, though. I never got feedback when I was in the Environmental Advisory Board from friends, when I told them that I was on the board. And now that I'm on transportation. I've heard like a few times about pavement. So I think it's something very. I mean, I I know it's not a statistical sample, right? Like it's it's completely anecdotal, but it is peculiar, and I do feel like pavement is such a

[128:04] visual thing, right? We all drive, we all see, like the holes, whatever like. It's very noticeable. but I don't know. I guess my feedback will be like maybe we should try to aim higher like, or at least explore what it will take to get to like. I saw Greenwood Village kind of 82 like. Try to try to go higher on the 75 into like what is sorry. Let me see if this legend We? We were in the top. 3, rd right, we're list, but we're not at the top. In Colorado, though but. No. Colorado is really low in the nation, right? So I don't know if that's a good metric. Well. Well, the P Pci scores, I'll just clarify, tho those are objective scores. So 75 is a 75, whether in you're in Florida or Alaska. And I would suggest that this is just the condition of pavement, which is.

[129:01] we're we are trying to aim higher than just looking at that. And instead of just repaving roads, we're seeing what we can do to improve safety. And I've been really impressed with. Yeah. Yeah, I guess so. So I think, Ernan, and and other board members. What what you're seeing in this presentation to, you know tonight, and the cip, and you're connecting the dots. And that's great. And really. it's just great that you're you're thinking about the big picture. And one thing that I would mention to your question, or, Non is this fall? In summer and fall there's going to be a really big community process around the city's long term financial strategy and the community engagement for that is something that you heard from one of our colleagues from finance in a previous presentation. But Charlotte was that the community engagement is focused on getting folks to really think about what are the levels of service? What are the things that you want the city to be providing whether it's paving or

[130:12] the hours that the pool is open. That kind of thing right? What are those levels of service that are the most important to the community, so that can help us, then direct future funding accordingly. Right? And so, you know, while of course, it's valuable to have a conversation in the context of like the ecosystem of our cip and everything that that we talk about just in the purview of the transportation department. We also have to think about how that stacks up against other citywide priorities. Right? So that's 1 thing that I would mention. The second thing I'd mention is that when we're looking at how to balance our transportation dollars that we that we have as a department we're really balancing. It's the classic balance between, you know, operations and maintenance and enhancements to the system that has always been the topic of conversation of every tab. Probably since the beginning of history.

[131:08] So I love that. You're kind of you know, noodling on this topic and thinking about you know what you're hearing from the community, we we certainly really appreciate the the one of the role of tab members is to kind of reflect on what you're hearing from folks in the community. And bring that forward for for discussion here. And so I would just mention that when you think about that kind of balance. We. you know, we we are as a department, really trying to think about how to diversify and and shore up our funding. So that we don't have a tension between those things and and more of a balance. So that's that's my soapbox for tonight. I hope that's helpful for you to consider. Yeah. Yeah, thank you, Valerie. And and Valerie is exactly right. Right. There are larger forces at work, and there are bigger processes that have to be considered as all of these items.

[132:05] Kind of stack up against that. And and I just want to say to Lucy, I mean, I love your emphasis. I loved what you presented about the improvements for pedestrians along 6th and 11th Streets. Those are fantastic, and that really demonstrates, you know, the city's commitment to creating those improvements where people are are walking, you know, and also bicycling like on Moorhead. And it's just it's these your priorities are are showing your dedication to quality of life and improving that. And so not just the, you know, the really big issues. But I so I appreciate that Valerie and I appreciate that we can also engage. All of us can engage in those larger processes as well, and so we should keep our keep informing each other about what those opportunities are, and make sure that we engage with those. But I think everything that was just presented was

[133:04] fantastic. Yes, Mike. Yeah, I just wanna echo what you said. And see how I feel. We're lucky to have this team making all this progress that I see out in boulder. I just wanted to suggest since obviously there are members of the public that are concerned about things like pavement. But I wonder if we have some reports like an annual report that tracks cumulative benefits like how many new Ada ramps were added, how many crosswalks were updated, protected bike lane mileage that were added. What we see in the in the sip. Okay. So we we just need to keep up. We need to be able to report back what we're reading in the sip, you know, and seeing a report presented by staff to our community members. So we can say, Look, this is all the work that's being prioritized, funded, completed each year.

[134:06] so that I think that's part of our task. Right is to is to take that information to our communities. Yeah. Yeah. Valerie. We also do kind of a year in review every year that's published to the public, and we sent a tab that details kind of statistics like that. We also have an open data portal where some data sets are maintained. So yeah, I think that Darcy is 100% right that we report on that in the course of the things we bring. But we also do have summaries. We also have the report on progress that that you were presented a couple of months ago as well. That's right. Yeah, that's right, exactly. And some of us I I'm speaking of myself, can do a better job at getting the word out about all those things. So we I commit to making sure that those are more broadly distributed as well. Okay, any other comments on those items.

[135:05] I'd just like to say I love everything about the Pmp program and how it's it is being used to improve safety in neighborhoods. I think that's a great thing. and I, you know I'll throw out my. you know my crazy idea hopefully, it's not as crazy as like nuking the hurricane. But my! I've I've been noodling for a while on wondering about the possibility of moving away from asphalt, I kind of freaked out about this at the start of the the year when you know there was this impending trade war with Canada, and knowing that we get a lot of our bituminous from Canada and thinking, Well, that's really going to drive prices skyward, and and was looking at paving practices in the Netherlands, and the fact that they use pavers, you know, like brick pavers, knowing that those are more expensive, but also that they last like 6 times longer than asphalt.

[136:07] and just wondering if you know, if we might position ourselves better in the long run if we were to begin a process of transitioning away from from asphalt, at least on like the neighborhood streets, I know, on like arterials and collectors. That's probably not going to work. but it's more, you know, not not with respect to like what's happening now but thinking long term about ways to reduce cost and put ourselves in a better posture, so that you know that we're we are able to respond to public demand for high quality pavement, but but not beyond sort of the financial treadmill that I think we currently find ourselves on. But, but, generally speaking, I love, I love, I love this program. It's great.

[137:01] Eric, do you want to say anything about that. Yeah, I just appreciate the suggestion. We're always open to considering ways. We can deliver more sustainable infrastructure, and we will take a look at the paver idea and see how that stacks up. No problem. Especially for the neighborhood green Streets. I mean, there's an opportunity there, right where where we're designating streets that are calmed traffic calmed more multimodal. Those could be good candidates because they can kind of look like those streets in other countries that are using those pavers. But the materiality is the engineer's realm. And so we can. We can have other conversations about that. Alright excellent! So we've already had the conversation about the legislative update. Now we'll go to matters from the board. Does anybody have any comments on the sip bike tour? Oh, sorry, Meredith, did I skip something?

[138:01] You're you're muted. Did we? Oh, I'm just my bad mine go 1st sight. Okay, yeah, we did. Okay. Did the State legislative update? Okay? Great. So yeah, matters from the board. Does anybody have any comments on the sip bike tour? I was not able to attend who who did go. The 3 of us. Did everybody else go? Okay. Great. He wasn't there no Okay. But yeah, I learned a whole lot, and I'm struggling to remember it all. Yeah, I I'm just impressed by the the volume and complexity of the projects that are ongoing like, because I don't see them. All right. I'm not wandering around on 19 north, you know the northern sections of 19th Street. There's a lot of little corners of the city that I don't get to but you know, just wandering around and seeing them all like that is really impressive. Also have the sense that if you know, if, if, as a tab member.

[139:04] I didn't have a sort of as complete a sense for how extensive our bike work is. That probably a great many of the citizens in this community also don't. And and and and for that reason, I mean and I know that's kind of part of what the BB. 360 ride is about, but just feels to me like folks probably underappreciate just how easy it is to get around in a safe and comfortable way already, and and also how quickly it's getting better. Yeah, absolutely. And I hear the same things with my walking group, the Boulder Ramblers. When we do the walk, 360 and other adventures around town, I mean, those changes to 11th Street are significant. This is a huge connection, huge. wonderful, new, safe, comfortable connection between the hill and downtown. And that's just it's an amazing improvement. And also on 6th Street, that's part of our walk, 360. And so it's really really great to see these improvements, and people are impressed, and they do really

[140:13] internalize those changes and say, Wow! Now, I could actually, you know, go from A to B in in a way that I hadn't thought about before. So I think by bike or by foot. These improvements are really if we can. The more attention we can bring to them, the the more that people can make those connections and start to use alternative modes. Yeah, Mike. Yeah, I. Sorry. Michael. Yeah. Go ahead, Mike. I just wanted to add that I I had forgotten that this was a a public event, as it must be with the tab members sending and We, I remember, at the beginning of the ride we were waiting for some people from community cycles to come, and they didn't show up, and I've heard from them that they they actually didn't know about it. So

[141:00] I guess maybe we could publicize this better. Maybe there are other members of the public who didn't, would have wanted to go that didn't hear about it. I don't know how it was publicized. And that dovetails exactly with what I was going to say, or or sort of wonder about, is, what can we, as Tab do to help promote awareness in the community about all of these projects and their benefits, but also just how good things already are. So that we can stimulate, perhaps more mode shift than we're getting just by. People kind of milling about their own neighborhoods and not knowing you know how far they can go on those on those paths. Yeah, yeah, like, I said, I mean, a community cycle certainly does that. And everybody affiliated with community cycles does that like yourself? And and with my walking group and boulder walks program that is now being managed with Eric Amidor and others in the community. I think we're all, you know, actively working to raise awareness of these improvements and give people experience positive experiences of them, so that they can integrate them into their everyday lives.

[142:18] And that leads nicely into open board comments. Any other comments that anybody wants to make or add to the meeting tonight. before we talk about future agenda topics. I just wanted to clarify the the bike tour was listed on the tab web page. But maybe an email could have gone out or something. Valerie, do you want to say anything about how it was publicized? Yeah, we typically post it because it's a convening of multiple tab members. More than 2 is a, you know, needs to be a publicly noticed. You know, gathering. And that was posted publicly on the website. As as Mike mentioned, the focus is really for tab members to interact with staff and learn. But anyone from the public is welcome to come. We don't typically publicize that very widely, because the focus is so much on tab

[143:16] members. In the future. Tab members are welcome to send that out to your networks and broadcast through any organizations you're affiliated with. Thanks. Great. Thank you. Okay. okay. So looking forward reviewing the future agenda topics. we have a second tab meeting this month on June 23, rd which is a special meeting for the core arterial network, north, 30th Street Community and environmental assessment process or seep. And then the seep for Folsom Street will come to us in July.

[144:00] Valerie, do you want to say anything else about those. Yeah, real quickly, Darcy, thank you for the opportunity to address that seep process. The community environmental assessment process is, you know a very meticulous, methodical you know. really long term effort to analyze and document a project before it is brought before our appointed and elected officials for approval. So one thing I would just mention is, we've had a series of open houses and months and months and months of community engagement for both of these projects, the 1st one that you're going to be seeing 30th Street this later. This month has a virtual open house online, and if you just need a refresher, or you hadn't been to one of the open houses, and just want to really read up on all the history of the project process that virtual open house on our website is a really great resource. I would also encourage tab members. If you are kind of doing your homework before you get the big memo packet that has.

[145:09] you know, a big document in it. Where you're gonna have a lot of content to get through before the meeting as you're reading up feel free to reach out to me. I can also connect you with members of our staff, if you have any. You know, technical questions that you want to just understand as you're considering that body of work before the meeting. I found that that's really helpful in the past for for Tab to just have know that you always have that open invitation to contact me. If you have a question, you just want to avoid putting things like in a serial email, right for you know how we convene our public meetings. So I just wanted to offer that make sure everyone knew and we have some new members. And then, additionally, we do have an open house for Folsom tomorrow. So we hope to see you all there.

[146:02] Yeah, and there's a virtual open house option for Folsom as well open right now. And yeah, they're they're great virtual open houses. I will say I've done both of them, and and they really have lots of wonderful information and opportunity to provide some feedback. So I encourage everyone to engage with those and attend the in person. Open house tomorrow for Folsom. And I would add, the the new video that's just out about north 30th Street is is amazing. It's great. Yeah. Fantastic. Okay, great. Anybody have any other topics they'd like to raise for future agenda items. seeing none. I think we're finished. I I'm wondering just about the next special Tab meeting. Is there any? I I guess Valerie was talking about that. Is there some

[147:04] different wave packet. It'll okay, but there's not really a different way that we structure the the meeting account. It's it's just like a regular tab meeting. It's just that we're holding 2 this month instead of one. Because trying to get through all the content tonight, plus that item would have been a lot. So we gave it its own special. City Council meeting could have just gone on and on. Alright. Thank you. Yeah. yeah. Just gives us a chance to have to go through concentrated material at another time. So look for your packet materials from Meredith. And yeah. okay, great. If there's nothing else, does somebody want to move to adjourn the meeting? I move to adjourn the meeting. Thank you, Mike.

[148:00] Second. Any second air. 9 seconds. Okay, great. All in favor of adjourning. Say, aye, and raise your hand. Okay. Right. Hi, anybody opposed. I don't see anybody. Okay. So we have voted to adjourn at 8 32 pm. Thank you all very much appreciate you being here tonight, and thanks to Staff for all your wonderful presentations. And yeah, we'll see you on June 23.rd Thank you, Darcy. Okay, yeah. But thank you guys. Everyone. Good night. Thanks.