[Music] o [Music] o oh [Music] oh oh [Music] oh [Music] oh oh oh oh [Music] [Music] n [Music] a [Music] he [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] oh oh [Music] oh [Music] oh oh oh [Music] welcome to the work session uh we will convene and I will hand it over to staff to talk about week bus Rapid Transit good afternoon mayor and Council we have the one item on the agenda today and we have staff from Transportation het Patel and David eatman here for the presentation and questions good afternoon mayor and Raleigh Council uh my name is he Patel I'm with the transit division uh within the transportation department for the city I will be providing the update on the bus Rapid Transit program uh and our agenda today really again is to go over the overview of the program the projects that are within our purview uh those are the four key corridors that were identified in the Wake Transit plan and then providing a project status update for each Corridor we always like to level set our presentations on the bus Rapid Transit program with the initiation of the 2016 wake Transit plan and the Wake County half sense DED dedicated sales tax that was passed by the county uh to improve the public transit Network within the county it identified four big moves connecting the region connecting all W County communities providing frequent reliable Urban mobility and enhancing access to Transit bus Rapid Transit really Falls within that third big move which is providing frequent reliable Urban mobility and I'm going to go over a few key features of bus Rapid Transit that make it stand out from thecal local bus service so our system standards on the Wake Transit plan identified that all of our corridors would have at least 50% dedicated bus lanes that is an essential component of bus Rapid Transit uh enhanced stations so these are stations that are a little bit larger than your regular bus shelter most of them will be level boarding so again when the bus P pulls up to the station the floor of the platform is level to the bus and you can get on and off more easily we will have specialized Vehicles which is the the 60 foot articulated buses that have more capacity Standing Room seating room as well as opportunities for bicycles to be loaded inside the vehicle as opposed to in front of the vehicle Mr Patel I just um I wanted to say that um councelor Lambert Melton is under the weather today so he has an excused absence just so people aren't waiting for him to arrive so sorry to interrupt no problem and I'm happy to pause after each project update if we want to do that uh or we can go through the entire presentation and take questions at the very end um so uh bus Rapid Transit features will also include a longer span of service so they'll the buses will run from 4:00 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and 5:30 a.m. to midnight on weekends that's about an hour more in either uh time frame than the regular bus service and there will be more frequent service so the buses will run every 10 minutes during peak hours in the morning and afternoons and then it'll match the high frequency network of the fixed route system for the rest of the day from a program perspective there are ways that we can achieve dedicated bus lanes on our corridors uh there are two different ways to do that within an urban environment like downtown and some of the oneway uh streets we have buses that are running on the right curb of the road so along the right side of the road that rightmost lane turns into a bus only lane it is still open to vehicles that are trying to make the right turning movement into to a driveway or a business but that is predominantly meant for buses to operate within and then we do have another visual of this kind of in the downtown environment again at Wilmington Street um the red lane on the right side of the roadway right in front of Taz I did want to highlight from a station design perspective we have gone through a system standards conversation that included uh the transit planning advisory committee at wake Transit plan as well as our key partner jurisdictions within the town of Garner and town of Kerry as our projects Advance into their municipalities to really identify how we would have station customization options where there are elements that can be customized to meet the neighborhood context architectural setting of that station as well as in urban core environments where we have more flow and permeability in and out of the stations more visibility for the businesses behind the stations themselves then we have a dedicated Lane treatment within the median running transitway these are dedicated bus lanes that are physically separated from the general purpose traffic and so in this situation the level of service for Transit is the highest it can be there are no conflicts with other vehicles the buses can be more reliable to get from point A to point B that helps with that ontime performance of our rapid bus uh Transit Service uh we do also from a station design perspective have plans for solar on the brt stations that can offset solar costs um or electric costs to the station itself whatever the electricity is being used at the station can be offset by solar um that is producing that energy we have another rendering here of the median running transway again this shows at wake Med uh the brt station with the median running Transit way physically separating the general purpose travel Lanes we have a multi-use path one of the highlights of the bus Rapid Transit projects is on the corridor itself we are addressing bicycle and pedestrian environment as well uh by adding either a multi-use path or physically separated bike Lanes where we have enough right away on the corridor to do so and the last setting that we have in the brt program of projects is the buses operating and mixed traffic um this is really matching existing conditions so in areas where we don't have enough rideway or there's a lot of traffic and the corridor is a State Department of Transportation Corridor where we're utilizing that service on the State Department of Transportation um maintain Corridor we have bus shelters that match our existing shelters they will still have the amenities that the brt stations inside of the Belt Line would or in other areas of Wake County will um but it will be a smaller shelter that is meant for uh that environment where there's more higher speed traffic in front of the uh station itself as well as uh a smaller waiting area for the buses and these will be the only stations in our program that are not level boarding and so this is where traditionally uh the bus would kneel for a lift gate to come down for anyone that had Mobility challenges from an overview perspective again we have four key corridors that were identified in the initial wake Transit PL yes see a question from council member silver are you transitioning to another I had questions about this route are you transitioning now to the other ones or you're going to continue I am starting on Newburn Avenue now I think this was the the first part of the project overview was just the renderings on station design as well as the overall program of what features are included in bus Rapid Transit okay um so again from an overview perspective we have four key corridors that were identified in that initial wake Transit plan you do see some dashed lines there those are extensions that are being planned uh the extension from Garner to carrye sorry Garner to Clayton and carrye to RTP is extensions that are being planned by the cap area Metropolitan planning organization that is currently a feasibility study and an operations study to really identify what that level of service would look like uh and then a project sponsor would be identified as part of that study the dash lines on the Northern Corridor that you see I will get into a little bit later in the presentation with our major investment study for the northern Corridor that the City of Raleigh is a project sponsor for I also wanted to highlight again from a program overview perspective the Wake Transit plan assumed that these projects would have 50% Federal funding uh associated with it and so they are thought to be a federal process project where we submit application is a competitive Grant process where we submit an application we submit the project and we identify what are ask for the federal process is on the project uh for Newburn for Southern and for Western we have completed a lot of those steps it is a two-step process the first step is project development that's really just submitting your application to identify eligibility of the project and then within that first step there are a few key components so identifying a preferred alternative again we've done that for Newburn Avenue for southern Corridor and for the Western Corridor submitting a ratings application the ratings application really identifies what your ask for the Federal Transit Administration is from a participation perspective for the project and again we've done all of that for Newburn southern and western for southern and western we're currently working on the environmental documentation so that's the National Environmental Policy Act uh that's the documentation that gives us clearance to then move forward in the project for RightWay acquisition as well as show uh engineering progress to the Federal Transit Administration before we can get to step two which is the full funding Grant agreement uh this is where I want to highlight step two uh the full funding Grant agreement is ENT on a project getting allocation through that competitive Grant process as well as again showing those steps to the federal trans Administration that we ready to receive those funds and move into the construction phase so the only one of our projects that has gone to that step is Newburn Avenue which has a full funding Grant agreement in place for the federal dollars that were identified on the project uh and is into that next state next phase which is construction so Newburn Avenue is 5.4 miles with 3.8 miles of dedicated bus lanes again switching between that right business axis and Transit Lane and the median running Transit way coming out to wake Med and then east of 440 it is in a mixed traffic environment getting out to New Hope Road and the Walmart out at New Hope Road there are 10 new stations planned for the Newburn Avenue Corridor 7 60ft articulated buses that will run on compressed natural gas one of the benefits we have with that uh compressed natural gas bus at the moment is we have a partnership with Raleigh water on the new um renewable gas option where those buses will be near zero emissions based on um that partnership and we will have signalized intersection priority along all intersections along Newburn Avenue so that allows the bus to talk to the traffic signal extend green light or request an early green if they're running behind schedule and need to catch up from an ontime performance perspective so we've had a lot of conversation on new Avenue in the last year about our construction bid advertisements and some of the challenges that we have faced uh as the full project was advertised in March 2024 with a 2-year construction window uh we received no bids during that time frame in May of 2024 uh City Engineering Services Transportation Transit spent a lot of June and July getting feedback from the interested contractors uh looking at what the concerns were again the 2-year construction schedule was identified as one of the primary concerns uh additionally Public Utilities work that is attached to the project uh also was a concern about completing within a 2-year time frame and then existing private utilities that are in the state department of transportations right away that needed to relocate out of the RightWay for the construction work to begin was also a risk that was identified at that time uh and then we also received specific uh feedback from contractors that were interested in the vertical station design part of the project that they weren't sure of who their best Partners would be who was actually submitting a bid and so from all of that feedback we decided to break up the project between the horizontal work that needed to happen and the station design work that needed to happen uh into in two different parts so we read vertis the horizontal roadway work with a three and a half year construction window again looking at that feedback about schedule being a concern extending that time frame but including some incentives of uh potential early completion if anyone was able to complete in a shorter time frame we received a single bid in October 2024 which most recently uh was brought to Council in January as a rejection item because of the amount over Engineers estimate that that bid was and so from that point onwards we have since had a industry day at the end of January on January 27th we brought in those interested contractors uh and presented our approach of breaking the project further into Geographic uh Parts phases as well as taking out some scope components if that made sense from a contractor perspective to become more competitive to get uh a array of contractors interested in the project and try to get more bids in this next round of advertisement uh additionally now we are working on those contractor follow-ups so we're planning on having one-on ones with different contractors who may not have spoken up at the industry day but may still have some valuable feedback to provide to that process uh and discuss that Geographic breakdown as well as some project risks to better understand how we could package our next advertisement to be uh as competitive as it can be we're also working with the State Department of Transportation on a constructability review as well as a risk uh feedback from their construction Engineers to again understand if if there's something that we could be doing differently to get more competitive within our um advertisements and then the last bullet there again is we're also going to work with the State Department of Transportation and other partners to host another webinar to get more interest from a contractor Community uh to understand what bus Rapid Transit projects are again they are roadway projects mostly dedicated bus lanes are new roadway constructions so it is similar to other projects they've worked on the complexity comes in from a station design perspective a lot of times those roadway contractors may not be typically used to the complexity of a vertical station um as well as some of the other elements of the station design and technology that gets factored into that component um we have identified a new read vertisements 1 and three which is the downtown area as well as the area east of 440 into one package and advertising uh late March early April for that and area two which is the median running Transit way from pool road all the way out to Sunnybrook to wake Med as the larger part of the construction of the project which would be advertised end of June early July and then that station design or Station construction component is a target advertisement to be determined once we actually have the horizontal work schedule in place because the horizontal work needs to happen first before any vertical Station construction work can happen and I will pause here because this is the end end of the Newburn Avenue project updates first questions I have a few uh let me start with the easier one first and then I'll just go to some of the others well first thank you for uh the presentation and uh I recognize that the new profile of the street is going to change dramatically um it's going to go from a Parkway with a median that everyone's familiar with both here Newburn as well as Western and just want to be very clear clearly the segment uh from Wake Med to Raleigh Boulevard landscape heavily on both sides but when you get to Raleigh Boulevard toward downtown particular segment between tarbor Road just want to make sure glad to see the CRP myrtles go uh but it's also important that we look very carefully at our street trees just a nod to the parks department make sure we have native but larger trees to offer shade very often the street trees we put in are I think undersized and don't provide the proper canopy but I think it'll also help that Corridor for those segments I know there are some of illustrations but really just want to take a close look I don't think it needs to be part of this contract the city can plant its own trees but just just a point out there to make sure that we want to have trees as people walk to provide that proper shade you have it on the other segments but just pay attention and not have trees that are ornamental uh but ones that actually uh add value to our environment and provide shade uh so that's just a point I wanted to make in general uh and that also I think goes for Western but that's at a different stage a question just about uh you said potentially take out scope components can you talk about what you're looking at so that we the council and public knows as you start to Value engineer what potentially may be taken out in order to bring that price down yeah so that was taking out scope components to try to get more competitive bids uh one of the uh challenges we noticed was certain items probably had more difference from Engineers estimate to what the single bid we received was and so we were trying to identify how to break that up and advertise a scope component of clearing and grubbing by itself that was identified as one aspect in the January 7th Council rejection um action item what we heard from the eneral contractor community on industry day was that there wouldn't be significant interest in a construction bid advertisment of just this clearing and grubbing by itself as an item uh that is typically work that the general contractor tries to identify a subcontractor for or potentially maybe even a disadvantaged business Enterprise to complete that level of activity and so they would like to see that stay with the larger project uh from a value engineering perspective we have to at least address all of the scope items that we've committed to to the Federal Grant in the project which is dedicated bus lanes for that certain amount of project that we have identified 3.8 miles um as well as the multi-use path and some of the key components of the station design those things aren't things we can value engineer uh things where we are able to Value engineer are probably materiality decisions on station Design Technology components where we may be able to take some things out um from user experience perspective if it's becoming too costly we may be able to manage that but the overall project itself of getting dedicated bus lanes uh for 3.3 miles out of that 5.4 mile Corridor is a key component of the project this thing is important as we go through the process the public understands their expectation originally the challenges and what they may see as the final product different than what they anticipated um any concern about having potential different contractors doing different segments is there any risk concerned if you you know one contractor will take area one and three and then you have another one taken area two uh how would you manage that risk of having two different General Contractors and Subs handling two different segments yeah so that is why in March we you know advertised the entire project as a whole um that was one of the lessons learned that we had heard from the Federal Transit Administration and other peers that have constructed the project our followup since then in June and July have resulted in conversations with agencies that have done both so the Indianapolis uh Indigo project they implemented bus Rapid Transit and had different contractors doing the linear work versus the vertical work um it does bring in the risk for the city the the city's Engineering Services Department as well as our uh construction Administration administrator or engineering and inp I consultant will have a little bit more to take on to make sure that those components are seamlessly integrated one of the benefits that the geographic split split does have now is that there is a good work uh difference between bus only Lanes on the right side of the roadway into the median running Transit way at an intersection that allows for that clear change in responsibilities from a contractor perspective last question you mentioned the federal funding I think we all know that a new atmosphere uh let's just say at the federal level in terms of when you have to start to draw down before like just want to understand you have Federal funding usually comes with a timeline where you have to start spending it or drawing down what is the timeline in terms of your commitment for FTA when you have to start spending before they say the time is expired yeah so this grant uh fortunately was executed in uh August of 22 and we have been drawing down on this grant for any of the design work that has already happened to date so we provide quarterly updates to the Federal Transit Administration on the project as soon as we have a construction award that we can uh take to council get it awarded and start moving the project we'd be able to reimburse construction uh under that same activity so to be clear because you're already started drawing down it doesn't have that clock that the federal government can say uh the time expired you have to return the money oh not you won't get any additional funds that is Sor there is an executed contract for the project thank thank you so much uh I have a few questions on the industry day how many companies are you speaking to one-on-one so far the one-on-one follow-ups uh there's at least been two that have been scheduled we're still working on scheduling more on the January 27th industry industry day we probably had at least five or six General Contractors show up and then they had multiple people with them and just seeing from our uh last two bids what if we don't get anything then what yeah so I think our responses we're continuing to look at market conditions as to how we respond uh to a bid advertisement uh we're working really hard to incorporate any feedback we're getting from the contractor Community to try to make this project more competitive get more interest even if it's not just the uh Statewide contractors or local contractors but from Regional cont contractors out in the area that need to understand or can understand that there may be more than one construction project that follows this cycle definitely and on the Statewide um how much of this project do you think may be being affected due to uh everyone going to Western North Carolina to help rebuilding Helen yeah I mean I think that's part of market conditions there are resources that are uh rightfully uh transported into areas that are more in need at the moment from a construction perspective and so that was probably something that factored into our last advertisement uh we'll continue to monitor that and see how we may need to respond to it awesome and um if we can go back you don't need to I'm just going to go backwards to the beginning of the um presentation um when we talk about solar panels and we're looking at that what is that cost for putting solar panels in and will it be completely zeroed out with what we're projecting that we would be covering with the solar panel cost I would have to look back at that and we can bring that back to you okay I would say generally um the benefit there is offsetting electric costs to the stations um what we're trying to do is we're still going to need connection to the grid system because we have ticket vending machines on the stations we have needs for electricity that can't solely just rely on the solar panels itself um and so we could do that analysis okay and then I promise last question MD or it came up last night at a Southwest CAC meeting we were talking about the articulated buses which we got earlier and I was able to right on them they're super fun um are we going to be able to use those especially if this timeline is continually pushed back are we going to be able to use those in our everyday service now so we're not just watch having them sit there so that is part of the federal project um in order to do anything with those Vehicles outside of service on the bus Rapid Transit project it would require a federal waiver or it would also put the project on um or those buses when you put them in Revenue Service that basically means that you're starting their life cycle for use and so there is some challenges or constraints um on that for now awesome thank you so much councelor P Hi H thanks for this um I just have two and they might build on um councelor Jones's so one um we heard some Community feedback fear that the two failed bids meant that the project that the whole concept of brt is not viable the counterargument being that this is really more of a technical problem that this is a project that's never been done in North Carolina and it's building a muscle for an IND industry that's never been exercised before um can you provide any commentary or Comfort to the public that this is a good that this is still a good idea yeah I mean you know we are trying to move more people uh in an area where we're growing this is a needed aspect of our service if you go on Route 15 now now if you go on Route One or Route 7 those are the three main routes that are currently identified as brt corridors within the Gale system those routes are all highly performing routes and there is existing ridership on these corridors that would benefit from a level of service improvement to every 10 minutes during peak hours uh again other peer agencies have implemented services like this before unfortunately North Carolina does not have anything in place now but we do have even in the triangle region more than just our projects there is a north south brt in Chapel Hill Durham is considering bus Rapid Transit projects as well and so this area is going to continue to uh grow and benefit from a service like this if we're able to successfully get it in the streets um and I think the Comfort level is again explaining to anyone that has questions about it that it is dedicated bus lanes but that's building roads it's not rail work it's not something that's extremely complex um it is something that they're used to doing which is drainage storm water roadway widening but just building it in the median of the busway thank you and then just one I just had one more um this is less of a question more of a comment um we call them the Bendy buses in my house um no one's hiring me for Branding work but um it to build on council member Jones comment I I would really love to to see and like urge you all to continue to figure out ways to be really tactical if we see if we foresee that these are not going to go out on time or they're not going to return back on time like let really get creative on how we can get the Bendy buses out on the road like make this the service that people were expecting to see so counseler Branch yeah I just just some comments um it's gonna be brief because I know we have the rest of the presentation but um thank you for the work that you're doing I know that as you're going through this work you're actually offering Lessons Learned to the other municipalities to Durham and to Chapel Hill who are looking at bus Rapid Transit um and making lanes and making Provisions as well as go triangle and connecting all of the municipalities because right now the way the bus Rapid Transit plans work they can only operate within that particular County so with us talking about region ISM there is conversation at the Go triangle level on how you can connect Durham County to Wake County and Orange County to Durham County and also Campo is is getting more involved in trying to figure this out as well so um cuz we know rail is still floating out there but we need multimodal service and bus rapid transit in the long run could be something similar to what was has been done in LA everyone knows about the rail system they have in La now well I found out that it started out as bu Rapid Transit so we have the potential to grow this as we continue to grow cuz people are moving here so definitely want to thank you the staff and the work that you're doing and just give a sense of comfort that yes being the tip of the spear with bus Rapid Transit can be challenging but there are others coming behind us yeah thanks for all the updates I'm curious what does the federal kind of landscape look for funding for the next segments do you have any sense of any concerns or roadblocks yeah I I I think we just have to wait to see how this next round of Federal Transit administration's annual report out to the president's budget shows uh so we submitted the Western Corridor and that's going to come up in the updates but we submitted the Western Corridor for Ratings application in August of last year that was our federal ask for the Western Corridor which was about 150 million um in that program and so one waiting to see if we're going to be eligible but two what does it mean from an allocation perspective uh there are projects that have to wait a year or two years to get their allocation uh before they can move forward in a grant agreement process and when do you think we will hear back yeah so that time frame is typically when the president's budget is released that happens in Fe February but this could be February March this time around okay because the change yeah thank you councelor Sil I have a comment and then just one question uh for council member um those concerned about whether this is successful project or not as council member Patton uh this is an issue about a general contractor with all the risks involved with utilities and all things changing that they can actually construct and find the contractors to construct at a price where they can make a profit on this project and I think that's what's being weighed so uh clearly this is a needed uh Mobility option for many residents but right now what they're finding out is that the unpredictability of prices uh the unknowns you know as commissioner I built over 850 capital projects over a 10year period And there's unpredictability of things that are in the ground that you don't anticipate and so you're doing your best to anticipate those unknowns the risk involved so clearly this is a worthwhile project is just trying to find a right path forward where the general contractor and there some contractors feel that they can move forward to deliver a product to the city's expectations so I'm confident we'll find a way forward my one question is more of a planning or Transportation uh critically important as we look at Safe Streets it's not just the route itself but out don't know if we're looking at the sidewalks or routes to the stations to make sure that there are appropriate crosswalks that it is safe uh you don't want something where it's a half mile distance to get to the next traffic signalized intersection to cross over to get the other side was that part of the thinking of looking at those routes to Newburn Avenue so people now have to walk in a street without a sidewalk to get to the station are we Thinking Beyond the corridor different scope clearly than the brt but just want to understand that we're having a safe streets Network for our passengers who may be in a wheelchair a stroller or a cane just explain to me what's happening beyond the corridor is there a 5minute or 10-minute look on both sides of the Newburn Corridor yes so the Newburn Corridor there was a station area planning effort that completed last year that looked at rezonings in the quarter half mile area around the stations but it also looked at first mile Last Mile projects and so it did Identify some priority projects east of the belt line that we have begun working on with some Capital funds that we had um as well as identifying some projects that would be future Capital Improvement prog program of projects that could uh fill in those gaps and that question will apply to all the future planning so that's a general cover thank you okay I think we are ready to move on to the next section all right um and I will say again we we're doing what we can from a risks perspective the private utilities uh again at the industry day we provided a schedule to the general contractors a lot of the private U uity work that needed to relocate out is starting to be completed at this point so good way or bad way the unsuccessful bids have allowed for those private utilities to move out of the way and open up the right away for construction activities one quick question will the utility lines that are above ground is that part of plan put those underground or you're just looking at we're still going to have our utility polls which govern how tall AR trees can be and where they can go there are still going to be utility poles cost prohibitive as we have found million million calling out my friends from around the country we want a great quarter can you please donate a 100 million all right uh I'm gonna move on to the southern Corridor and I think in this time uh sensitive uh conversation I'll probably do southern and western together and pause because there's only four slides and then we'll do the northern Corridor at the very end uh so the southern Corridor is also about 5 Mi with 3.8 Mi of dedicated bus lanes uh that's about 75% of the corridor being in dedicated bus lanes it's actually higher than what we have on Newburn Avenue there would be nine new stations from downtown Raleigh out to town of Garner connecting to town of Garner at the Walmart at perser Drive uh an additional 7even 60t articulated bus buses would be needed for that project uh and they would likely be compressed natural gas as well uh and then we would have signalized priority at the signalized intersections I want to draw attention to the South wimington Street Extension this was identified as the preferred alternative for the southern Corridor and there are some significant property impacts for this new roadway construction uh that would also utilize dedicated bus lanes as well as the bike pad infrastructure that uh comes into place as well our prelimin preliminary design work has tried to mitigate as many impacts as possible but there are still going to be some impacts to some commercial properties in that area we do have a lot of city-owned property coming off of the extension as well so the the design currently has tried to draw that line between Redevelopment opportunity for the city of R own and Parcels as well as uh the parcels that are going to be impacted and when we're ready for those Council conversations on that Wilmington Street Extension we will be bringing that back to you in the next couple months currently the project is at about 30% design it's under review with the uh transportation department Engineering Services Department as well as a couple different disciplines within the City of Raleigh it will then be shared with our State Department of Transportation partners for their review of 30% design in the summer of 2025 and our anticipated timeline is to have 60% design complete sometime in early 2026 uh the federal funding question was asked about the other corridors so for the southern Corridor in May of last year we actually had an allocation made under the president's budget for 85.9 million so that money is there at the moment uh and if we can complete our 60% design our cost estimates at the 60% design level and work with our Federal Transit Administration Partners on a risk and Readiness review for that project uh and get agreement from the Federal Transit Administration that project could then move into a full funding Grant agreement for that 85.9 million um so again what I'm trying to say is that that allocation is out there uh when it's allocated there are probably some risks to what can happen to that funding if it's not obligated or awarded under an executed contract uh from a construction timeline perspective again this project uh once we have 60% design complete we would bring that back to council for condemnation condemnation authorization at that 60% design level uh and then we could bring into RightWay acquisition sometime in 2026 uh and then probably construction after and so the Western Corridor is 12 miles it is about 7.5 miles in dedicated Lanes connecting downtown Raleigh to town of kry through Western Boulevard there's also a new roadway extension uh Western Boulevard extension that's part of that project connecting to Carytown Boulevard into mayard and chadam to get to downtown carry uh it would have 18 new stations for that project uh three of those gray stations in downtown Raleigh would be constructed as part of Newburn or Southern corridors and so those are not counted into the project uh station number there would be 10 new 60ft articulated buses needed for that and at that point because it's so much further out in the construction or operations timeline we will investigate either electric or alternative fuel cell vehicles to try to diversify that bus Rapid Transit Fleet of vehicles uh and then it will also have signalized uh priority at signalized intersections along the corridor from a current status perspective this project just transitioned from preliminary design to final design so in December of 2024 Council authorized the contract for final design consultant to begin working on the project uh we anticipate 30% design sometime this summer or fall of this year and then as I mentioned earlier uh to council member Harrison's question we submitted this project to Federal Transit Administration in August of 2024 and we anticipate finding out what their ratings for the project is in Spring most likely March end of March time frame and I'll pause there for southern and western questions yeah could you just speak to the dotted lines there I think that's close to Buck Jones Road that is correct so that has been on the City of Raleigh streets plan since probably the 70s or 80s that is a new roadway extension that was in the City of Raleigh streets plan that was then identified as a preferred alternative for the bus Rapid Transit project as well and so that would be a new roadway extension that would include general purpose Lanes as well as dedicated bus lanes and bike pad infrastructure so it would be a new road entirely that is correct that goes through it goes through some uh wooded land as well as some residential areas okay and that is currently what we are working on from a design perspective similar to the conversations on the southern Corridor with the South Wilmington Street Extension when we're ready with a a review of 30% designs that we can have that conversation with Council we would be bringing that back to council okay thanks y councelor Sil yeah mayor P too go first yeah you haven't said anything um on the wimington street Corridor which is the one I'm personally most excited about is there any portion of that that can be expedited to try to nail down the Federal funding I know you you said you'd bring it back in a couple months but is there anything that could be done to move it up a little bit more quickly so the federal process is that a project sponsor has to go through a risk and Readiness review with the Federal Transit Administration and they identify a project management oversight consultant that looks at your project they look at the scope of your project the costs the schedule and then they provide their recommendations uh for Newburn Avenue one of the things we learned was when we did that at 30% design we didn't have enough information for the Federal Transit Administration to feel comfortable giving the grant agreement and so 30% designed we needed a risk refresh with the federal trans Administration to get the project into a full funding Grant agreement if we can get to 60% design faster that would be the way to get Federal Transit Administration to look at the project sooner um start to have those conversations with them about the risk and Readiness review for the project just so I understand you said the preferred alternative was again uh mayor protm just trying to understand the choice of Wilmington versus South Saunders can you I know they connect a 401 going toward Garner further to the South but just uh just so my understanding you know at downtown South and other projects coming you know access to dicks just explain a reason why it was the preferred alternative that Wilmington surface as opposed to South Saunders yeah so I think there's challenges with South Saunders uh with how much traffic there's existing on South Saunders especially once the merge happens going south into town of Garner um that environment of 8 to 10 lanes is not conducive to easy Crossing of pedestrians to get to the bus stations uh the City of Raleigh owned Parcels off of the flyover provided an opportunity both from affordable housing uh development perspective Redevelopment perspective to have a new roadway extension coming through those parcels into town of Garner and then town of Garner's comprehensive plan I think one of the things I want to highlight here is these locally preferred Alternatives both for the southern Corridor and for the Western Corridor have gone through uh town of Garner's Council as well as city of or City Town of carry councils as well as the Capital Area Metropolitan planning organizations executive boards as actually adopted into the Metropol and transportation plan and that's what the Federal Transit Administration really looks at uh as a codified approval of the project before we can apply for federal funding so this is a regional project that had a lot of consensus or coordination efforts with the Alternatives analysis to identify those so to be clear the South Wilmington was selected by not just Raleigh but other partners as preferred alternative that is correct okay thank you okay right so we've talked a lot about design engineering uh with the core corridors of Newburn Avenue southern and western that are in the federal process uh I want to provide a little bit more background to planning process as it relates to bus Rapid Transit projects and how those decisions are made as we go into the northern Corridor discussion major investment study is a term really Loosely looking at capital projects how do you identify the planning needs of a large project before you Embark onto the preliminary dis design engineering part of those projects and so the initial work that's done in the planning study is looking at Alternatives analysis it looks at cost of operating the service maintenance costs uh it's looking at budgeting exercise to really figure out in our large wake Transit plan model out in the 10-year Windows you know can we operate this project once it's constructed uh and so in 2018 the Capital Area no completed the major investment study for all four of those bus Rapid Transit corridors that the City of Raleigh is a project sponsor for in 2021 uh when the Capital Area no did the Wake Transit Vision Plan update uh and a need was identified for the City of Raleigh to continue investigating extensions to the northern Corridor because the initial 2016 Corridor ends at Crabtree Boulevard and that's a really short distance coming out of downtown Raleigh to north um and so we were asked to investigate those dash line connections from Raleigh to Midtown Raleigh and downtown Raleigh to Triangle Town Center and that's when we started the major investment study for the northern Corridor in 20122 so an overview of the study again the purpose is to try to connect downtown Raleigh to Midtown Raleigh and downtown Raleigh to the Triangle Town Center uh I do want to again highlight this is not in the federal process in any way part of the major investment study is to really identify an implementation approach for the project uh really look at what would would be competitive under the federal Transit administration's capital investment grant program which one of these corridors may make sense for that process and which one may be something that the city has to work through the Wake Transit plan uh annual work plan budgeting process to really try to implement as a local project if it's not federally competitive or if it's not going to be federally competitive uh so in 22 we began this study and we had some fatal flaw analysis in the fall of 22 in summer of 24 we had refinement and screening of the Alternatives so it's kind of hard to see on that visual but all of the blue lines that you see would be connections from downtown Raleigh out to Triangle Town Center and all of the orange options that you see uh of roadway segments would be connections from downtown Raleigh to Midtown Raleigh and then this graphic probably gets a little bit better at uh what the next steps are for the project which is we have two Alternatives that would Advance into a detailed screening for each Corridor and I want to highlight this is looking at remaining roadway segments that can be interchangeable so even though an alternative um for example if you look at the Orange Alternative for the Midtown connection which goes on Atlantic and then Six Forks uh is identified as alternative one that doesn't mean that that could be or that would be the locally preferred alternative what can happen is when we investigate the roadway segments in a detail screening you could have a variation of alternative one and five come out as the preferred Alternatives so uh we're really in the detail screening process looking at roadway segments to see what may make the project most either federally competitive or beneficial from a ridership as well as opportunities for dedicated bus lanes Q jumps uh that sort of activity to to try to get the most uh ontime performance or reliable service out there um similarly for Triangle Town Center we have two Alternatives Capital Boulevard and then the Atlantic Avenue over to Capital Boulevard is two uh opt options that would be investigated in the detailed screening I have highlighted existing routes that currently operate on those roadway segments again that's to give an idea of our current fixed route service that operates Within These roadway segments and what the ridership may be like for those projects as we look at uh what is competitive under a federal process for um the northern corridor and so the next steps for the northern Corridor are uh the first part is what I'm bringing to you guys today which is identification of the alignments that are going to go into the detail detail screening uh and then we would conduct the detail screening of the remaining alignments have public engagement on the detail screening this summer and then come back to council with a selection for uh locally preferred alternatives for each connection downtown Raleigh to Midtown as well as downtown Raleigh to Triangle Town Center and that is one thing that I want to highlight highlight here I think it's uh come up in the past this is not either or uh at this point in the Wake Transit plan the northern Corridor has been split into two projects so there is a project for downtown Raleigh to Midtown Raleigh and downtown Raleigh to Triangle Town Center it's really a a matter of identifying which one may be more appropriate for that Federal Transit Administration federally competitive Grant process and which one we may want to look at local wake Transit plan dollars to try to fund um if that's the the end result and I think that's my last slide so I'll be happy to answer any questions all right um I'll we won't start with you I'll start with counselor Patton okay um well I'm glad you addressed it I was going to ask you as I will probably do until those orange Bundy buses are on the road uh it's not in either or Midtown or Triangle Town Center but you already addressed that so I appreciate that uh I am a route one user and as you mentioned previously that is standing room only all day long from 5:00 a.m. to to 10 p.m. when I have taken it to leave these meetings so that is a a busy and active route with a proven track record am I understanding this graphic that there is not an an existing line that gets from downtown to Midtown that is correct there are cross town connections that make that service happen but there isn't one specific route that would do that I think we have routes that go on those radway segments but not directly to M got it is there uh like what analysis um then is telling you that that will be a productive route not that I disagree but what is what data are you basing it on yeah so I think that's going to be part of the detail ridership modeling work as well and I think there may be a missing route on there but Route 8 actually does provide that level of service going further up on six forks okay and then um council member Lambert Melton is not here but asked me to lift up the question around land use planning in on this Northern Corridor when um when do we anticipate there might be to might by Tod time yeah so our early level of work just looks at to potential um but from a station area planning perspective we need to have the preferred route identified as well as what your typical station spacing would be on that type of service so on bus Rapid Transit we're normally looking at about Half Mile Station spacing a third of a mile if there's a lot of density in the area and so once we've identified those intersections or the areas where stations are likely to be then we can go into the next step with the Planning and Development Department to uh start a stationary planning ex exercise on the Northern Corridor councelor silver boy uh council member uh Lambert Melton is becoming quite a urban planner uh uh that was basically the question I was going to ask and I'm encouraging as you go forward land use drives Transportation Transportation drives land use they have to be looked at simultaneously and so I would just urge as you look at it uh this is one quarter that even years back uh could probably accommodate and I can't even speculate the number but thousands and thousands of housing units of all income levels uh clearly have to work with existing Property Owners as you go north of 440 there are aged out shopping centers that can certainly be re repositioned to mix you centers this is probably the most enormous opportunity in the City of Raleigh to handle our housing needs our growth needs uh along a transportation Corridor so to me it's not you know the the transportation planning goes first or the Lanos goes first they have to be done in Tandem and my expectation is that they will be uh at the last uh city council meeting I was asking some more insight about the Smoky Hollow for the reason that this Capital Boulevard is the beginning of where we could start to handle so much of our growth uh even though there were some businesses it'll minimize displacement of existing residents but offer a huge opportunity for a light rail for a Greenway for a connection of having a double loaded Corridor there's a railroad just outside of downtown and so to me I encourage uh the team to look at land use and transportation together because they go in Tandem and and so I'll just leave it at that but I'm encouraged by what I'm seeing to me this one slide about the future of the growth of the city is right there on that Northern corridor route we've got to get that right and I think that will begin to minimize a lot of concerns people are having because now you have a highdensity corridor with Transit access that really starts to handle a lot of issues so I'll underscore again land use drives Transportation Transportation drives land use and they have to go in tandem councelor Jones and then uh brand thank you so much for this presentation um first off when we look at the northern and love learning about stuff that you know is in the planning I like to call that the northeastern side because the Northwestern side as I will say again is never included in brt so we're talking about my entire district is excluded from this conversation and what I appreciate about uh counselor Branch bringing up is that I I do understand there different parts You' got Durham and there are other players in that I only ask that when we are having this conversation whether that's at transportation and transit or if you're at Campo or whatnot helping me to be able to explain to my residents that we're not leaving them out that they are definitely valued as part of this growth pattern um we have those same ISS the same things that we're talking about here in growth potential in shopping centers all up and down Glennwood Avenue um we have the airport which is huge and um and I feel that either I'm missing out on the conversation that led to us being excluded um or we we still need to have that conversation so it's nothing I understand this is not you this is not targeted at you but when I bring this to District e and they look at me and they're like I mean that's great no one is against brt no one is but they're like I I I don't know how to get excited and I want to be able to give them that excitement I'd say there are certainly some conversations um regionally uh the Regional Transportation Alliance has done a fast study that's looking at more opportunities for bus Rapid Transit style projects uh the update to the wake Transit plan that's currently happening is also investigating some additional bus Rapid Transit corridors and Glennwood has been identified as a potential connection so I think that is a a a good point to make and I think there will be more that comes out of that study thank you and just following up on that so just broad brush what is so different about Capitol Boulevard than Glennwood what what made its score so much higher you know I think right now what makes Capital score so much higher is there is existing Transit dependent ridership on Route One that um council member Pat talked about there is barely standing room on our route one buses right now and that could move to a 10-minute frequency and that capacity still probably may not have uh enough room so that helps from a federal project perspective they look at the existing ridership on the corridor the overall growth and development opportunity are are also investigated but that's part of the scoring I'll reiterate there that this is in no way wanting Glenwood to jump the gun because I think what you have planned is phenomenal and I think that's the way we should go but as I am trying to get my district as excited I want to be able to say hey these are future conversations that we are we are actually part of um so that's all that I'm looking for in no way do I think any of this should change because your work has been amazing so thank you Council Branch yeah a couple things before I ask my question just some some information based on the Glenwood conversation cuz um before I was on Council I was on the W County um Committee of residents that came together and one of the things too was right away constraints so parts of Glennwood is very difficult to add another Lane um and from the understanding at the time ncdot wouldn't allow you to take a lane away in order to add brt um so I think that those constraints resides on parts of Glenwood that makes it somewhat challenging um my question though comes back when we talk about constraints and change and our good friends at NCD there are plans to make some modifications to US1 on from 440 to 540 and and as part of those changes and modifications are is brt still in ingrained in those conversations working with n doot cuz that would have that has a major impact on us choosing a route as well yeah it's certainly helpful on the city's end when we have a capital nort study that happened a year two years ago as well as our comprehensive plan that shows the cross-section of capital as bus lanes four bus lane six whatever we have it now that allows us to have those conversations with ncdot when they reach out for project design uh discussions or conversations and allows us to incorporate at least space for a median bus station on Capital when they're doing some kind of improvements there even though they may not be constructing it but that's something that can be constructed afterwards when the service comes and the other part I want to mention to to all the council members as well is there's a mention of the study now of looking at the next update to the W County Transit plan when this first plan was first put together it was not meant to be the final um so even when we talk about the new avue Corridor and how right now it goes to Walmart the ultimate plan was to go from all the way to ndale um it was easier to get Garner and Carrie involved sooner so that's why those brt routes southern and western already had that way so then the conversation now when they're looking at the alter alternative for the north Corridor then okay how do we get to wake far us or maybe Roseville within Wake County and we know the changes that NCD is looking looking at Capital from 540 North and making it really more of a freeway um with maybe some side roads so all of this is playing a part in the changes and the makeup and the growth of our area um because if you drive up 401 heading towards Roseville you already see the major growth and impact that has already taken place there so just keep in mind that these conversations though we're we're we're starting it out we're like the core other communities within the county are looking to be connected and to be a part of this uh council member Branch made a good point earlier and I want to reiterate what he just said number one what you said is that a brt line today I'm sorry bus Rapid Transit line today could be a light rail line tomorrow and I do believe that I'm hoping we didn't do side of that important mode of Light Rail but the sine uh if you can kind of quickly talk about what is what is the state of the sine because that is a rail route from Wake Forest to Raleigh and how that in the state's mind would impact uh this bus Rapid Transit line going to Triangle Town Center and Beyond to Wake Forest and if you don't know the sine is a uh rail option on the existing railroad ride of way that's coming toward from Virginia from Wake Forest and I think the next stop would be downtown Raleigh okay I'll see if uh Michael wants to add anything else to it couple stops there's a couple stops right before you get down got it okay good afternoon I'm Michael Morman the assistant city manager and have the pleasure of working with trans uh transportation and Transit you know the sine is U and the and brt are really complimentary Services as we note um one is a communter service with longer stops uh longer distances between stops one's more frequent and helps with more localized service but also a speedy travel time um I will say that with uh some of the changes in the federal environment what's happening there today I think we should stay tuned and see what we H what happens with us line I think that's going to be a a pretty critical project for our Corridor it's had lots of support and going forward I hope it will continue to have that support uh with our delegation and I'll I'll just add I think the State Department of Transportation has done some Tod work around the sine projects and they've identified some areas for Mobility hubs uh so we've been in tune to that conversation as well as making sure that the northern Corridor once we have a preferred alternative there are some options to connection either at a Mobility Hub onto that potential future service or or something else with the rail my last point because this is very important as we have this conversation why I'm emphasizing the L use the public should understand as these studies go forward these quarters going to look very different there's an expectation that the Raleigh we have today is going to be very different tomorrow if these new corridors are developed as we envision it's important we share that as quickly as possible growth is coming and to channel it in locations where we know growth is coming so it doesn't encroach on neighborhoods is to me a very practical and important message get out and so these aren't just lines on a map but I think the public should clearly understand that as these new Transportation modes are developed it will warrant substantial land use changes alow the quarters just as we're seeing on Newburn it could even be higher higher development on Newburn that we'll see on the cap the northern Corridor so that's something that the public should understand be aware now that as these conversations evolve and we look at the land use implication this is going to change the image of the city particularly on all these routes so I'm personally grateful that we saw these options uh including those routes to Midtown which I'm sure the service will be different because the road profile is very different uh but just want to make sure the public is paying attention because they're getting uh a heads up as these plans evolve about what to anticipate Y and I was just going to add um some comments M related to the interaction between Rail brt and then Road Project north of 540 so um you know the sine as it was is as it's like currently funded although TBD and all that but um you know is going to go from downtown W for us to downtown Raleigh but there's posited like a future stop at gresham's Lake near 540 and so la every time they come and give us an update that we're over here like can you please make sure those will connect um so there's a lot of attention paid to the connections between brt and that potential future someday stop and then north of 540 there's the um U 5307 project which will turn Capital into a limited access freeway there and I think um city has submitted proposal to ncdot to make sure that the shoulders are wide enough to allow for bus on shoulder for future Transit expansion F further north into Wake Forest so um I think there is a lot of attention being paid to the coordination between all three of those infrastructure projects okay thank you so much yeah thank you for the engaged volley of questions that you answered um all right do we have that concludes today's work session okay good job very yeah very much appreciate all that information all right we uh stand adjourned reconvene at 7:00 at 7 [Music]