Transportation

Today's (actually, tomorrow's) News-Gazette:

The Midwest High Speed Rail Association believes that a possible future high-speed rail line linking Chicago and St. Louis should pass through Champaign.

Such a line would see trains traveling at 220 mph, would cost about $12 billion to construct and would cut travel time between Chicago and St. Louis to less than two hours, said Rick Harnish, executive director of the association, at a news conference at the Illinois Terminal this morning.

More information here.

Discuss.

Annexed:

The village officially has ownership of a portion of Curtis Road after the board unanimously approved Wednesday night to approve annexation of approximately 18 acres of right of way.

By annexing the property, between Prospect Avenue and about a quarter-mile east of Mattis Avenue, the village will be able to continue construction of the nearly $11 million Curtis Road improvement project, despite opposition from Champaign Township.

The Curtis Road jurisdiction saga continues:

Champaign Township Supervisor John Schmidt said he doesn't have any problem with Savoy and Champaign annexing property to gain control of Curtis Road, something he said they should have done in the first place and which city officials have admitted was an oversight. But Schmidt also said he didn't think it was the township's responsibility to make it easy for the municipalities.

"They were asking us to give them an asset of the township and not offering anything," he said. "It'd be like me asking you to give up your car."

Schmidt had suggested a meeting between the township and Champaign officials to try to resolve long-standing differences about annexation in return for surrendering jurisdiction of Curtis Road. When Champaign annexes property, it automatically becomes a part of City of Champaign Township, which shrinks Champaign Township's tax base. Champaign Township is south and west of the city.

"I was thinking, 'Let's sit down and see if this doesn't have to happen,'" Schmidt said. "But we get called blackmailers. That makes it seem to me like they don't have a real willingness to sit and talk about issues."

Discuss.

Three significant happenings at last night's Champaign City Council meeting.  The first is that three new Council members were sworn in - Will Kyles in District 1, Kyle Harrison in 3, and Dave Johnson in 5.  Re-elected incumbents Mike Ladue (Distrct 2) and Marci Dodds (District 4) were also sworn in.  Congratulations to all five individuals.

The second is bond refinancing:

The city council approved refinancing 1998 and 1999 bond issues totaling $9.1 million. The old bonds had an interest rate of 4 percent, which has been reduced to 2.2 percent with the new bonds.
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The new tax-free bonds were sold Tuesday to Stifel Nicolaus & Co. Inc. of St. Louis, which also has a Champaign office. The new bonds will be paid off in 2016, the same payoff date as the old bonds.

The third is Curtis Road jurisdiction battles:

[S]ome officials say the negotiations with the Los haven't gone well, and they're giving serious consideration to a second option: having Champaign County transfer ownership of the Curtis Road right of way to Savoy before the project begins.

"The county did buy right of way (on both sides of Curtis Road) and we're looking at that," Helton said. "Typically, the county would transfer ownership at the end of the project to the appropriate municipality. We may move that transfer up, if we have to, to get this done."

Legal staff for Savoy, Champaign and Champaign County have researched the issue and believe such a transfer would give Savoy legal jurisdiction over Curtis Road and allow the project to proceed, he said.

The county owns about 150 feet of right of way that encompasses both sides of the current Curtis Road, according to Roland White, Champaign's city engineer.

Discuss.

This is interesting:

A hard-line negotiating stance by Champaign Township officials is threatening to shut down the long-planned, $11 million Curtis Road project.

Township officials are withholding approval for improving a three-quarter-mile stretch of Curtis Road between Prospect and Mattis avenues unless they get concessions from the city of Champaign on annexation policy or future city boundary lines.

Champaign, Savoy and Champaign County officials, who are partners in the road project along with the state, call the strategy "inappropriate." And they warn that the project might have to be shut down in four to six weeks if the dispute isn't resolved.

"It's blackmail," charged Champaign Mayor Jerry Schweighart. "There's no good reason for them to be doing what they're doing."

But Champaign Township Supervisor John Schmidt makes no apologies.

"They forgot it wasn't their road," he said. "That's the bottom line."

The relationship between the City and the Township have been poor for some time, to the point where annexations are contested and some annexed areas have been "disconnected" back to the Township.  We now face the absurd situation where City of Champaign Township is a coterminous township that is no longer coterminous.

Last evening I attended the Capital Program Hearing and had a different impression than what was reported in the NG today. 

There's plenty of support for a state capital improvements plan, based on the turnout at a public hearing Monday night in Champaign.  ...But few of the speakers voiced support for a way to back the bonds needed to finance the projects, and no one endorsed Bradley's specific plan – an 8-cent increase in Illinois' 19-cent-a-gallon motor fuel tax...

Apparently, the NG staff reported only the opening presentations that included the wish lists of various agencies.  There were several thoughtful presenters who later spoke on the specifics of the funding and what is needed to make a Capital Program a success.  There were passionate discussions of the diversions from the Highway Fund to other purposes under the previous administration and a serious presentation on the real size of Illinois Capital Program.  The Roadway Capital program has decreased by 2/3 in recent years.  That is not baseline budgeting, that is real dollars.  When you factor in the construction cost inflation, we are spending significantly less than we did over 10 years ago.  Funding roadways is a core function of govenment and allows us all to do our business, we should find a funding mechanism to fund Capital programs.

Maintenance just isn't a whole lot of fun.  Sometimes you get done with it, and you hardly know you did it.  And because it doesn't come with a plaque or ribbon cutting, it's usually pretty low on the list of items for government to do.

Two years ago (November 26, 2006) the NG ran an article about the City of Champaign's $43 million backlog in road funds for arterials alone.

Champaign has a whopping $43 million backlog of arterial road projects that are needed but not yet scheduled in the city 's 10-year capital improvement plan, most of them on the city 's southern, western and northern fringe areas.

But most of these road projects didn't make the list that was submitted  to the Regional Planning Commission.  However, $14 million for the "Second Street reach" .  No doubt, the Second Street project will feature a ribbon cutting, but fixing potholes on Mattis Avenue wouldn't do that.

Ralph Langenheim in my previous post said that the projects submitted were those that were so called "shovel ready".  What he's missing is that maintenance projects are the easiest ones to get off the ground, the most "shovel ready.".  Doing the engineering on widening a road, installing a new interchange, or building a new bridge can be complicated.  No one can expect the community to get Olympian Drive up and going in two months.

But are we really to believe that putting out bids to put new concrete down on Mattis Avenue would be that complicated?  It's the maintenance projects that are easiest to get going.

Likewise with some of the energy projects.  Replacing 30 year old windows in a building isn't a great engineering task.  The payoffs are great though.

This has been an ongoing problem with County goverment.  John Jay had to fight to get the County to finally paint the exterior of Brookens, even as rust was forming on the side panels.  But somehow we were able to get $15,000 worth of flower pots to protect our entrances from insane car drivers and a cute foot bridge will take the three or four visitors a year from the Main Street sidewalk up to the new County Highway building.

Hopefully, before this is all done, we can use a little more wisdom in deciding where we are looking to put the federal dollars that appear to be on their way to our community.

Today's News-Gazette:

When the first Zipcars in Champaign-Urbana become available this afternoon, don't let Carol Timms jump in front of you in line.

Timms, an environmental activist and education consultant, already has her Zipcar membership and intends to make use of it for errands around town and board-meeting trips to Chicago.

She lives in downtown Champaign in a one-car family. The bus is great, she says, but not so much for carting groceries around.

There are 250,000 Zipcar members nationwide, and they can avail themselves of one of six vehicles from a fleet jointly operated by the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, the University of Illinois and the cities of Champaign and Urbana.

Timms sounded intrigued Monday by one model, the Toyota Prius. She was interested in how the hybrid would ride.

"I'm an energy geek from way back," she said. "This is great for the environment. It means a lot fewer people will need to buy cars."

Discuss.

Hopefully this is a good sign for Illinois:

Peoria Republican congressman Ray LaHood will be nominated Transportation Secretary for the Obama Administration, Republican and Democratic sources said today.

I've been sitting on this for a few days, mostly to get past the Blagojevich storm, but partly because I've been busy.  But the storm doesn't look to be ending soon, so I'm posting anyway.

The Daily Illini has a good article about the relationship and negotiations between the University of Illinois and Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District.  (The table at right is from the DI.)

In the midst of contract negotiations with the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, it is clear that University officials hope to renew an agreement with the district that would keep bus service on campus.

It is unclear, however, under what provisions that contract will be renewed.

The University turned to a private transportation research team earlier this year to analyze the MTD relationship with the University and what type of changes can be made. Issues were raised regarding congestion on Wright Street and pedestrian safety.

"The question we asked was to see whether or not it would be advantageous to have our own bus system," said Associate Chancellor Peg Rawles.

"The answer was 'no way', that would be horrible. Don't do that to us," said Facilities and Services Transportation Demand Manager Morgan Johnston.

The transit analysis found that MTD charges the University $35 per hour when it costs between $70-$80 per hour to operate.

The analysis was a follow-up to a 2006 transportation study, independent of the MTD, which was also completed for the University. According to that report, the University is currently paying $3.6 million per year for campus bus service and is proposing an increase to $4.9 million to accommodate changes.

Safety is also a major focus of the discussions.

Discuss.

The recent NG stories on the CUMTD have focused on the tax levy, but given that its approval was a foregone conclusion, I think the real news has been the District's proposed park-and-ride/daycare facility:

[W]hen the conversation turned to the "park and ride" child care facility, board member Ron Peters said he thinks it's a great opportunity for the district. The district would contract the facility out, and could boost downtown development.

MTD's Director of Market Development Karl Gnadt said he thinks the location for the project at Illinois Terminal is the best of several prospects because it's in a central location and offers the best access to the most bus lines.

The board voted 5-0, with Tom Berns abstaining, to approve a letter of understanding with the city to look into what it would take to complete the project. Board member Yuki Llewellyn was absent.

It also voted 5-0, with Berns abstaining, to work with Ratio Architects to do preliminary architecture and engineering on the project, which could include up to four floors and 80,000 feet of space. The day care would occupy between 10,000 and 12,000 square feet of that, and other tenants would be found for the rest of the space, Volk said. Ratio Architects was chosen from eight firms that submitted proposals for the project, Gnadt said.

More information about the proposed facilty can be found here. 

(Disclosure:  I work for the Devonshire Group, which submitted a proposal for the architecture and engineering work, and also do politcal work for Congressman Tim Johnson who secured some of the Federal funding for the project.)

First, the budget request:

The university's 2010 budget asks for $113 million more for the year ending June 30, 2010. The bulk of the increase is for strengthening the UI's academic quality, including salary raises that would average 3 percent for faculty and staff and boosting the amount of money available for recruitment, retention and filling in the salary gaps between pay for new hires and longer-term employees.

The total amount set aside to meet inflationary and other cost increases in utilities, payroll and the library collection is $17.3 million.

The budget request initially asked for $109 million, but was increased after trustees and administrators expressed concern about the university's ability to compete with peer institutions in faculty salaries.

Second, change is coming to Willard:

University administrators will be gathering additional information, such as who uses the airport and how the UI uses it, and exploring possible strategies for additional revenue as well as the establishment of an airport authority.

Board Chairman Larry Eppley described Willard Airport as "a community asset" that is run with a "deep subsidy from the university." However, he questioned, "How long is that sustainable without some more regional cooperation?"

An effort is now under way "to try and come to a different governance structure than what we have," Bass said.

Saw this on Drudge.  More lunacy from Gov. Blagojevich.

To make good on his offer to help Chicago combat violence, Gov. Blagojevich envisions putting speed cameras on interstates across Illinois -- and using the revenue to form an "elite tactical team" that would operate in Chicago and other cities.

The idea is in its infancy, with no budget and no timetable.

Sigh.

A bike route map seems like one of those simple yet useful ideas:

So, about a year ago, members at Champaign County Bikes started talking about designing a different kind of map – one that would show the best routes for those on two wheels, said Rick Langlois, board chairman of CCB.

They talked, and for about six months they tested routes, working with the League of Illinois Bicyclists.

On Saturday morning, the map will be unveiled at Market at the Square at Lincoln Square Village, with a 10 a.m. presentation from several people involved. The event won't be hard to find – the neon yellow Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District "Share the Road" bus will be right behind it.

The map depicts ideal routes for the everyday cyclist, and is color-coded by comfort level. It's also designed to fit into a cyclist's pocket or pouch – but unfolds larger – and is free for anyone who wants one, though Champaign County Bikes welcomes donations, Langlois said.

Discuss.

From today's News-Gazette:

An extensive network of off-road paths, bicycle lanes and marked bike routes will be installed throughout Urbana over the next 15 years, under a proposed bicycle master plan headed to the city council.

Urbana would spend $2.8 million over the next 10 years adding the bicycle facilities, most of that during the first five years.

The master plan is geared to making bicycling more convenient and safer for the casual adult cyclist, according to Alderman Brandon Bowersox, D-Ward 4.

"A lot of people may not be hard-core cyclists, but they want a place where they feel comfortable riding a bicycle," he said. "We want them to have a safe place to ride."

Discuss.

From the Daily Illini:

Part of Campustown may soon be getting a makeover in order to become more developed and pedestrian-friendly.

The Champaign City Council gave instructions Tuesday night to move forward with a plan to work on Green Street. Since Green Street between Wright and Fourth streets has been worked on extensively in the past few years, the plan will, among other items, address the area from Fourth to First streets.

A few weeks ago, the City of Champaign wasn't satisfied with the bids it got for a downtown parking garage.  The new bids are in:

On its second round of bids, the city of Champaign got a more competitive price for building a 600-space parking garage at the southeast corner of Randolph and Hill streets in downtown Champaign and now appears ready to move forward on the project.

English Brothers Co. of Champaign submitted a low price of $10.59 million and likely will be awarded the job at the city council's March 18 meeting, said Craig Rost, deputy city manager for development. A bid opening was held Friday.

In the first round of bidding, the lowest responsive bid was $11.9 million by F.A. Wilhelm Construction Co. of Indianapolis.

If the number and severity of potholes has you distressed this winter, jut wait until next year – it will be worse.  That shouldn’t be a surprise.  As long as we continue to under-fund the rehabilitation of our transportation network, it is exactly what rational people would expect.

Roads are typically forever.  Once we put them down, that’s where they stay – and keeping them in good shape becomes a government agency’s never-ending challenge.  New pavements may last 20 or more years before needing rehabilitation.  At that time new asphalt surfaces are typically placed to smooth the surface.  In spite of these new surfaces, the underlying pavement continues to disintegrate and the road will need to be rehabilitated again in 10-15 years.  This is the never-ending cycle.

As the asphalt surface ages, moisture seeps into the cracks and seams.  When the temperature drops, the water freezes, expands, and disrupts the bond between the asphalt surface and the pavement below.  Traffic dislodges the material and a pothole is born.

As long as we build roads, potholes will be a fact of winter.  However this year’s bumper crop is much worse than normal for a reason.  Most agencies’ budgets haven’t allowed them to keep up with the deterioration.  Streets that should have been resurfaced have not been touched.  There are more cracks and seams than ever and potholes are flourishing.

This winter’s potholes are merely the tip of the iceberg.  Fortunately, we are not on the Titanic and we have numerous warning signs for what lies ahead.  Let’s hope we find a way to chart a different course, or conditions will only get worse.

I found this Op-Ed piece about the CU-MTD on Friday’s News-Gazette Online. I didn’t see it in the printed News-Gazette and thought it was worth commentary. It is an accurate assessment of the future appointment of Tom Berns.

Back to the future for transit district
Friday February 15, 2008

It looks like more of the same at the Champaign-Urbana MTD.

Those who find the relationship between the management and board of the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District entirely too cozy won't take comfort in the latest appointment to the MTD's board of directors.

Former state Rep. Tom Berns, who served on the MTD's board from 1976 to 1986, is returning to fill the spot being vacated by the independent-minded Paul Lucas. Following nomination by Champaign County Board chairman C. Pius Weibel, Berns' appointment was approved last week by the board's appointments committee and will voted on by the full board Feb. 21. Berns was the only applicant.

Given all the controversy surrounding previous appointments, Weibel said he "thought some more people might apply." Two years ago, there were six candidates for two vacancies, with longtime MTD board member George Friedman's effort to win another term rejected.

So despite the controversy and pending litigation over the MTD's unpopular territorial expansion, either the critics don't care or they've given up trying to influence appointments. Given the depth of hostility, it's more likely the MTD's critics have given up on winning appointments of those skeptical of management. In the breakdown between MTD skeptics and cheerleaders, Berns would have to fall in the latter camp. Frankly, it's no surprise because people willing to serve believe in the importance of public transportation.

But the MTD's board has been legitimately criticized for extending Managing Director Bill Volk a double-digit employment contract and overseeing a generous pay package and an even more generous pension. As for policy issues, board members generated considerable ill will when they fell into line behind the MTD's forced expansion of its borders despite incredible hostility from residents who want neither the service nor the taxes that go with it.

Given his professional and personal relationships with MTD managers, it's hard to believe Berns will bring any change to the board's governance. But he should be encouraged to be skeptical. No management deserves a blank check from its overseers.

 

The MTD continues to be the one governmental body that somehow eludes the same scrutiny as other bodies like the Champaign and Urbana City Councils and the County Board. For example, the last MTD budget lists:

Dues and Subscriptions $ 48,000
Travel and Meetings $ 40,000
Public Information $ 125,000
Other Miscellaneous $ 48,000

These are just a few line items that seem excessive year after year (the salaries and benefits for the top administration is another attention-grabber). The only trustee that ever questioned the budget, Paul Lucas, has just retired. “No management deserves a blank check from its overseers” (N-G).  Once appointed by the County Board, MTD continues to rubber stamp the management and its checkbook. I wish I was more optimistic that the needed changes might happen.

There was a hearing today in the case of the  Champaign Southwest Mass Transit's petition to not be in the CU Mass Transit District.  (05 CH 206)  In a half hour hearing, Judge Leonhard denied the motion of the City of Urbana to intervene in the case, but granted the same motion to the City of Champaign, based upon their intergovernmental agreement with CUMTD regarding annexations.  Good news for citizens of Urbana who won't have to pay city legal staff to work on a case that has absolutely no bearing on their community.

The next hearing on the matter is scheduled for February 26, 2008.