R38 Wesley Chapel Boulevard widening construction contract

1:34:29You got some direction? Thank you, Mr. Chairman Mariano. Move on to uh R 38.

1:34:40Okay.

1:34:43Good morning Commissioner and Members of the Board. Panos Conces, Assistant Director for Transportation. uh engineering department or TED as we call ourselves. Um Before I go ahead with my presentation, I would like also to express my condolences for the passing of Commissioner Bradford to you and to his family. Um This presentation is about the construction contract for the Wesley Chapel Boulevard. Um

1:35:13The limits of the project are from south of uh from north of State Road fifty four, state road fifty-six to El Pasco Road. Uh typically TED presents construction contracts through um the consent agenda. However, because of the size of the contract, the uh significance of the project to the county, and also for the hiff because of the history of the project, our county administrator suggested that we give you a brief presentation. That's why we're here

1:35:43today. Um so as you see here the limits of the projects are shown. Um through its path, Wesley Chapel Boulevard provides access to many communities and also commercial uh businesses. also provides an alternate route, a relief route to uh I seventy five.

1:36:05Uh presently uh south at the south end uh Wesley Chapel Boulevard the six lanes it's posted at 45 miles per hour and it provides uh five foot sidewalks on the uh west side and an eight foot pathway on the west side. It also provides five foot bicycle lanes. In the middle it transitions to a two lane rural uh roadway. Posted at 55 miles per hour. There are no sidewalks or pathways,

1:36:35but there are five to four five-foot shoulders. Now as we move north, uh north of uh Progress uh Boulevard, uh the uh West Jackal Boulevard widens to four lanes again. Uh it's posted 45 miles per hour. It provides five to six foot sidewalks on both sides and also provides f four foot uh bicycle lanes.

1:37:02Uh project history. This project has a long history, longer than we want it. and also went through several project managers. I just happened to be the last one. And We just have to say that we are very excited to bring this project to its last stage, its construction. Um the original allowed study was approved in two thousand three. and the recommendation was for a four lane rural uh road within a hundred fifty foot right of way. The design started at two

1:37:32thousand eight. Uh Between two thousand eight and twenty fourteen the new Tampa Bay regional planning model became available. And it showed us that the four-lane typical section wouldn't be able to accommodate the projected volumes. That area, as you very well know, is going through explosive growth. So the volumes, the projected volumes were almost almost double. So the recommendation was made to take the

1:38:02road to a six lane typical section, but keep it within 150 feet right-of-way, which meant we had to condense the typical section to an urban, no ditches on the sides, no depressed median, just urban, which meant closed drainage system, sidewalks on both sides, and I will go through the typical section later. But It was it became an urban six lane roadway. Um After that, uh we did the updated

1:38:33uh route study between twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen, mainly to assess drainage needs because of course the the closed drainage system required additional ponds and additional uh drainage facilities. Uh there were additional impacts to wetlands, etcetera. So we did an updated route study that concluded in twenty sixteen. the board approved the ro the uh updated route study. We resumed design in twenty sixteen and just about when we started to move along

1:39:03In two thousand seventeen the updated model uh for for plot floodplains became available from uh SwissMad, the final uh model. s uh up to the time we were using the draft. So we thought to do e uh diligence uh study and find out if the updated floodplains were compatible with our design. We didn't want to any adjacent properties to experience any additional flooding. So our design team Did

1:39:34an analysis, a drainage analysis, and found out that One drainage crossing had to be upsized, but nothing would be become to the adjacent properties. So we were glad about that. So We resumed the design after that and between 2019 and 2023 we did the design. We also undertook the right-of-way acquisition. Uh we had um let's see here. Um That seems like a really long time. Mm-hmm. It took a long

1:40:04time. But we had at some points to stop and re redo things and five years. So uh We had to acquire forty three parcels and we had to deal with twenty five different property owners. So that was an extensive uh effort for our resources. Um, we also had to undergo through several plan review uh revisions because as we were doing the design, new developments came to uh to light and they weren't new connections.

1:40:34We had to add uh new turn lanes, et cetera. So we had to update our design constantly. Plus, we had to go through several reviews by F DOT because they contribute funding to the project. So they also had uh an input. So We finished the design and then we went to build solicitation in mid December. And the bids were opened in uh end of January two thousand twenty four. So here we are now with uh uh having a contractor

1:41:04uh on board and uh ready to award the contract. Uh as I said before, the approved by the board typical section for the uh widening of Wesley Chapel Boulevard is for six lanes, three northbound lanes, three southbound lanes, five foot bike lanes on both sides, uh five to six feet sidewalk on the uh uh west side, and an eight-foot pathway on the uh east side. This

1:41:35graphic here shows the uh pathways and sidewalks at the end of the construction. As you can see on the uh west side, we have a continuous uh five to six foot sidewalk. That's the blue line. And on the east side, we have an uh eight-foot pathway from the south end where we match the existing eight-foot pathway all the way to approximately Magnolia Boulevard, except for a short thousand-foot

1:42:06segment between Royal Palm Boulevard and Pet Lane. What happened there is our design team found out that uh there were issues with offsite uh stormwater stormwater management, uh impact to wetlands close to Pet Lane, uh impacts to the wreck uh power lines. And also we would need additional right-of-way in order to uh connect with the driveways. Uh a couple of developments there. So to

1:42:36avoid all those impacts, they reduced the uh pathway width from uh eight feet to six feet. Uh now north going north from there, we transition back to what's existing out there on Wesley Chapel Boulevard north of Progress, which is uh five to six foot sidewalks on both sides.

1:42:56So are we gonna have a trail on Old Pasco Road?

1:43:01On all password?

1:43:03Yeah, well w you s you you only have a you have a sidewalk going up to I don't know what road it is there. And then aren't we putting a multi-use path on Old Pasco?

1:43:16What happens is um I drove that segment of uh West Chapel Boulevard from uh north of Magnolia Boulevard all the way past I-75. In both sides of Questa Chapel Boulevard, it is five to six feet sidewalk. There is no multi-use path or pathway. Now on on All Pasco Road we have a twelve-foot uh multi-use path coming down from overpass all the way to uh h um uh

1:43:47Uh Oakley Boulevard. and from there we tie to an existing uh um multi use path on Oakley Boulevard. So we have that on uh all Pascal.

1:44:01And Oakley Boulevard comes around a Fidge Four or Wesley Chapel? Yes, exactly. But the multi-use path terminates at Wesley Chapel Boulevard.

1:44:14I You understand? Well no, I don't understand. I don't understand if he said that I thought there I think I heard him say, and I don't know all the roads so I don't know where Magnolia is because not nothing here says Magnolia. Um Um

1:44:31My understanding is that there is a multi-use path on Old Pasco Road.

1:44:35Yes.

1:44:36But you're not showing it here.

1:44:38Yeah, because the focus on the traffic is uh uh Wesley Chapel Boulevard. That's why I think it's

1:44:44so but it turns into Old Pasco as it goes north, right? The road changes name?

1:44:48Uh

1:44:51I'm trying to bring it up

1:44:52here. If you go to Google Maps, so it ties in the wrong place. If you're coming south. Down Old Pasco. And you go through the residential areas and it then it turns down Oakley. Oakley into the grove where all those folks live into the

1:45:05amidities and whatever.

1:45:08Yeah it turns in. Okay. So so you have a way f you're gonna have a way for these people to access the old Pasco Road trail?

1:45:19Correct.

1:45:21That's gonna be tricky.

1:45:22The South End. What you're saying is the South End doesn't have any between Wesley Chapel Boulevard and say Oakley. That won't have it, but it ties into Wesley Chapel Boulevard. You're constrained there.

1:45:33Double backs S's and then hits where the this project is down to 70, 56, 75 down there to Alamance. Correct. Yeah. So it does a big backwards S.

1:45:44It's too bad there's not another way to get over there. Um Looking here, uh can you put that map back up? Can you go down to where it says um Oak's Boulevard.

1:45:58Okay, Oakes Boulevard is um it's where the L E V is on Wesley Chapel Boulevard. You see see that area? Is that part of a wildlife corridor?

1:46:11It looks to me like that is a uh a slew or a wetland continuation from one side to the other.

1:46:22Capage uh swamp and that's where we're providing a bridge over

1:46:27so you have a uh critter crossing underneath?

1:46:30I don't think there is a uh animal crossing but there i it's it's a bridge.

1:46:37How high is the bridge off the elevation of the ground?

1:46:40Um I'm not sure. Uh I have with me our design uh consultant, uh the PM.

1:46:47'Cause it looks to me like that connects to a lot of wetlands. I mean a lot of w a corridor there.

1:46:53Westward goes to Wellfields.

1:46:57And that goes all the way down, that quarter goes all the way down into Tampa into I think that might go into Long Long Longleaf. Or whatever that, flatwoods. So I just want to make sure Well It's probably um too late to consider going uh up and over with a pedestrian underpass. But um that would have been a good spot to do it. So people could get from one side of the road without having to cross the traffic. But seems to me we We need to be sure that we're letting

1:47:27the quitters Travel safely underneath there.

1:47:32Well we have a traffic signal at Royal Palm and we also have a signal at Compark. Uh so there will be two signals providing uh the ability for people to cross safely from one side to the other.

1:47:47Okay. Um I know that the um person who's selling the property where it used to be the ro Coffee Roaster, um, which is down on fifty-four and Is that Wesley Chapel Bou and Wesley Chapel Boulevard? It's on the south. West Side. They've given up. quite a bit of land there for the w a wildlife corridor and and and there is a bridge there as well. But I think that's a good thing. We should be mindful that we're gonna have

1:48:19Animals go going under the bridge. There.

1:48:24For sure. We can provide you the information about how high the bridge is. We will

1:48:28we're talking about to the Coke's ranch side. I mean that's not right through there.

1:48:32They're gonna be coming right through there. But if they're already elevated, that's that's just what we need.

1:48:41But you can see that system. It's coming all the way down. all the way down into flatwoods.

1:48:54So um

1:48:59In summary, uh the improvements include six travel lanes and five foot bike lanes through the entire corridor, uh five to six foot sidewalks on the west side through the entire corridor, six foot pathway on most of the easy, uh as I mentioned between uh Grand Oaks Boulevard and Pet Lane, we are transitioned to six feet Uh And uh Uh we will provide lighting for the entire corridor on both sides of the of Wesley Chapel Boulevard.

1:49:30And we have two new traffic signals. Uh the one at Stagecoach Village Boulevard. It's currently as a temporary signal. We will uh change it to a permanent signal with must arms and we will provide another new signal at Compact Drive.

1:49:46Wonderful. And I do think that Wesley Chapel Boulevard is one of the roads that will Is on the m the landscape median landscape List. It's gonna take a few years. Of course it's not even fin being finished, but I think we go Little Road. Call your park way. Wesley Chapel, I don't I I don't know if that team is here, but I just had a meeting with them. And I do think you'll get median landscaping. I think I

1:50:15think. We also provide uh limited uh landscaping at the intersection of Overpass and Old Pasco Road as part of the widening of Or Pasco Road. Nice landscaping there too. Yeah. That's good.

1:50:28Mr. Chairman Mariano. Ms. Mariano.

1:50:30So if you would discuss the landscaping, because once this contract's done and signed, you're not gonna be able to change it unless you get back with the change order. And I understand sometimes it's tough if they're just gonna put grass in there. That's what you're gonna stuck with until you rechange it.

1:50:42Well the the la the uh architect that's working on it for the county. They've only gone as far as designing for the I think they're at thirty percent of Little Road, so they're nowhere near Um Yeah. How long is this project gonna take?

1:50:58Three years. Three years a

1:50:59time. time.

1:51:00How many? See little three. Mm-hmm. Three? That's

1:51:04they They had a thing here.

1:51:06You know, we could s was it was it Brantford you weren't in that meeting, were you with me?

1:51:12Yeah, this one.

1:51:14I think it was Jason. No, I'm not I'm not sure who was in that meeting. I had a meeting with um public works and the archite the landscape architecture firm.

1:51:26Just

1:51:27J it was Jason? Is Jason here? Um well we can I think we can come back to that. Let's let's look at what what they had proposed in what year and see maybe it makes sense to Time this one?

1:51:40I mean, because

1:51:40it might have been Bruce B. Downs and not this one, but I think we should put it on here.

1:51:45Mr. Sherman? Yes. So if I'm looking at I'm looking at grass in the center. And when we did US forty one I was trying to get them to uh up change it When they were like getting closer and closer, but they said it was too far down the lane to switch back and put the peanut grass in. But the peanut grass is d doesn't have to be maintained as much. So it's much better. You can put trees trees in and w with a lot more easy. if we're gonna do this, I think we should I mean if that's all we're gonna get is grass, that that should get a little bit more than that. Addressed right away.

1:52:12We could even put oak trees like we did on forty one, which looks lovely.

1:52:16Uh

1:52:18Mm-hmm. But anyway, we'll

1:52:20okay, we'll we'll look at the schedule with Jason. We can look at amending the contract and adding that inform that uh those items. Okay. And also maybe irrigation too, if we are th looking about landscaping maybe irrigation would be also included. Okay.

1:52:36Yes, absolutely. Put the irrigation in while you're

1:52:39doing

1:52:39the

1:52:39road. I mean I'd I'd rather use something that would be drought tolerant that we would have to put irrigation in. Why why spend the money on that? If you can avoid it.

1:52:48Well they're putting they're putting it in in places, so We're gonna make the Commercial properties put in irrigation.

1:53:01We'll we'll revisit it and and report back.

1:53:03Yeah. Okay. All right. Uh so the construction core uh we expect we recommend c approval of the construction contract today. Uh we intend to give NTP within the next couple of weeks. Uh We anticipate the construction to take approximately thirty-six months. So we anticipate completion by May 2027. And the construction contract at the cost is for sixty nine forty four million. And we have an independent contract for CEI

1:53:33services with a a different firm for four and a half million dollars.

1:53:37What's CEI?

1:53:38construction, engineering and inspection. Four

1:53:42million dollars to see if they built it right?

1:53:45Yeah. You're talking about a sixty nine million dollar spend, so

1:53:50still a lot of money.

1:53:50Cause it both of 'em are,

1:53:53I think we should just put in their contract. They had to have built it right.

1:53:59We have to.

1:54:03Typically, when we do estimates, the CI contract we estimate to be at at uh ten to fifteen uh percent of the construction cost. So according to that, this is four and a half million dollars is we're getting a bargain. Uh-huh.

1:54:19There you go. So today you need a motion from us approving this? Yes please.

1:54:25Move. Go ahead. Your district. Move approval. Second.

1:54:28All right. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Motion passed 4-0. Thanks, sir. Very much. Move on to the Thirty nine or thirty nine? Yeah.

1:54:46Oh it's gonna look so much better. And it's so needed. Oh my god.

1:54:51Mike's back with us.