To: Board of Supervisors
From: Warren Lai, Public Works Director/Chief Engineer
Report Title: Capital Road Improvement and Preservation Program for Fiscal Year 2024/2025 through 2030/2031
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE the Capital Road Improvement and Preservation Program (CRIPP) for fiscal year 2024/2025 through 2030/2031, as recommended by the Transportation, Water, and Infrastructure Committee, and the Public Works Director, Countywide
FISCAL IMPACT:
No fiscal impact. Approval and adoption of the CRIPP will provide a programming document that will outline the anticipated expenditures of road related capital funds in the next seven years. The CRIPP is a working document that programs funds for capital road improvement projects within the County. Preparation of the CRIPP is a requirement of the Growth Management Program and Measure J funding.
BACKGROUND:
The Capital Road Improvement and Preservation Program (CRIPP) is a programming document for the funding of capital road improvement and preservation projects within Contra Costa County. It includes estimated project costs, funding source information, and scheduling information for known potential projects within the next seven fiscal years. It also includes revenue projections and a summary of estimated project-related expenditures for each funding source.
The CRIPP was established by Resolution 89/306 under the County Road Improvement Policy (Policy). The Policy was authorized by Government Code Section 66002 and is required under the Growth Management Element of the Contra Costa Transportation and Growth Management Program Ordinance approved by the voters in November 1988 (Measure C-88) and reaffirmed in 2004 with passage of Measure J. Measure J requires that each participating local agency develop a five-year CRIPP. In 1991, the CRIPP was expanded to cover seven years to conform to the Congestion Management Plan, and in 1992 the CRIPP update was changed to a biennial schedule.
Approval of the CRIPP by the Board of Supervisors does not automatically approve each individual project listed in the CRIPP. Each project in the CRIPP is subject to a separate public review, engineering feasibility analysis, and environmental assessment before the Board of Supervisors will consider final approval of the project. As this is a planning level document, adoption of the CRIPP will not preclude development and construction of projects that have not been identified.
As more information is gathered about a project, the Public Works Department may determine that the project will cost more than originally estimated for reasons not known at this time. In such a case, the Public Works Department will study various alternatives to find a solution to the funding shortfall. The Public Works Department will adjust subsequent CRIPPs to reflect any changes in project scope or cost.
Adopting a CRIPP to guide our capital improvements will do several things for the County:
• Increase public awareness of how and where funds will be spent on our road system.
• Enhance public trust and increase funding transparency by demonstrating that funds are programmed and expended in accordance with an approved program.
• Encourage more public involvement in the programming and expenditure of our capital funds.
• Provide accurate “accountability” of whether our transportation system will meet an acceptable level of service to satisfy our growth management policies.
• Provide a basis for projecting staffing needs over the next seven years.
• Provide a budget tool to track expenditures of each type of funding utilized for capital improvements.
The County Road Program has experienced a variety of issues which have affected the construction of new infrastructure and maintenance of existing infrastructure.
Gas Tax is the primary funding source for capital projects and the maintenance program. There are many competing priorities for the fixed amount of gas tax the County annually receives from the State. For many years, the County has had to defer maintenance on its roadways, which means repairs to infrastructure and related assets get delayed and backlogged due to budget limitations and funding constraints. The goal over the next 7 years is to increase the amount of available funding for pavement surface treatments and the budget for routine maintenance of over 661 miles of roadways and related infrastructure to try and address this need.
This goal must be balanced with the need for new transportation projects while considering the issues below.
• The County experienced almost $19 million of unexpected damage to the roadway system caused by storm events in the last 2 years. Some of this cost was covered by state and federal funds but the balance was funded with local funds. These unforeseen projects to restore the roadways after the storm events greatly impacted the schedule and available revenue for other projects through 2025.
• The costs of construction materials and labor has increased due to inflation in the last two years, and this is expected to continue in the future. This has made currently programmed projects more expensive to build.
• The County has been successful at receiving federal, state, and local grants from various funding sources. However, each grant requires a local match that ranges from approximately five percent to over twenty percent of the total project cost. The County has allotted general fund money from the County budget to be used as the local match, which in effect frees up other funds such as gas taxes for other important items.
Through the CRIPP and the Road Program, the County will continue to improve roadway safety through adoption of a Vision Zero Program and the Active Transportation Plan. Vision Zero is a change in how we think about and approach fatalities and major injuries on our roadways. Instead of accepting collisions that result in fatalities and serious injuries as inevitable, Vision Zero requires us to instead think of these collisions as preventable through a Safe System Approach. A Safe System approach addresses the five elements of a safe transportation system through a shared responsibility and redundancy: safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads, and post-crash care. The objective of the Active Transportation Plan is to support a mode shift from the single-occupant vehicle to other more active and environmentally friendly modes of transportation like walking, biking, rolling, and using transit.
The Department’s goal is to also create a sustainable transportation network to try and address the impacts of the road system on the environment. Future projects may include: cool pavements, porous pavements, complete streets, multi-modal ways to travel, recycled materials, and drought tolerant landscaping where feasible. The County is also required to install green stormwater infrastructure on many projects to treat stormwater to remove sediments and pollutants before the stormwater goes into the storm drain system. A sustainable transportation network will also positively affect climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, and water supply.
The issues of environmental justice will need to be addressed in the development of transportation projects, which is a great concern for residents and stakeholders. Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
Failure to approve the CRIPP could adversely affect the schedule of road improvements for the next seven years as this document provides direction for project planning and staff requirements.
Measure J and the County’s proposed growth management policy requires adoption of a CRIPP be enacted to meet the anticipated needs of new development impacts on the roadway systems. Without an approved CRIPP, the County will not be able to fulfill this requirement, which would jeopardize our Measure J return to source funding.