The City Council is asked to adopt a resolution to appropriate $77,000 and approve Contract Amendment No. 1 with Mark Thomas & Company, Inc. to complete Multimodal Corridor Study for the Quarry Lakes Parkway Project.  

On August 14, 2018 Union City entered into Project Funding Agreement (PFA) with the Alameda County Transportation Commission (ACTC) for East-West Connector project, a proposed local roadway connecting Mission Boulevard (SR 238) in Union City to I-880/Decoto Road Interchange in Fremont and a Consultant Agreement with ACTC’s consultant (TYLIN).   As part of this agreement, Union City became the Project Sponsor and agreed to be lead agency for finalizing the design and construct the project. Union City would also assume the existing design contract with ACTC’s consultant to complete the final PS&E (Plans, Specs and Estimate), to coordinate with bicycle community and transit agencies, and to update the traffic study. 

On February 12, 2019, Union City entered into a consultant agreement with Mark Thomas & Company in the amount of $74,760 to re-evaluate the ACTC’s East-West Connector Project as a local roadway and multimodal corridor by incorporating pedestrian, bicycle and transit design goals with consideration of the existing and proposed land-uses along the corridor. This local roadway project also creates a new gateway to Quarry Lakes Regional Park, hence the new name - Quarry Lakes Parkway.        

As identified in the PFA, Union City entered into a separate consultant agreement with Kittelson Associates, Inc. on March 25, 2019 to prepare a Traffic Study Update, which includes recent traffic data, review of revised traffic forecasts, and projections and operations analysis that is required to validate the traffic report in ACTC’s 2009 Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the East-West Connector project.

This agenda item is in alignment with the following:

Goal C, Strategy 3: Facilitate the build out of the greater Station District Area through the construction of the  Quarry Lakes Parkway, upgrades to the BART station and completion of the pedestrian rail crossing and the sale and development of City- owned land.

For the past ten months, Mark Thomas and Kittelson have coordinated with Union City and Fremont staff to better define the proposed project improvements in each city as part of the Multimodal Corridor Study and to coordinate the recent traffic data and initial analysis as part of the Traffic Study update.  

The project team has met with ACTC, AC Transit, BART, Cross Bay Transit/SamTrans and Capitol Corridor staff to integrate and accommodate the most recent transit projects listed below into the design of the Quarry Lakes Parkway project:

• ACTC-14^th Street/Mission-Fremont Multimodal Corridor Project

• ACTC-East Bay Greenway

• AC Transit/MTC- Dumbarton Forward/IDEA Grant

• Cross Bay Transit- Dumbarton Transportation Corridor

• Capitol Corridor- South Bay Connect

ACTC and AC Transit’s transit projects were not identified during the environmental and design phases of the East-West Connector project, including Fremont’s bicycle and pedestrian Trail Project from Quarry Lakes Park to the Dumbarton Bridge. Additionally, the Dumbarton Transportation Corridor (new rail service) and South Bay Connect projects have been re-defined.

Attached is the new Quarry Lake Parkway Project Fact Sheet, which was submitted to MTC (Metropolitan Transportation Commission) as part of Plan Bay Area 2050. As part of the initial evaluations, the re-defined project received positive scores for both the “Clean and Green” and “Back to the Future” scenarios.   

Quarry Lakes Parkway project was presented to the Union City and Fremont’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Committees (BPAC), Bike East Bay and ACTC’s BPAC. In general, these BPACs support the new Class IV bikeway and the new separate Bike Highway along with the planned trail and transit connections. BPACs member comments have included “protected intersections” for pedestrians and bikes movements through the intersections be included in the Final Design. Bike East Bay staff noted their interested in the results of the Traffic Study Update.   

City staff and Mark Thomas met with consultants who prepared the various technical studies for East-West Connector project related to the environmental analysis, hydrology, biology, geotechnical conditions, site investigation, mitigation measures and initial permit processes to better understand the project complexities and challenges.

This multi-agency project has required more effort from Mark Thomas team and City staff for completing the study within 10 months.  Mark Thomas has requested in a letter dated November 21, 2019 an additional $ 77,000  required to complete the multimodal corridor study including Union City and Fremont staff project updates, coordination with Kittelson for the traffic study update, integrating the planned and future transit projects (Alameda CTC, AC Transit and Cross Bay Transit),  reviewing & revising the cost estimates, meeting with BART, Union Pacific, Alameda County Flood Control District, Regional Water Quality Control Board to confirm permit requirements, meeting with utility companies and finalizing the project exhibits in preparation of the upcoming ACTC Commission meeting.

After completion of the Multimodal Corridor Study and Traffic Study Update, Union City and Fremont staff will report the results to ACTC staff and will coordinate the preparation for Quarry Lakes Project update to the ACTC Commission in 2020.  It is staff's goal to have ACTC release additional funding to keep the project moving forward.

The total cost for Amendment No. 1 for the Multimodal Corridor Study is $ 77,000 and will be funded by in the DIPSA Fund (Fund 2660-3199-91804-54111) for the requested appropriation.  

There is no impact to the General Fund. 

It is recommended that the City Council adopt the attached resolution appropriating an additional $ 77,000 from DIPSA Fund (Fund 2660), to authorize the City Manager to enter into Amendment No. 1 with Mark Thomas & Company, Inc. of Oakland, CA bringing the total amount to $ 151,760.   

Marilou Ayupan, Interim Public Works Director