Agenda Information Sheet
DEPARTMENT: Engineering Services
CM/ ACM: Jon Fortune
Date: August 9, 2016
SUBJECT
Title
Receive a report, hold a discussion and provide staff with direction concerning the extension of Ruddell Street at Mingo Road and a potential joint stormwater project with the Meadow Oaks development.
Body
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this item is to update the Council on the project status and preliminary alignment prior to holding community meetings, advise the Council of a potential joint stormwater project with the Meadow Oaks development, and obtain any direction or suggestions the Council might have at this time.
The Extension of Ruddell Street at Mingo Road is a project in Proposition No. 1, Street Improvements of the 2014 Bond Program, which was approved by City voter referendum on November 4, 2014. The project involves an extension of the existing Ruddell Street from just north of Mingo Road, southerly and southwesterly to connect to the existing Ruddell Street, lying south of Mingo Road, near its intersection with Texas Street (see Exhibit 1).
This project was deemed a high priority roadway project by the Streets Subcommittee of the Citizens Bond Committee and by the Bond Committee, due to two relatively unsafe entrances that currently exist to the City’s Service Center (housing Water, Wastewater, Streets, Drainage, Parks & Recreation, and Traffic Operations, Materials Management (Purchasing and Distribution Center), Engineering, DME Communications and Fleet Maintenance). The westerly entrance is a circuitous route through a residential neighborhood along Frame, Paisley and Rose Streets. The northerly entrance is from Mingo Road to Willis Street across a fairly short and steep railroad crossing that is dangerous for low semi-trucks which have caught their undercarriages on the railroad crossing. The new alignment will provide a primary entrance from Mingo Road, with a much safer railroad crossing and avoiding neighborhoods.
The new street extension will create a new railroad crossing, just south of the existing Mingo Road / Ruddell Street intersection. In order to obtain a Union Pacific Railroad permit for this crossing, the City will be required to close two existing crossings. It is proposed that the crossing at Mingo Road and Willis Street and the crossing at Mingo Road and Pertain Street be closed. Willis Street would be closed to public traffic, since it would only serve the City’s Service Center. Pertain Street would be dead ended, with a cul-de-sac just south of the railroad, with the area served by an existing connection to Lattimore Street and the new Ruddell street Extension.
Preliminary design plans have been prepared for the project and are being reviewed at this time. Due to a large amount of surface stormwater that flows through the area of the street extension and the Service Center property, a fairly extensive stormwater system will be required for this street project. The design engineer for a new development (Meadow Oaks Subdivision, lying uphill and east of the City’s Service Center property, north of Paco Trail and west of Autumn Oak Drive) became aware of the City’s plans for the Mingo Road extension and approached City staff about a potential joint stormwater project. Basically, the developer proposes to connect his stormwater system to the City’s Ruddell street extension stormwater system, donate a heavily treed strip of land to the City, which could serve as a vegetative screen of the City’s Service Center uses from adjacent residential development, and pay all cost increases caused by the addition of his development’s stormwater. The developer would gain additional lots within his development; thus providing additional future City tax base.
OPTIONS
1. Proceed with implementing the Ruddell Street Extension, as currently proposed.
2. Proceed with implanting the Ruddell Street Extension, as modified by Council direction.
RECOMMENDATION
Approval of Option 1 - Proceed with implementing the Ruddell Street Extension, as currently proposed.
ESTIMATED SCHEDULE OF PROJECT
Design is scheduled to be completed this calendar year. Construction scheduling will depend on receipt of the UPRR railroad crossing permit.
PRIOR ACTION/REVIEW (Council, Boards, Commissions)
• City voter referendum approval of 2014 Bond Program on November 4, 2014.
FISCAL INFORMATION
The 2014 Bond Program provided a budget of $5,780,000 for design, right-of-way acquisition and construction.
BID INFORMATION
N/A, at this time. Project is in the design phase.
STRATEGIC PLAN RELATIONSHIP
The City of Denton’s Strategic Plan is an action-oriented road map that will help the City achieve its vision. The foundation for the plan is the five long-term Key Focus Areas (KFA): Organizational Excellence; Public Infrastructure; Economic Development; Safe, Livable, and Family-Friendly Community; and Sustainability and Environmental Stewardship. While individual items may support multiple KFAs, this specific City Council agenda item contributes most directly to the following KFA and goal:
Related Key Focus Area: Public Infrastructure
Related Goal: 2.2 Seek solutions to mobility demands and enhance connectivity
EXHIBIT
Ruddell Street Extension Area Map
Respectfully submitted:
John T. Davis, PE
Director of Engineering Services