6.2. SR 07-21-2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council July 14, 2003 Page Two onto their county road. Also, if you review the County cost participation policy, turn lanes are to be fully funded by the City. It makes no sense that the City should fund the cost of a turn lane from a county road onto a county road. Item 2.G. in the body of the agreement talks about how monies will be dispersed from the County to the City. The two methods mentioned in that paragraph are based upon the percentage of the project completed or at the end of the project once the County has accepted the project. City staff is concerned that with the City in the lead and in a contractual arrangement with a contractor for the construction of this roadway, any dispute on what the County will fund leaves the City responsible to pay the contractor for the work performed and then deal with the dispute with the County over who should pay for it. City staff would feel much more comfortable if the roles in this scenado were reversed. Under item 2.A. the paragraph makes the City responsible for acquiring right-of-way for the road if necessary. This puts the City in a unique comer. Currently, CR 44 is a rural-style roadway; that is, it has no concrete curb and gutter and relies on roadside ditches for drainage. Typically, an urban-style roadway with concrete curb and gutter and storm sewer can be built within a lesser right-of-way requirement because there is no need for ditches, and clear zones required by the Minnesota Department of Transportation are less. However, if the road style is changed from rural to urban, the City would be required to pay for all of the concrete curb and gutter. If it is not changed from rural to urban, the City is required to acquire the additional right-of-way needed for road construction. It would seem reasonable that if the County can build an urban road, minimizing the need for any additional right-of-way acquisition, they should bear some of, if not all of the cost responsibility for the curb and gutter, since it would be a decision based on the available right-of-way, and not necessarily a decision based strictly on reconstructing a road in the urban area of the City. Based on these types of issues, it is the City's staff's recommendation that the City Council not pursue the lead position in the reconstruction of CR 44. We also discussed how the County might react to this position. We believe that the County may indicate that they will have difficulty finding County time to design this roadway. If the City Council concurs, we would suggest an approach of asking the County to put the manpower on this project for construction in 2005, rather than CSAH I in the northern part of the City. I will be in attendance at your July 21, 2003 City Council meeting to discuss this information further and answer any questions. Sincerely, Howard R. Green Company TJM:sw Enclosures Ltr-071403-Council Howard R, Green Company