ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

                                           Date:  22 May 1997
                                           Dept. File No. 648 087
                                           CC File No.: 5809-1

   TO:       City Council

   FROM:     General Manager of Engineering Services

   SUBJECT:  Reconstruction of 4600 Block West 8th Avenue


   RECOMMENDATION

        A.   THAT the 4600 Block of West 8th Avenue be reconstructed with
             an 8.5 m pavement and corner bulges at each end of the block.

        B.   THAT $75,000 be allocated from Streets Basic Capital
             Unallocated Account No. 12/31/2802/999 - Local Street
             Reconstruction. 


   COUNCIL POLICY

   City Council approves changes to street width.


   PURPOSE

   To determine a design for the reconstruction of the 4600 Block of West
   8th Avenue.


   DISCUSSION

   Recent sewer and water construction on the 4600 Block of West 8th Avenue
   has damaged most of the existing pavement.  Due to the amount of
   pavement to be replaced and condition of the remaining portions, the
   entire curb and pavement should be replaced. 8th Avenue is part of the
   Off-Broadway bicycle route, which connects to UBC.  The existing roadway
   width is 7.9 m (26 ft.), which is below the typical single-family
   residential standard of 8.5 m (28 ft.).  
   The reconstruction provides an opportunity to widen the road by 0.6 m (2
   ft.) to the standard.  Existing street trees would not be affected.  An
   8.5 m width would provide a little more room for bicycles meeting
   oncoming cars.

   Normally, reconstruction work does not involve property owners because
   the pavement width is maintained.  In this case, staff believe that a
   slightly wider pavement will be beneficial, particularly for bicycles. 
   Therefore, property owners were consulted through a public opinion
   survey.  The options included in the survey (see attached example) were
   as follows:

        i)   maintain the existing 7.9 m width
        ii)  widen to an 8.5 m width, with a 1.5 m bulge at each end.

   The bulge was proposed to reduce the entrance widths to the block.  (The
   entrances would be 7.0 m, which would be 0.9 m (3 ft.) narrower than the
   existing width.) This is intended as a calming measure, which would slow
   traffic entering the block, but would not divert traffic to other
   streets.  The 35 property owners in the block were sent the survey and
   27 (77%) were returned, which is a very high response rate.  The results
   were as follows:


   Maintain the        Widen to 8.5 m      Either         Neither
   Existing width      with bulges         width          width

        1                   23             1              2


   Since there is strong support to proceed with an 8.5 m width with corner
   bulges and the street needs to be repaired, it is recommended that
   Council approve this reconstruction.

   FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

   The estimated cost of the work is $165,000.  The majority of the funding
   of $90,000 is available as part of the Sewer and Water construction. 
   However, additional funding of $75,000 is required to complete
   reconstruction of the block.  It is recommended Council approve these
   funds which are available from the Streets Capital Account set aside for
   local Streets reconstruction.  Note that allocation of additional
   funding would have been needed with or without the slight increase in
   width.  


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