Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

TO: Standing Committee on City Services and Budgets

FROM: General Manager of Engineering Services

SUBJECT: 1999 Engineering Basic Capital Budget

RECOMMENDATION

COUNCIL POLICY

Policies (continued)

STREETS

On May 27, 1997, the Vancouver Transportation Plan was approved by Council. There are many policies in the Transportation Plan which have Capital Budget implications. As outlined in Action Item "F2" of the Transportation Plan, the priority for pedestrians and transit require funding to support these modes. Re-allocations to support these priorities were made to the 1997-1999 Capital Plan and are reflected in the annual budgets. After maintenance requirements, priority projects will include pedestrian traffic signals, new sidewalks, Greenways, bike network, wheel chair ramps and bus stops and shelters.

The Vancouver Comprehensive Bicycle Plan (1988), the Clouds of Change Report (1990), the Citywide Bicycle Network (1992) and the recent Greenways Program, established the City's policy of promoting and encouraging cycling as a transportation alternative. On July 18, 1995, Council approved the Vancouver Greenways Plan. This plan supports environmental initiatives such as Clouds of Change and Council's top transportation priorities, as approved in CityPlan, pedestrians and bicyclists. Greenways also address the growing needs on the part of communities to have a voice in the design and use of the urban landscape.

It is Council policy to give sidewalks high priority, and to provide walks on:

STREET LIGHTING

The Safer City Task Force indicated the importance of making the public feel secure. This involves taking proactive measures to provide appropriate street and bus shelter lighting to assist in the protection of citizens from theft and violence. The Infill Lighting program funds the improvements to low levels of lighting on residential streets and around bus shelters.

SEWERS

In the early 1970's, Council approved the policy of separating sanitary and storm sewers, starting in the West End and Downtown areas, in order to begin reducing and eliminating combined sewer overflows.

In 1981, the above-noted policy was reaffirmed with the adoption of the 1% life cycle replacement policy for sewer mains as part of the Sewers Long Range Capital Plan.

Both of these policies were reaffirmed in the 1991 Policy Report on Vancouver's "Design and Service Level Standards for Sewer Collection Infrastructure," and have been reaffirmed as part of every Capital Plan since.

WATERWORKS

SUMMARY & PURPOSE

This report provides Council with an overview of the 1999 Engineering Basic Capital Budget, including submissions for:

The General Manager of Engineering Services will report separately on the details of the 1999 Traffic Signal Program ($1,315,000) to the Standing Committee on Transportation and Traffic. The 1999 Basic Capital Budget, the last year of the 1997-1999 Capital Plan, allocates slightly less than one-third of the Capital Plan funds approved by Council in November 1996.

This report also includes Capital account closeouts for Streets, as detailed in Appendix 2.

SENIOR GOVERNMENT COST-SHARING

Additional sources of funding from the provincial and regional governments that is available, or could be available, to help fund capital projects is described below.

1) Local Government Grants

At its meeting of February 23, 1999, Council approved our recommendations to apply to the Province's 1999 Local Government Grants Program for $28.7 million worth of projects, primarily for sewer and water infrastructure. In general, Local Government Grants would fund 25% of the projects that are approved. Although awards for this program are expected to be made in 1999, payments would not begin until April 1, 2000. Because of this timing, any funding received would not impact the City's 1999 Capital Budget.

2) TransLink (GVTA) Cost Sharing for Major Road Network

As of April 1, 1999, the City became a member municipality of TransLink, the new regional transportation agency that was formerly referred to as the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (GVTA). As a member, the City will receive funding for the Maintenance, Rehabilitation and Capital work on the Major Road Network (MRN) streets in the Vancouver:

Maintenance

This funding helps ensure MRN streets are maintained in good condition. Besides street pavements, it will also include related items such as lighting, signals, signs, roadmarkings, etc. All of the "Maintenance" category work would be carried out under the City's Operating Budget. For 1999, the City will be receiving approximately $1,440,000 for Maintenance of MRN roads.

Rehabilitation

This category covers reconstructing or replacing existing facilities (both pavements and other related items). Rehabilitation is required to keep the City's MRN roads up to the average standard of the region. Primarily, Rehabilitation funding will be for what the City designates as Capital Budget infrastructure renewal work, but it also will include some City Operating Budget programs such as pavement overlays.

a) Pavements

In the first year the City will receive approximately $1,440,000 for pavement rehabilitation of MRN roads. The majority of this funding will supplement the Capital Budget Arterial Streets category A1a, to assist in the rehabilitation of the backlog of arterial streets in poor condition. The remainder will help offset existing Operating Budget accounts for rehab work such as pavement overlays. A preliminary estimate of the funding available to the City's budgets is $1,140,000 for capital and $ 300,000 for operating.

b) Other

For 1999, the GVTA will be providing approximately $576,000 to cover all other related items that require rehabilitation on the MRN including sidewalks, curbs, boulevards, signals, lighting and drainage.

TOTAL CAPITAL OPERATING

Capital

Under TransLink's definition, this category only includes new works, not replacement. For this year, TransLink funding has been approved for general road projects totaling $4.6M. These include Knight and 41st ($1.89M), S.W. Marine and Cambie ($0.27M) and Clark and 1st ($2.3M). TransLink will fund 50% of the cost of these projects.

Summary of TransLink Maintenance and Rehabilitation Funding

For 1999, it is estimated that approximately $3.4 million in TransLink Maintenance and Rehabilitation funding will be received in the following City budget categories:

3) ICBC Safety Programs

Since the early 1990's the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) and the City have participated in reviews of traffic safety along several corridors within the city. As a result of these reviews, ICBC has contributed funding towards specific Council approved projects having a road safety benefit. Several projects have been identified and will be completed during the 1999 construction season. These projects include signal improvements, construction of left turn bays already approved by Council, and funding of specific traffic calming initiatives. Funding of these projects will complement existing City funding and is expected to total $800,000.

PROJECT DETAILS

The 1999 Engineering Basic Capital Budget consists of five programs: Streets, Communications, Street Lighting, Sewers, and Waterworks. These are summarized in this report, and described in detail in Appendix 1. Funding for the 1999 Traffic Signal Program ($1,315,000) is included in the 1999 Streets Capital Budget. The 1999 Traffic Signal Program Report, which details the allocation of funding, is planned to be presented to the next Standing Committee on Transportation and Traffic. Council has approved Visioning programs, currently underway in two neighbourhoods, Dunbar and Kensington-Cedar Cottage. To the extent that these programs result in a need for capital work such as signals, local improvements, or lighting, there could be demands placed upon these Capital Budgets, which would be reported to Council separately.

A. STREETS 1999 Budget $ 15,209,000

The 1999 Streets Capital Budget comprises a number of programs which address Council's Capital, CityPlan and Transportation Plan priorities. A brief description of the Streets programs follows:

Infrastructure $3,785,000

This program addresses the need for reconstruction of arterial streets and local streets which have deteriorated to the point where normal maintenance is not effective. Also, included in this category is the major maintenance of City bridges, including concrete repairs and joint replacement.

Pedestrians, Bicycles & Greenways $2,823,000

This program provides for pedestrian and cycling priorities. The construction of new sidewalks and curb ramps, and sidewalk reconstruction are addressed. Both of these areas include cost-sharing with property owners, and some projects may be fully City funded. In the New Sidewalk construction program, the majority of the arterials are now complete and construction is concentrating on pedestrian collector routes in residential areas.

Significant progress has been made in creating the City's Bicycle Network, with the 100 km mark being passed in 1998. Proposed cycling improvements in 1999 include the Mosaic Bikeway, Ridgeway West Bikeway, and the Trans-Canada Trail, as well as bike logos painted on the road and streets name signs. Further development of the citywide Greenways system will continue, with the majority of design development for the Ridgeway scheduled for completion during 1999. Work will also continue on several Neighbourhood Greenway projects, with funding remaining from previous years.

Traffic Signals $1,696,000

This section includes funding of $1,315,000 for the proposed 1999 Traffic Signal Program which will install new traffic signals ($720,000) and modify existing traffic signals ($595,000). Details of this program will be reported separately to the Transportation and Traffic Committee. This section also contains funding for a program to renovate and replace traffic signal infrastructure ($381,000).

Transit & Safety Improvements $1,489,000

This program provides funding to address various transportation priorities to enhance transit and improve safety. For 1999, the projects in this program include a number of discrete transit related geometric improvements for TransLink, as well as Visioning initiatives on the arterial streets system that may arise during the course of the year. Pender street from Cambie to Carrall is scheduled for reconstruction/beautification under this category. This program also includes arterial local improvements, bus shelters and bus slabs and landings.

Local Area Traffic Plans and Other Improvements $4,330,000

This program addresses the installation of neighbourhood traffic controls and construction of streets and lanes by Local Improvement petitions or initiatives. Neighbourhood Transportation Plans and local street traffic calming measures are integral components of the Transportation Plan. There has been an increasing demand for these measures on local streets over the past few years. These projects include public consultation and the installation of traffic circles, bulges, diverters, and other traffic calming measures.

1999 Close-out $1,086,000

It is proposed that $1,086,000 be provided from the 1999 Streets Basic Capital Budget to fund the capital account closures identified in Appendix 2.

B. COMMUNICATIONS 1999 Budget $ 245,000

The City's communications system is made up of Fire, Police and Engineering radio dispatch systems as well as a communications cable network. An effective communication system is essential to the efficient operation of these departments. Projects include replacing and expanding the City's underground cable plant. This system is essential to all aspects of emergency response and, therefore, it must have an eminent degree of survivability.

The 1999 Capital Budget contains funding for the continuation of the Underground Cable Plant replacement and expansion programs.

C. STREET LIGHTING 1999 Budget $1,302,000

Similar to a majority of the City's infrastructure, the street lighting plant continues to age with many components now past their estimated service life. The 1999 Street Lighting Capital Budget is an ongoing infrastructure replacement program for street lighting plant. Some examples are street lighting poles, service panels and conduit replacement. We are also reducing street lighting outages by rebuilding electrical connections on trolley routes and replacing badly corroded control panels.

In 1999, funding includes helping to address local public safety concerns regarding street, lane and bus shelter lighting brought forward through community interaction.

Funding is also provided for street lighting relocations in coordination with other utility companies' replacement programs. The City's share of new lighting projects approved through the Local Improvement process is also funded from the 1999 Capital Budget.
D. SEWERS 1999 Budget $16,592,000

The Sewers program includes the following:

System Replacement $15,715,000

The 1999 Sewers Capital Budget is a continuation of an ongoing infrastructure program that began in the early 1970's. This program consists of the renewal of sewer mains, connections, manholes, street drains and pump stations. Factors considered in selecting the projects in this category are: replacements for physical failure, deterioration from age, inadequate capacity and related flooding problems, and environmental benefits. The City has adopted a strategy of continuous sewer replacement to replace 1% of the existing sewer system over a 100-year life instead of periodic large reconstruction programs. The benefits of this strategy include:

- it avoids crisis funding and spreads the cost of Capital replacement works to taxpayers more evenly over time,
- provides for continuous environmental improvements,
- maintains a stable, well-trained workforce,
- maintains an adequate level of service in sewers by providing for the ongoing, timely replacement of older sewers and thus reducing the risk of sewer collapse and sewage flooding of private residences and businesses,
- meets the City's combined sewer overflow (CSO) management goal of gradual reduction and eventual elimination over about 60 years.

The City's ongoing commitment to the sewer separation program has been one of the key factors in the Province's support for our approach to dealing with CSO's. It may also have been a significant consideration in the Province's earlier decision to stay charges against the GVRD for ongoing CSO's at the Clark Drive outfall.

System Management $ 295,000

The system management programs provide funds to support a variety of information and research projects. These projects provide key information that is used to prioritize our 1% replacement program and establish routine maintenance programs. This program also provides funds for a variety of tools that support cost-effective capital work programs, including sewer system modeling, field monitoring of sewer flows, construction site exposures, soundings of underground facilities, and investigation of new products and technical standards for sewer design and construction.

Pollution Abatement $ 257,000

This program funds pollution abatement initiatives such as Sewer Separation on Private Property. This Sewer Separation Program was established by Council in 1978 in order to achieve the pollution control benefits of a separated sewer system. The major benefit of the program has been a reduction in the fecal coliform levels in waters that are adjacent to the City. It also allows us to completely eliminate combined sewer outfalls in the City. These benefits follow Provincial policy objectives and thus minimize Provincial requirements for more costly short-term improvements to reduce Vancouver's sewage overflows.

System Expansion $325,000

This program funds the City's share of sewers system expansion to Pacific Place.

Sewer Connection Fees for 1999

Fees for public sewer connections are reviewed annually and adjusted as necessary to reflect actual costs incurred in the previous year as well as anticipated inflationary increases in the next year. Accordingly, a fee increase of approximately 1% is recommended for 1999 (refer to submission D-1 and Appendix 3 for details).

F. WATERWORKS 1999 Budget $14,750,000

The 1997-1999 Capital Plan is based on the Waterworks Long Range Plan (LRP), updated with our more recent Storage and Transmission Optimization (STOR) work. The Waterworks 1997-1999 Capital Plan was approved by Council in September 1996, with increased annual expenditures compared to past Waterworks budgets. This funding was intended to address a number of significant deficiencies in the Waterworks system.

Implementation of the Long Range Plan was initially planned to be eight years, but was extended to 12 years to reduce its financial impact. Subsequent coordination with the GVRD, through the STOR project, also resulted in the deferral of the storage (reservoir) project envisioned in the LRP. The 1997-1999 Capital Plan reflects this change and includes watermain projects which are required independent of whether or not the city ultimately builds its own emergency storage facilities.

The 1999 Waterworks Capital Budget is composed of the following:

Aging Infrastructure Replacement $11,400,000

This program addresses the aging infrastructure of the City's waterworks system. Aging pit cast iron and lined cast iron distribution mains and steel pipe transmission mains are identified and replaced. Waterworks annual work programs result in a replacement rate of about 1.5% per year, as necessitated by system aging. This program also includes the reconstruction of Pressure Reducing Valve stations, which control the water pressure in the City's eight pressure zones. Water meters that read inaccurately, service pipes that have worn out due to corrosion, and fire hydrants are also replaced in this program.

Addressing Growth $0

This program involves the replacement or extension of transmission mains in various areas throughout the City to address pressure and fire flow problems, due to historic and continuing City and Regional growth. Funding is also included for cost-shared distribution system improvements to accommodate specific developments' local water system improvements. Due to reduced development activity in the last two years, adequate funding for the 1999 portion of these programs is available from the 1998 Capital Budget.

Other Works $1,350,000

The main ongoing components of this program include the installation and replacement of telemetry (monitoring) equipment, construction and replacement of mains prior to paving or on short notice, and installation of new services and meters. This year's telemetry program has been deferred due to staff turnover, so no funding is requested for 1999. Since 1997, new water services have been funded by the City only when they are required for residential fire sprinkler installations for secondary suites. The budgets for this category are also based on projected demand and are subject to market fluctuations. These factors have reduced the annual "New Services and Meters" portion of the budget from $1.75 million in 1996 to $550,000 in 1999, with existing funding available for this year's program. Funding is also included in the 1999 Budget for safety and efficiency improvements to Waterworks Operations' welding and meter shops.

Emergency Planning $2,000,000

The majority of funding in this category is for the Dedicated Fire Protection System (DFPS). In April 1992, City Council approved an 8- year implementation schedule for the construction of the DFPS. This was extended to a 12-year schedule as a result of funding limitations, and the scope of the project was revised subsequent to a Value Engineering study in 1997. When completed, this system will consist of two pump stations, which can use either salt water or potable water, and a dedicated distribution grid of large diameter, high pressure, watermains. To date, the False Creek and Coal Harbour pump stations and the construction of 4.7 kilometers of pipeline between them is complete.

The 1999 DFPS program will include funding to design and construct approximately 1.4 kilometers of pipeline on Pender Street, as well as funding for design and material purchases for the False Creek pipeline crossing. The total funding request for the DFPS project during the 1994 - 1996 Capital Plan is $6 million less than anticipated, because of the Value Engineering decision to defer the Kits Point Pump Station for the foreseeable future.

Existing funding is also included in this category for the evaluation and development of other alternative water supplies such as groundwater sources, and access to Fraser River water.

FUNDING

The funding shown in Table 1 for Streets, Communications and Street Lighting is from borrowing authority approved by voters in the November 16, 1996 plebiscite. Funding for Sewers originates from Council approved borrowing authority, and Waterworks is a Council approved, self-funding utility with debt financing through water rates revenue. Details of the close-out for Streets Capital is shown in Appendix 2.

There are several projects contained in the 1999 Engineering Capital Budget, such as bike routes, traffic signals, neighbourhood traffic plans, etc., that will require various forms of maintenance in the future. Increases that may be required to the Engineering Operating Budget for these maintenance items will be identified with the individual projects as they are reported to Council.

Remaining funds for Waterworks are over $12 million, primarily because of the deferral of the Kits Point Saltwater Pump Station, cost-savings through reduced scope on two transmission main projects, and no major developments occurring during the Plan that required cost-shared water system upgrades. As a result, these funds will be carried over to the 2000 - 2002 Capital Plan to reduce future borrowing requirements.

TABLE 1
(000'S Dollars)

Funding Approved Budget & Funds

Streets

$ 55,680

$40,471

$ 15,209

$0

Communications

$ 960

$ 715

$ 245

$0

Street Lighting

$ 4,373

$ 3,071

$ 1,302

$0

Sewers

$ 49,417

$ 32,825

$ 16,592

$0

Waterworks

$ 74,100

$ 46,950

$ 14,750

$12,400

Total Engineering

$184,530

$124,032

$ 48,098

$12,400

CAPITAL CLOSEOUTS

Every year, Capital projects are reviewed to determine accounts that can be closed out. Closeouts of completed Capital projects involving transfers between Capital accounts of $50,000 and 15% of the budget, or more, require Council approval. Appendix 2 provides a summary of the 1999 Streets closeouts, including a calculation of their under and over expenditures, respectively. The transfers requiring Council approval are noted.

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APPENDIX 3
Sewer Connection Fee Increases for 1999*

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Public Sewer Connection Fees for
One & Two Family Dwellings........... $ 4,350 $ 4,400

Public Sewer Connection Fees for
other than One & Two Family Dwellings:
4 inch/100mm Diameter............. $ 5,690 $ 5,750
6 inch/150mm Diameter............. $ 6,870 $ 6,940
8 inch/200mm Diameter............. $ 7,770 $ 7,850
10 inch/250mm Diameter............ $ 8,970 $ 9,060
12 inch/300mm Diameter............ $ 10,190 $ 10,300
15 inch/375mm Diameter............ $ 11,390 $ 11,510

Manhole installed in conjunction
with a Public Sewer Connection........ $ 3,420 $ 3,460

Connections greater than
15 inch/375mm Diameter................ $ 11,390 $ 11,510

New Fittings - Twin Sewer............. $ 2,100 $ 2,130
New Fittings - Single Sewer........... $ 920 $ 930

Inspection fee for Connection
to a Public Sewer..................... $ 120 $ 130

* 1999 fee represents a 1% increase rounded up to the nearest 10 dollars

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ATTACHMENTS THAT DO NOT HAVE ELECTRONIC COPY ARE AVAILABLE ON FILE IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE

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