Minutes 02-19-2013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Dorosin asked if the letter in the packet is the letter that will be sent. Abigaile Pittman said yes, with comments or edits. Chair Jacobs noted that no one signed up to speak but there were a large number in the audience and he invited public comment. PUBLIC COMMENT: Jahmal M. Pullen, PE. Infrastructure Engineering Manager with the NCDOT Rail Division, introduced himself and several other staff members. He gave a brief background and said they were awarded money three years ago to improve the line from Raleigh to Charlotte. He said these funds will be used to replace bridges and consolidate crossings, and one of the main goals is to improve safety along this corridor. He said the private crossing projects is a very unique and is allowed through the federal program. He said studies were done several years ago and funding was applied for. Those funds of over 500 million dollar are now available for those projects. He said there are 12 bridges being built and 30 miles of double track. He said they would like to provide another access point to a crossing that has a bridge or arms and lights. He noted that many of these private crossing don't warrant safety features because of the lack of traffic. He said the funds allow creation of alternate access to safer crossings, but this money is part of a time sensitive federal grant and needs to be used by September 2017, which is the reason for the process happening now. He said the projects need to be constructed and paid out prior to that September 2017 deadline. He noted that these three private crossing projects are early in the federally mandated process. He said that if it turns out there are no good alternatives then the project will not be pursued. He noted the various meetings and hearings scheduled to hear and address concerns. Chair Jacobs said Abigail Pittman's letter addressed many concerns of the citizens. He noted that during the public meetings, the NCDOT consultants didn't seem to know the correct standards and were giving erroneous information to the citizens. He said that the citizens need to know accurate standards for things like travel lane requirements that impact people's property. Jahmal Pullen said there will be an effort to correct this and he noted that people will get confused about the travel lane and how much right of way is outside of the paved area to maintain the ditch. Chair Jacobs said that there is a huge difference for people whose yards are affected and it is important to make the impacts clear as early as possible. Mr. Pullen said this issue also depends on whether the area in question is a state maintained road or not. Daniel L. Havener, PE, Project Engineer, NCDOT— Planning and Development said the initial plan on Byrdesville was to take the state maintained road to the limits of the Byrdsville property and at that point and at that point the existing roads would be improved, patched and overlaid, but the roads within Byrdsville would not necessarily be taken into the state system. He said that the community meeting feedback was that the residents would like the main road to be included in the state system and this may have created the misunderstanding about right-of-way widths. Jahmal Pullen said this will all be part of the discussion with the division office. He also noted that he would leave a 2 page handout with background on next steps and benefits, and he reviewed these access benefits for emergency services transportation and safety. Chair Jacobs asked if these would be distributed at the information meetings or if the Board should post a copy on the website. Jahmal Pullen said an electronic copy will be provided and if an email list is provided, the information can be sent that way as well.