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Discuss and Provide Comments on Transportation Projects to be Included in the Capital Budget for Fiscal Years 2025-2026 & 2026-2027 (Discussion)
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To: Honorable Chair and Members of the Transportation Commission
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
As part of the City’s biannual budget process, a capital budget for Fiscal Years 2025-2026 & 2026-2027 is developed to fund infrastructure improvements in the City of Alameda. Transportation-related capital projects have historically represented approximately 50% of the capital budget and amount to $48M million over the two-year proposed Capital Budget. Staff are seeking feedback from the Transportation Commission on the transportation projects proposed for funding in the two-year capital budget. Staff will present the draft capital budget at the public City Council budget workshops in May. The operating and capital budgets for fiscal years 2025-2026 & 2026-2027 are expected to be adopted by City Council in June.
BACKGROUND
As part of the City’s biannual budget process, a capital budget for Fiscal Years 2025-2026 & 2026-2027 is developed to fund infrastructure improvements in the City of Alameda (City). Capital improvements generally are categorized as follows:
• Pavement, Lighting and Urban Forest
• Sanitary Sewer
• Stormwater, Lagoons and Shoreline
• Buildings and Facilities
• Parks
• Transportation System Enhancements
• Sea Level Rise and Climate Adaptation
Each of the categories have multiple projects and funding sources. City staff propose funding for capital improvement projects within each category. The City Council ultimately allocates funds for the projects through adoption of the bi-annual budget in June for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2025.
Capital Budget Process
The main components for the basis of the capital budget are:
1. Fund balances and expected revenues
2. Estimated operational expenses from each fund
3. Proposed projects by City departments with estimated costs
Funding for transportation projects comes from several different sources, notably Measure BB (Alameda County Transpiration Sales Tax), the State Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program (SB1), and project-specific grants. With this Capital Budget, a significant $4.6 million request is made for General Fund monies to support the City’s transportation goals. Grant funds are another significant source of revenue for transportation-related projects. Although grant appropriations are usually completed by separate Council action, several recent and anticipated grant funds totaling $16.6 million are reflected in the Capital Budget to provide a more comprehensive view of the City’s continued investment in a safe and effective transportation system.
Operational expenses are proposed by each department and evaluated by the Finance Department. Several funds are shared between operating divisions and capital projects. For example, operating expenses include the cost of maintaining existing traffic signals, while the capital budget funds the purchase and installation of new traffic signal equipment. Operating and capital expenses are balanced throughout the budget process.
The transportation projects in the capital budget build from ongoing commitments for maintaining existing infrastructure and enhancing transportation infrastructure. The projects are drawn from adopted plans such as the Transportation Choices Plan (2018), the Active Transportation Plan (2022) and the Vision Zero Action Plan (2021). The projects are further summarized in the 2025 Transportation Capital Projects Work Plan, as presented to the Transportation Commission in February 2025. The proposed two-year capital budget allocates funds for the projects included in the work plan.
The draft capital budget is refined though budget meetings with the City Manager, Finance and City departments. The draft capital budget is presented and further refined with City Council budget workshops in May, which are open to the public. During this time, City staff develop a capital budget book that provides additional information and context for the proposed projects and funding. The Planning Board must also make a determination that the capital budget is consistent with the General Plan prior to final adoption. The final two-year operating and capital budgets are expected to be adopted by City Council in June.
DISCUSSION
While the draft capital budget for fiscal years 2025-2026 & 2026-2027 includes all types of city-owned infrastructure, this report and presentation focuses on transportation. Following are brief descriptions of the projects.
Pavement, Lighting and Urban Forest Projects
These projects are annual investments and funding needs are assessed through conditions-based asset management planning processes. This approach means that infrastructure is rehabilitated or replaced as it reaches the end of its useful life or before it becomes a potential hazard.
• Pavement management: This is the annual street resurfacing program. The recently completed project for the current fiscal year focused on the area east of Grand Street to High Street. The next pavement management project, constructed in Summer and Fall 2025 will be focused on the area east of High Street and Bay Farm Island. The following project in 2026 will return to the west end of the island. These projects implement improvements identified in the Active Transportation Plan and other safety enhancements, such as striping modifications, crosswalks and curb ramps. Certain types of pavement management projects also include green infrastructure.
• Signs, Pavement Markings, and Curb Painting: This annual project brings roadway striping, signage, crosswalks and other markings up to current standards. The past three fiscal years focused on high-priority intersections. The upcoming projects will replace, upgrade and install centerlines, bike lanes and other “long lines”.
• Traffic Signals and Systems: Existing traffic signal equipment requires upgrades to improve safety and performance and to reduce ongoing maintenance costs. This program replaces obsolete traffic signal cabinets and controllers, and installs video detection systems, transit signal priority equipment and battery backup systems (allowing signals to operate during power outages). It also includes traffic engineering studies and review of traffic signal timings at regular intervals.
• Emergency Vehicle Preemption: Emergency vehicle preemption (EVP) is designed to give emergency response vehicles a green light on their approach to a signalized intersection while providing a red light to conflicting approaches improving response time and safety. A secondary benefit of EVP is that transit operators such as AC Transit can utilize the technology for transit signal preemption and improve service.
• Park Pathway Repair & Replacement: Alameda Recreation & Parks has an ongoing project to repair/replace paths and trails within City parks. To address paved trails and paths that are in the City right-of-way but outside of parks, City staff are identifying, assessing and prioritizing trail segments for future projects. These projects are anticipated to be funded in future capital budgets.
• Sidewalks: This project removes tripping hazards and repairs uplift and damage to sidewalks and curbs caused by city-owned trees. It includes concrete cutting and replacing of existing sidewalks. The project also maintains sidewalks fronting city-owned properties.
• Street, Park and Parking Lot Lighting: Existing lighting systems require regular repair and replacement of lighting fixtures, poles and pull boxes. In addition, the City has aging underground conduits that will be replaced to ensure continued operations.
• Urban Forest and Landscape Maintenance: This includes care and preservation of street trees, landscaped medians and bioswales. Although the program has moved to an operational budget, funding sources are shared with capital projects.
Transportation System Enhancement Projects
Transportation System Enhancements are typically one-time projects or ongoing annual projects that address mobility, safety, sustainability, and equity. The projects are identified in the Transportation Choices Plan, Climate Action and Resiliency Plan, Vision Zero Action Plan, and Active Transportation Plan. The City website also has detailed information for these projects.
• Street Safety: This project continues daylighting at intersections to improve visibility. The City recently started daylighting the Tier 3 High Injury Corridors. In addition, the project funds the rapid response program to address locations where traffic fatalities have occurred on City streets and other minor street safety improvements such as rapid flashing beacons at unprotected crosswalks not included in other projects.
• Safe Routes to School Infrastructure: The City partners with the Alameda County Safe Routes to Schools Program to conduct school safety assessments at K-12 schools. This project designs and implements the recommendations for infrastructure changes, which may be phased over time and/or included in larger corridor improvement projects.
• Transit Stop Enhancements: Investments in bus stops and other areas outside of corridor improvement projects may include installation of benches and shelters, sidewalk reconstruction, red curb painting, bus stop relocations or other bus stop amenities. Improvements are coordinated with AC Transit and other stakeholders.
• Active Transportation Plan (ATP) Infrastructure Projects: The ATP outlines a 2030 Infrastructure Plan and a 2030 Low Stress Backbone Network. To expand on the planned corridor improvement projects, this project will begin to design and implement additional priority ATP capital projects, such as the Fifth Street separated bike lanes and new bicycle parking citywide
• Neighborhood Greenways are local, traffic-calmed streets designed to give priority to people walking and biking, where bicyclists and motorists can safely share the road and busy street crossings have been made safer. The first phase will convert the existing Slow Street segments of Pacific Ave, San Jose Ave/Morton St and Versailles Ave in FY 25-26. In FY 26/27, an additional mile of Neighborhood Greenways will be planned and constructed.
• Stargell Ave Complete Streets (w/ Roundabouts): Willie Stargell Avenue between Main Street and Mariner Square Loop is a multi-modal connection between Webster Street, the Posey/Webster Tubes, and the Alameda Landing Shopping Center and Alameda Point, connecting to many residential areas and schools in between. The Complete Street project will improve school crossings, provide active transportation facilities, slow traffic, improve the safety of major intersections (including by adding a roundabout at Fifth St and Stargell Ave), green the street, and add new bus stops for AC Transit’s Line 19 that will be re-routed in fall 2025.
• Westline Bus Queue Jump Lane project will identify a transit-only lane in the northbound direction along Westline Drive/Eighth Street between Otis Drive and Portola Avenue, allowing buses to bypass general traffic queues. As part of the design process, the project also aims to identify protected bikeways on or adjacent to Westline Drive/Eighth Street to close the existing bike lane gap between Shoreline and Central Avenue.
• Lincoln/Marshall/Pacific Safety Improvements: The project is currently in the early design phase, and the draft capital budget provides funding to advance the design, perform additional traffic engineering analysis, cost estimating and continued community outreach. Further design will better position the project for grant funding and identify phased improvements that may be implemented with paving projects and/or traffic signal upgrades and other intersection enhancements.
• Oakland Alameda Estuary Bridge: The City, in partnership with the City of Oakland, is advancing the implementation of a moveable bicycle and pedestrian bridge to create high quality multi-modal access between Oakland’s Jack London Square area and west Alameda, over the Oakland-Alameda Estuary. The next project phase includes a Waterway Study to analyze boat traffic in the estuary and model the waterway currents to support defining the height and width parameters for the proposed bridge.
• Public EV Charging The City is moving forward with a pilot project to increase the availability of electric vehicle (EV) chargers citywide by installing public chargers in City-owned parking lots and curbside locations.
Next Steps
City staff will incorporate feedback from the Transportation Commission, City departments and the City Manager’s office, and refine the projects, cost estimates and revenue projections. Staff will present the draft capital budget for fiscal years 2025-2026 & 2026-2027 at the public City Council budget workshops in May.
Staff will develop a capital budget book that provides additional information and context for the proposed projects and funding. The Planning Board must also make a determination that the capital budget is consistent with the General Plan prior to final adoption. The final budget is expected to be adopted by City Council in June.
ALTERNATIVES
The Transportation Commission can:
• Provide comments on the transportation projects included in the draft two-year capital budget
• Recommend revisions to the transportation projects to be included in the capital budget
• Decline to provide comments on the draft two-year capital budget
FINANCIAL IMPACT
Transportation projects in the capital budget are typically funded from one or more of the following sources:
• Measure BB, which is the countywide one-cent sales tax dedicated to transportation, including local streets and roads, bicycle and pedestrian, transit and paratransit;
• Vehicle Registration Fees, which are annual fees on vehicles in Alameda County and distributed to local jurisdictions for transportation uses;
• State Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program (SB1), state funding for maintenance, rehabilitation and safety improvements on roadways;
• Gas Tax, which is collected at the pump and distributed to local jurisdictions for transportation uses;
• Development Impact Fees, through which developers contribute to the City’s transportation and other facility costs attributable to new development; and
• Federal, state, regional and county grants.
• General Fund represents the City’s most discretionary funding with revenues from property and sales taxes. Historically little to no General Fund monies have been appropriated to transportation related projects, however, the two-year Capital Budget includes a request for $4.6 million of general funds to support transportation projects.
The Transportation Commission’s review and comment on the capital budget for Fiscal Years 2025-2026 & 2026-2027 is advisory only; no funding allocations are made as a result of this action.
MUNICIPAL CODE/POLICY DOCUMENT CROSS REFERENCE
The transportation projects included in the two-year capital budget are consistent with the General Plan Mobility Element (2021), Active Transportation Plan (2022), Vision Zero Action Plan (2021), and Transportation Choices Plan (2018).
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This action does not constitute a “project” as defined in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Section 15378 and therefore no further CEQA analysis is required. Any future projects with physical changes to the environment or roadway network that requires discretionary action by the City Council or Transportation Commission will be subject to future environmental review.
CLIMATE IMPACT
Since vehicle miles traveled in Alameda is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Alameda, investments in transportation included in the draft capital budget would have a positive climate impact. The proposed projects will improve transportation operations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and also will improve the resiliency to the impacts of climate change.
RECOMMENDATION
Provide feedback on the transportation projects to be included in the capital budget for Fiscal Years 2025-2026 & 2026-2027.
Respectfully submitted,
Scott Wikstrom, City Engineer, Public Works Department
Exhibits:
1. Proposed FY25-27 Capital Budget - Transportation Related Projects
cc: Erin Smith, Public Works Director
Jennifer Ott, City Manager