Transportation Committee 3/5/2024

Okay.

All right.

Well, good morning.

The March 5th, 2024 meeting of the Transportation Committee will come to order.

It is 9.32 a.m.

I'm Rob Saka, Chair of the Transportation Committee.

Will the committee clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Strauss?

Present.

Councilmember Wu?

Present.

Vice Chair Hollingsworth.

Present.

Chair Saka.

Here.

Chair, there are five members present.

All right.

If there are no objections, the agenda will be adopted.

Objections.

No objections.

Here are no objections.

The agenda is adopted.

So today we will have our initial briefing on the Seattle transportation plan which will be followed by a briefing from our central staff on the 19th later this month.

We will take this matter up for possible vote on April 2nd.

Possible vote.

We will also have the opportunity to hear from SDOT on a matter near and dear to my heart personally.

The state of our bridges and I know a lot of my colleagues here on the second floor as well.

I know there are many on this committee and outside of it with strong feelings on bridges, bridge safety, and just basic functionality of bridges and our other critical infrastructure impacting SDOT.

And finally, SDOT will also present on an art project on the columns underneath the Fauntleroy Expressway.

Colleagues, I encourage all of you to ask all the questions you need, but for crystal clarity, colleagues and members of the public, we are not going to be voting on that matter today.

We will not be voting on that matter today.

And finally, I will note that I am working, me and my staff are working feverishly with SDOT right now to hopefully line up by the end of this meeting and share out a date for me to actually tour some of our bridges and see firsthand some of the impact.

So the goal by the end of this meeting is for me to kind of share when that is going to occur.

So I thank my staff, Leila Ghasar and Bill Abord and the SDOT team for helping to arrange that.

All right, that said, Colleagues, at this time, we will open the hybrid public comment period.

Public comments should relate to items on today's agenda or within the purview of the Transportation Committee, which itself is fairly broad.

Clerk, how many speakers are signed up today?

Councilmember, we have five remote speakers and 13 in-person speakers.

All right, we will start with in-chambers speakers first.

Today, each speaker will have approximately one minute to comment.

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

Clerk, please read the instructions.

I will call on each speaker by name and in the order which they registered on the council's website or in the signup sheet available here in council chambers.

If you have not yet registered to speak and would like to do so, you can sign up before the end of comment period by going to the council's website or by signing up on the signup sheet near the public comment microphone.

The public comment link is also listed in today's agenda.

Once I call a remote speaker's name, I will unmute the appropriate microphone and the speaker must press star six to begin.

Please begin speaking by stating your name and the item you are addressing.

As a reminder, public comment should relate to an item on today's agenda and within the purview of the Transportation Committee.

Speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left of the allotted time.

Once you hear the chime, we ask that you begin to wrap up your public comment.

If speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided, the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next speaker.

Once you've completed your public comment, this is for remote speakers, we ask that you please disconnect from the line and if you plan to continue following the meeting, please do so via Seattle channel or the listening options listed on the agenda.

The public comment period is now open and we will begin with the first speaker on the list.

As is the council's practice, we are gonna start with elected officials first.

The first person on the list is Chair Hanson.

Anyone?

Okay.

Hi, I'm not Chair Hanson.

My name's Christina Pearson.

I work in District 1 at the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center.

I am here to speak on behalf of Chairwoman Cecile Hanson, who can't join us today.

She asks that even though you're not voting, that you hear her words today on the Fauntleroy Art Project.

She asked that this project not move forward without equal representation for the present day Duwamish tribe.

As the elected chair of the historical Duwamish tribe, I'm extremely disappointed to be erased again from the written history of the city named after our chief.

There's something that is fundamentally wrong about not sharing the whole truth of the city.

The truth is that we are still here.

The present day Duwamish have survived here and are still doing so today.

We do it without putting our signage up on Agate Pass or up at the White River Amphitheater or anywhere else that would be considered in poor taste.

Putting up murals underneath the West Seattle Bridge without Duwamish involvement within walking distance of our longhouse and cultural places would be considered in poor taste.

Seattle can do better.

Thank you.

Councilman Paul Nelson.

Thank you and hello members of the Seattle City Council.

My name is Paul Nelson and I serve as a Duwamish tribal council member and a board member on our nonprofit organization.

I speak not just as a representative of the Duwamish tribe but as a voice for our enduring heritage and presence as a Duwamish tribal member.

I stand before you today to voice a concern that strikes the very heart of our community spirit.

The Duwamish tribe whose ancestral presence predates the founding of our city named after our esteemed Chief Seattle.

And we're still here yet our voices remain unheard.

And in the very land we have stewarded since time immemorial.

We have before us a proposal for council bill 120726, which was crafted with input from the Seattle office of intergovernmental relations, the department of transportation and the office of arts and culture.

However, this overlooks a crucial participant, the Duwamish tribe.

Therefore I ask that to be, the ask is very straightforward to advance the proposal, to not advance the proposal until the Duwamish tribe has been properly consulted.

Thank you very much for your time.

Councilman Ken Workman.

I am Workman of the Duwamish Tribe.

And great, great, great, great grandson of Chief Seattle.

I stand before you today in opposition to this art project which paints the columns underneath the West Seattle Bridge, that there are tribes, federally recognized tribes, that have been contacted and who have chosen to put their art in this proximity, close proximity, of a non-federally recognized tribe called the Duwamish.

because of our lack of federal recognition, we're being excluded from many of these kinds of contracts, these kinds of intergovernmental communications.

And so I would ask this panel to seriously consider moving forward with this proposal without our consideration, the Duwamish trade.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, we're gonna move to remote speakers now.

And chair, I see a former council president Jim Street in the remote speakers.

He's not, he's not present.

Well, yeah.

Thank you though.

Thank you.

Let's start please with Robin Briggs.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yep.

Great.

Good morning, council members.

My name is Robin Briggs.

I live on Capitol Hill, and I'm here today to speak about the transportation plan.

I'm looking at it from a climate perspective because the climate is getting worse at an alarming rate, and like many of my neighbors, I am very concerned.

Seattle's goal is to reduce overall emissions by 58% by 2030, and for the transportation sector, 81% by 2030. The plan says that 9 out of 10 personal trips will be carbon-free by 2030. How are we going to achieve this?

The plan has a lot of consideration for climate, which I welcome.

But it should be updated to include a realistic assessment of what it takes to reach our climate goals, goals you all said you supported when you were running for office.

Probably there are multiple different ways to get there.

But for sure, business as usual is not one of them.

We need a frank discussion about alternatives and outcomes.

2024 was just 5 and 1 half years ago.

We need more than this.

Thank you.

Next up we have Lucas O'Brien.

Hi, can everyone hear me?

Yes.

Awesome.

Hi everybody.

My name is Lucas O'Brien.

I am a resident in District 1 in West Seattle and I'm just here to stand in solidarity with the Duwamish folks that have already spoken.

and echo their call for not moving forward with the plans for the Fauntleroy Art Project until there is equitable inclusion of the Duwamish in that work.

Thank you so much.

Hope you consider.

Next up, we have Cecilia Black.

Hello, my name is Cecilia Black, and I am a community organizer for Disability Rights Washington.

And I am urging you to amend the current ACL transportation plan in order to set clear and specific measures.

This was a two-year effort and a multi-million dollar effort to lay out the next 20 years of our transportation system.

And it offers no serious roadmap or metrics to get us to accomplish our goals.

The STP needs to provide specific Tier 2 metrics.

The plan plans on increasing percentage of walking trips by 7%, yet sets zero goals for increasing percentage of sidewalks in good condition, a measure SDOT has complete control over.

We cannot accomplish goals we don't set.

Secondly, the STP must set intermediary goals.

As we've seen with the construction of sidewalks, there is no will within SDOT for costly and important projects will continually be put off for future decades.

Next up we have Sharon Sobers-Outlaw.

Hello?

Hi.

hi are you there sharon hello hi hello star six can you can you hear me now yes we can hear you okay great good morning i am sharon sober's outlaw consultant with wider horizons and mhp for special populations with the department of health i'm also a community member of the transportation equity work group for sbac I'm here today as the co-chair of the Seattle Department of Transportation Equity Workgroup to press our support of the Seattle Transportation Plan.

We appreciate the STP process of including various community members in TW during the development process of this plan.

In particular, we are supportive that the STP is making equity paramount.

We cannot emphasize enough the importance of shifting towards non-punitive transportation enforcement approaches that reduce harm and enhance public safety on city streets.

With the transportation equity framework values and tactics represented in the STP, we are wholeheartedly supportive of continuing to use this framework as further policies and practices are created and implemented in the transportation plan.

We also want to uplift the importance of safety for the various communities that experience the Seattle transportation.

When thinking about safety, we do ask that you prioritize the task for safety and...

Thank you, Sharon.

Okay, now we'll continue with people who are in the chambers.

Next up is Nancy Sackman.

Good morning members of the Seattle Council.

My name is Nancy Sackman from the Sackman family and a direct descendant of Chief Seattle.

I'm a Duwamish tribal member and the cultural preservation officer for the Duwamish tribe.

I'm here to comment on the Council Bill 120726, the Fauntleroy Art Project.

This is an area that is culturally sensitive to the Duwamish Tribe and within at least a mile of six ancestral and historic Duwamish place names, including the Duwamish River and the former Duwamish Estuary.

We ask that the Duwamish be consulted and given a column as well.

The Duwamish Tribe is still here.

Our modern longhouse completed construction in 2009 is also within a mile of the project.

We are active in our local community, active with local governments which encompass Seattle, Tukwila, Renton, the Eastside, Shorelines, and all of King County's ancestral lands.

Thank you.

Next up is Jake Tones.

Hello, my name is Jake Danis.

I live in District 2 and work in District 1 at the Duwamish Longhouse and Cultural Center, and I'm urging the committee to reject CB120726 as it is, or amend the bill package to be inclusive of the Duwamish Tribe as an equal tribal partner in the Fauntleroy Art Project.

This artwork will be right down the street from the Duwamish Longhouse on the ancestral homelands of the Duwamish Tribe, yet Duwamish Tribal Services continues to be excluded from participating in this longstanding project.

This type of systemic erasure is called cultural genocide, and the city of Seattle has a responsibility to its residents to refuse to perpetuate this injustice.

Might does not make right.

Your constituents know this and we are watching.

Step up and do the right thing.

Ensure the Duwamish tribe have an equal place in this art project with at least one third of the budget to represent their own unique history, heritage, and culture.

One Seattle includes actively making space for the Duwamish.

Next up is Tyler Vasquez.

Good morning council members.

My name is Tyler Vasquez and I'm the policy manager at Cascade Bicycle Club.

We advocate for people who bike or want to.

We have been engaged with the Seattle Transportation Plan and the development of the current Bicycle Master Plan.

I'm glad to see the councils digging into the Seattle Transportation Plan.

It's a huge document and undertaking.

I WANT TO REMIND YOU ALL THAT THE FIRST AND ONLY BICYCLE MASTER PLAN WAS ADOPTED IN 2014 AND IS A HUGE GUIDING DOCUMENT FOR THE BIKE NETWORK TODAY IN CONCERT WITH THE SUNSETTING MOVE SEATTLE LEVY.

THANKS TO THE BICYCLE MASTER PLAN AND THE MOVE SEATTLE LEVY WE HAVE MADE PROGRESS ON THE BIKE NETWORK ESPECIALLY IN DOWNTOWN AND NORTH SEATTLE.

I want to ask you all to build on that bike investment that we've already made and make sure that Seattle's transportation system is bikeable for everyone regardless of age, ability, race.

Next up is Tyler Blackwell.

Good morning.

My name is Tyler Blackwell, and I am the transportation planner for the Soto Business Improvement Area.

We represent about 1,100 businesses and 600 properties in Seattle's industrial district south of downtown.

We want to thank the Seattle Department of Transportation for their engagement through the development of the Seattle Transportation Plan.

And we are very pleased to see the economic vitality was included as a goal.

With tens of thousands of living wage jobs and many facilities critical to the operations of our city, state, and county, so does transportation infrastructure plays a crucial role in our region's health.

Our bridges, major and minor truck streets, first and last mile freight connections, and transit service all need extensive investment to keep SOTO and by extension the region functioning safely and smoothly.

Building and maintaining a safe transportation system in SOTO is of the utmost importance and we ask the City Council and Seattle Department of Transportation to listen to our community and support our safety-focused priorities.

Thank you.

Next up, we have Richard Ortega, followed by Clara Cantor.

Good morning.

My name is Ricardo Ortega, and I am a member of a community organization called Lilo, a legacy of equality leadership and organizing our organization, participate applying some surveys in our community, mainly with people of color in the following neighborhoods, South Park, Capitol Hill, and Rainier Beach.

We knock the doors, and we talk with people on the bus stops.

And they have some great ideas how the transportation can work better for them.

They believe that public transportation is not a commodity.

It's a right for everyone to have access to move where they want to go.

We will have less pollution if we have more efficient public transportation.

We need some areas in the city better sidewalks and more lights.

And also, they say that public transportation is important because we can save money.

and we can preserve a better environment for everybody.

And we support the Dunamish tribe demand to have a voice in the transportation plan.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have Clara Cantor and then Matthew Sutherland.

Good morning, Council.

My name is Clara Cantor, and I'm a community organizer for Seattle Neighborhood Greenways.

I'm also a parent of two young kids in District 2 who gets around by biking in transit.

I'm here to comment on the STP.

Seattle has a lot of goals and a lot of plans and a lot of commitments that we've already made.

We've committed to zero deaths and life altering injuries on our streets by 2030. We've committed to meet our transportation equity framework commitments by 2028. We've committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by 82% by 2030. We've committed to doubling the number of trips people choose to take by bike to increase transit reliability and make our city accessible for people with disabilities.

All of those goals lie within the first six years of this plan.

And I'm here to ask each of you individually how we as a city and how are you as a member of the Seattle City Council Transportation Committee going to hold Seattle accountable to those goals?

How are we going to fund them?

How are we going to make the hard decisions to build them?

Seattle knows how to achieve all these goals.

We just have to decide to do it.

Next up, we have Matthew Sutherland, who will be followed by Jamie Crosswhite, joining us remotely.

Good morning, Chair Saka, Vice Chair Hollingsworth, and members of the committee.

My name is Matthew Sutherland.

I am the advocacy director at Transportation Choices Coalition.

We are a nonprofit that supports safe, sustainable, and equitable transportation options for all Washingtonians.

I want to first extend a thank you to President the opportunity to provide comment, but also to staff at SDOT, mayor's office and council for working on this STP plan for many years and receiving thorough community input.

The goals of the STP, especially those around safety, equity and sustainability align with our values and our strong central theme in this document.

We continue to encourage the city to affirm a commitment to walking, rolling, biking, and transit being the safest and most convenient way to get where you need to go.

We greatly appreciate the responsiveness to feedback, including robust engagement.

In particular, thank you for the addition of metrics for many goal areas, addressing safety and equity comments, creating and applying a prioritization framework.

and equitable pricing out mechanisms.

Finally, we'd like to ask you to work on improving elevation of ADA accessibility, exploring programmatic ways to use investments to address the worker shortage and continue to address public safety.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, we have Jamie Crosswhite joining us remotely.

Hello, my name is Jamie Crosswhite.

I'm a community member and I'm here to speak up for the refugees housing.

This is a really important issue.

Denying continued housing is denying their humanity.

And I want every person to know that is there today fighting for their right for housing that you are valued.

You are welcome here.

And we know that actually embracing immigrants would decrease our criminality rate overall, because they are less likely to commit crimes, whereas we have SPD who stays committing crimes, killing people like John B. Cundula, who was simply crossing a crosswalk and was hit by Officer Kevin Dave going 74 miles in a 25 mile an hour zone.

So just please, please, the community is urging you to continue to house these folks, especially in this cold weather.

No one deserves to live under these conditions outside.

This is a public health hazard.

Thank you for and thank you for listening.

And a reminder to everyone that's here, you are valued, you are worthy, you are wanted here.

Next up, we have Deb Barker.

Good evening, don't we wish it were evening.

Hi everybody, my name is Deb Barker.

I am a proud West Seattle resident, member of the Community Task Force for the West Seattle Bridge and I attended Zoom meetings for over two and a half years and I am speaking today on Council Bill 120736. I'm personally irritated by the fact that Estott began coordinating the bridge painting, the tribal column painting, while the West Seattle Bridge was still closed.

There were internal conversations between different city departments and between different council people, but nobody bothered to tell the West Seattle public, the Duwamish tribe, West Seattle Bridge Community Task Force about this.

To me that omission taints any goodwill this project hope to engender divide the 12 columns but do the right thing.

Thank you very much.

Next up we have Elizabeth Roberts.

Good morning.

First, I'd like to say that I'm humbled and honored to be here during this public comment time with so many people who are so intentional and care so deeply about our community.

Thank you.

Next, I'd like to say again, my name is Elizabeth Roberts.

My husband, Jonathan, and I own a home next to a shoreline street end called East Harrison Shoreline Street End.

Our address is 439th Avenue East.

We are longtime residents of the neighborhood and committed to being good neighbors to share the shoreline street end with one and all.

Our interests are connected, and I've just realized I don't have my glasses on.

We are interested in connecting with the Transportation Committee members in the near future about the issues we are experiencing.

I understand the shoreline street ends are not on your agenda for today, but I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself so you have a face to the name.

I look forward to continuing the conversation with you soon.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next up we have Maria Ramirez.

Good morning, council members.

I'm Maria Guadalupe Ramirez and I live in District One.

Good morning, Council Member Saka.

I'm here first and foremost to say I stand with the Duwamish and I ask that they be included in any plans, including the Fauntleroy project.

The other request I'm making is that the transportation plan include the innovative project called Reconnect South Park.

Soon we will be contacting all the city council members to brief them on the project.

And I ask that this important project that can help us deal with climate catastrophe that's coming and with the high rates of disproportionate health disparities in the South Park area, folks there live 11 years less than people living in the North End.

and they also have higher rates of asthma, COPD, and many other diseases.

This is a possible solution.

I ask that you look forward to 20, 30 years ahead and consider what kind of world we want for our children and their grandchildren.

Thank you very much.

All right, that concludes the list of people who've signed up to speak today, and I just want to remind everybody that speakers can leave their written comments or email comments to council at seattle.gov.

Yes, thank you, members of the public, for providing your thoughtful comments today, and please do continue to engage.

There are multiple ways, and we just talked about one of them, and we have regular meetings as well, so...

Well, first off, before moving on to the next item of business, I just want to recognize my esteemed colleague, Councilmember Rivera.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Rivera, for joining us today.

Really important topics we're covering today.

And although you are not a voting member, you are a member and free to ask questions when we have our briefers coming up.

I don't think we'll be voting on anything today, so...

Less relevant, but welcome.

Thank you.

All right.

So moving on to item one, we will now move on to our first item of business.

Will the clerk please read into, or excuse me, read item one into the record.

Seattle Department of Transportation presentation on the Seattle Transportation Plan.

All right, thank you.

Will our presenters please join us at the table and share your presentation?

Once ready, please introduce yourselves and begin your presentation.

Good morning.

I'm Greg Spotts, director of Seattle Department of Transportation, and I'm very pleased to be here with you today.

I'm joined by Belle Laborde, our council liaison, Joanna Valencia, and Jonathan Lewis, who are the co-managers of the Seattle Transportation Plan project, and my senior deputy, Francisca Stefan, who's the executive sponsor of the Seattle Transportation Plan.

Today is a really exciting day for Seattle.

It's an opportunity to discuss and explore how the physical city will evolve and grow.

The Seattle Transportation Plan is our first holistic plan setting forth a unified vision for all modes of transportation.

Previously, we had four individual plans, a bike plan, a pedestrian plan, a transit plan, and a freight plan, and they were produced at different times by a variety of staff.

The Seattle transportation plan before you is the first time that all modes have been combined together, and it enables us to additionally focus on economic vitality and the activation of our public spaces.

The STP is the result of an innovative and inclusive outreach strategy that brought the discussion table to people who may not previously have had the opportunity to participate.

Our outreach was guided by SDOT's transportation equity framework and was closely coordinated with outreach about the comprehensive plan update.

The STP is intended to guide investments in transportation over the next 20 years.

The STP is an aspirational document for how Seattle can evolve.

Future decisions on funding specific projects and programs will be coming to this committee soon, including consideration of a transportation levy renewal package.

The STP and the future transportation levy renewal package will be informed in part by our Transportation Asset Management Plan, which provides an analytic framework for investing in maintaining the assets we already have.

The second item on today's agenda will introduce you to the team advancing our Bridge Strategic Asset Management Plan, which brings a contemporary lifecycle approach to maintaining our network of bridges.

In reviewing the Seattle Transportation Plan, the upcoming One Seattle Plan asset management plans, and a transportation levy renewal package, this council has the unique opportunity to shape public and private investments in the physical city for many years to come.

And with that, I'd like to pass it to co-manager of the Seattle Transportation Plan Project, Joanna Valencia.

Thanks, Greg.

Thanks, Greg.

Thank you, Committee Chair Saka and committee members.

We're excited here to be with you this morning to share the Seattle Transportation Plan.

And just real quickly this morning, we'll go over a quick background of the project, share the community outreach and engagement process as well as what we've heard, give a plan overview and leave time for discussion and questions.

This morning, just real quickly, I really wanted to highlight by starting how the comprehensive plan relates to the STP.

Together, these two documents will be the key tools for SDOT for the next 20 years to guide transportation for the city.

with the comp plan looking at accommodating almost 1 million people.

And I just wanted to note and give a shout out that the comp plan has just been recently released this morning for public review.

The comp plan contains the transportation elements as well as touch points with economic development and container port.

These three key chapters in the plan itself contains division and policies for the next 20 years.

Meanwhile, the SDP is the policy implementation and strategy document containing goals, key moves, and performance measures.

In regards to why Seattle needs this plan now, I just wanted to highlight a couple key things in this slide before you.

As we all know, there's extreme weather conditions that continue to change and evolve that affect our roads.

The way our goods move and how our community travels continues to evolve and change through our system.

Additionally, as Seattle continues to increase in growth, this is resulting in traffic and also highlighting the need for housing near public transportation.

As I noted, the touch points with the comprehensive plan and really the key things I wanted to highlight around us is the unique conversation that we're in with the community to be able to integrate land use and transportation strategies.

We've been working closely with the OPCD team to ensure that the transportation system that we have envisioned for the next 20 years serves our growth strategy.

Additionally, with some of this limited growth, just wanted to highlight that as we grow, our space within our right-of-way is not growing.

And so, as Greg mentioned, we have a variety of different plans in place that were developed at different times of years with different goals, and this is an opportunity to be able to bring those together in full conversation to ensure that our transportation system fits within the limited space that we have.

And I'll finally just quickly conclude, sorry, Bill.

Just our levy to move Seattle expires in 2024. And so this is a great opportunity for the STP to serve as an input of a community inspired plan.

And so just wanted to highlight, as Greg already mentioned, the transportation system is rooted in existing policies that are within the four master plans that are highlighted on the left-hand side there in the blue.

And those are listed there, but also just want to elevate that's included in that our plans around our safety, equity, and climate.

Additionally, as I had mentioned, there continues to be new ways that our community is experiencing our transportation system.

And on the right hand side in the green, you'll see there some of these concepts such as people, streets and public spaces.

So not only how our community moves through our transportation system, but how they experience the space, whether it be transit stops, community hubs, or the plazas within our right of way.

Additionally, I wanted to highlight that this is the first plan that the City of Seattle will actually also have a conversation about the role of vehicles in the transportation system.

And so with that, just wanted to say that we've been in conversation with the community for the over past two years to create the plan and really just wanna highlight that the plan before you and the ingredients that are before you have really been informed by the community this morning.

And to highlight some of this, some of this effort has included both citywide and in-person outreach as well as virtual with a robust community hub.

I just really want to highlight there are over 78,000 total data points we collected from the community and over the 9,000 folks that we were able to engage as the community was coming back to in-person classes.

activities.

In addition to the citywide activities, I really just want to emphasize what Greg shared this morning of our focus to elevate the voices that we have not traditionally heard from before.

And to just quickly touch on that, I really want to celebrate our partnerships in the next slide with seven key community-based organizations, as well as partnerships with many Department of Neighborhood community liaisons.

So now the fun part and just getting to what we heard.

So we were able to release the draft transportation plan this past August and have been in conversation with the community this past fall and winter, reviewing the draft plan that is before you.

So some of the things we heard around the plan components, we've received over 13,000 comments from the public, and this included that largely the community feels that the SCP is headed in the right direction.

There still continues to be a desire for us to be bold, actionable, and fast, and also continued elevation of safety, equity, and sustainability.

As you heard this morning, we heard a lot of comments around the continued concerns to continue to elevate freight and economic vitality is part of this plan.

And also we heard from the community is we want to know the details and we need to know more about how this plan will be implemented, including how the performance metrics will be identified.

And so with that as well, we also released and shared 80 large capital project concepts with the public.

And we received a lot of support for a range of corridor and station access area projects.

And three of the highest rating projects are listed here before you this morning.

Additionally, as a lot of SDOT's work is completed to programs, We have also highlighted some of the programs that our community loves, including Vision Zero, Safe Rest of School.

And I also want to highlight the continued support for maintenance as well as modernization as we're stepping through maintenance programs.

And so with that, we've been working closely with the community and digesting the many comments we received.

And the plan before you reflects some of the things that we've listed here in regards to how we've responded.

So this includes the full fleshing out of chapter five, the implementation chapter, which includes the prioritization framework as well as the projects list.

Some new key moves to address some of the key themes we heard around safety, equity, and climate, as well as mentioned already this morning, the addition of economic vitality as a goal for the plan and continued on touch points with the growth strategy.

And so at this time I'll hand it over to Jonathan Lewis to go over the tour of the plan.

Okay.

Thanks Joanna.

Thank you for having me council members.

Um, we're really excited to be here, uh, to share the plan with you all.

Uh, so I'm going to do a quick walkthrough on the plan.

Uh, it's, uh, organized in two documents.

Uh, part one is the more public facing document.

Uh, it's a little bit more approachable in its language.

about 125 pages and includes the vision, the goals, what we call the key moves and the implementation strategy.

The part two document is the more technical document, a little bit more staff facing, includes the eight functional elements and all of those priority investment network maps.

This has been said, this is our 30,000 foot kind of vision plan for SDOT as we move forward.

It includes a vision statement.

So this is the statement on which the plan is organized.

We did a lot of work with the community to hone the statement, reflects many of our goals and the need to serve those who both live and work in the city.

On the next slide is our six goals for the plan.

And we took a step back from each of these goals and tried to think about how is the department in the context of those four modal plans that were mentioned, are we doing everything we need to do to achieve these goals?

So went one by one through these and took a fresh look at policy gaps, policy alignment that we could do to strengthen our position over the next couple decades.

So I'll take a quick peek into each of, first is the term key moves.

So much of the plan is organized around these key moves and this is a term that represents strategic direction or strategic activities for the department.

So as we kind of pivot for the next couple decades, some things we need to double down on.

Other things are new undertakings that we need to pursue.

These are often cross-cutting.

You know, we're referenced in multiple modal plans.

Here we've tried to roll them up under a concept.

And...

So here we go.

Let's take a look at the first under safety.

Of course, as is mentioned, we have a goal to achieve zero serious injuries and fatal crashes by 2030. It's a cornerstone goal for the department.

There's been a lot of recent work with our top to bottom review to really, and we've built on that that work through this plan.

This is a really popular and well supported goal by the Seattle public.

So we've doubled down on our support to support safe travel speeds, invest in high crash and crash prone locations and focus on our most vulnerable users of the transportation system.

We've also highlighted three new programmatic activities, continuing Safe Routes to Schools, but then also recommended a focus on Safe Routes to Transit and Safe Routes to Parks.

And then lastly, sorry, that's it.

So now head on to next slide on equity.

So here we built on the work of the transportation equity framework that was released publicly about a year ago.

This built on many years of really in-depth engagement with a group of BIPOC community leaders in the city.

So we had great shoulders to stand on as we thought about how to fully integrate that into this plan and into the strategies in the next couple decades.

This focuses on how we work as a department, where we invest as a department, and then an additional focus on affordable transportation options.

This is in part to support the One Seattle Comp Plan's focus on affordability in Seattle.

Lastly, we added, this is the one we added, we added a new key move on supporting more equitable approaches to enforcement, both education, non-punitive strategies, that we consider those as we work with SPD on our enforcement approach to the right of way.

A lot of equity work is climate work.

And in our climate approach, we have a near-term goal in 2030 that was referenced.

We also have a 2050 goal to achieve a completely carbon neutral transportation system.

Per capita emissions in the city have been going down, but because we've been growing so fast, our total emissions are relatively flat.

So there's a lot of work to do in this arena.

Our basic approach as a department is to focus on mode shift where SDOT has a lot of influence and then electrify where we are focused on partnership with our partners like City Light.

So this essentially means create great alternatives to walk, bike, take transit, and then also support the electrification, people having private electric cars, et cetera.

Of course, freight and urban goods is really different.

There's not as much mode shift opportunities.

So looking at cleaner fuels and electrification in the freight sector.

Our next goal is on mobility and economic vitality.

Mobility in many ways is the lifeblood of the community.

And since the August draft and through a lot of community input, we've really strengthened our emphasis on supporting reliable freight travel, the freight and maritime sectors, and our employment centers.

This, in many ways, is a policy continuity approach of focusing on our most reliable, affordable, and efficient transportation options, but we really looked at how those can all work together to create a better transportation system.

The next slide on livability.

This was, as was mentioned, a really new focus for this plan, focusing on streets as public spaces, about the vitality of the street and the feeling safe in our right of way.

This included a chance to look at creating welcoming community and mobility hubs.

So these are places where people may transfer to light rail, transfer to bus.

A lot of times these are at the heart of neighborhood commercial areas.

We also looked at a new program around destination streets of focusing on supporting our neighborhood neighborhood commercial areas.

Places like California Avenue, Ballard Avenue, or Market Street in Ballard.

And then lastly, just a general focus on creating welcoming, age-friendly public spaces.

Last slide is on the goals is one of the simplest ideas that might be the biggest idea in the whole plan.

And that's to really focus on modernization when we're maintaining our system.

So when we're out doing a major resurfacing, it's really a chance to rethink the street, make those public realm and those network improvements, complete streets improvements while we're already on the ground.

Okay, so in addition to the sections on the key moves, you'll see in Chapter 3, the new Chapter 5 focuses on the expanded implementation strategy that Joanna mentioned.

This includes four main components, the program and project identification, prioritization framework, potential funding, and performance measures.

So that's all of that section is greatly expanded and you'll see that in chapter five.

Just as a reminder, this has been noted, but a lot of the department's work is through programs.

This includes both service and capital investments.

In addition, we include a large capital project list of 81 tiered large capital projects.

So on the program side, SDOT does things like deliver ORCA cards to low-income families and freight and transit spot improvements, so both capital and services.

And then those large capital projects usually are corridors and oftentimes require partnership.

When we think about the implementation of the system, we'll be looking through both the levy and through our STP implementation plan, both on the programmatic side and the project side.

Lastly, to touch on the Part 2 document, this includes eight functional elements of the right-of-way and really takes those key moves, those strategic directions that I mentioned, and gets into much more detail.

So this is where we've updated all of our priority investment network maps, the maps from the four modal master plans Greg mentioned, layered those on top of each other, compared them to the right-of-way, really tried to update and think about how those can work together to create a better transportation system.

Built the people, streets, and public space networks from the ground up.

and focused on this cross-cutting programs and actions and spelled those out in more detail.

Okay.

Last slide here is on next steps.

Obviously we're before city council as y'all consider the plan.

We are also working closely with the levy team as they, as this is the 30,000 foot plan and that levy plan is more like the five or 10,000 foot level.

So it gets a lot more detailed.

And we're also working closely So working closely with the levy team, we'll be preparing an implementation plan for the STP in 2025. And then that will get updated every four years and we'll pursue major updates to the STP every eight to 10 years in sync with the one Seattle comprehensive plans, major updates.

Okay, that concludes our remarks and take any questions or discussion, thank you.

Yeah, so thank you, Director Spatz.

Thank you, experts, for a very insightful presentation.

For visual display and depiction, folks, this is what a printed copy of the Seattle Transportation Plan looks like.

And just because, you know, we try to print on...

This is actually double-sided.

and two slides or pages per sheet.

So it's 600 plus pages.

So a lot, a lot of thought and deliberation by SDOT.

by the mayor, by community, went into this right here.

So I want to applaud that work.

And so I actually spent, by the way, I spent this past weekend, I'm a dad of three young kids, and I spent this past weekend on community and recreational baseball.

And I also brought this...

this beast home and I really enjoyed personally diving deep into the operational details here and kind of geeking out.

There's some cool stuff in there.

And so again, kudos on completing this big process.

Now it's before us.

I want to highlight a couple quick comments as well.

You know, I think it is important as we think about for this plan and on a going forward basis how we prioritize projects.

It is important that we prioritize multimodal transportation and there might be an opportunity to more explicitly call that out.

But I also want to emphasize the importance, and we kind of talked on it earlier at the outset of this conversation, but The concept of transportation policy planning and land use planning, those are very tightly woven and integrated constructs.

And so it makes sense that last week, the proposed Seattle transportation plan was transmitted from the mayor's office.

And then earlier this morning, The recommended comp plan from the mayor's office is also transmitted to council.

And our land use committee, chaired by council member Morales, will be leading that work, the council's work on that effort.

But these are constructs that are very tightly woven, integrated together.

We need to be thinking about them holistically.

And another comment.

Economic vitality, I wanna call out that specifically, that it is included as a goal.

It is a worthy goal, a valid goal, and among the other sort of valid goals as well is part of this transportation plan.

This is a visionary 20-year document, and it's going to set the framework for how we think and approach and eventually invest in our transportation system going forward.

So that is why it is important We have climate, necessarily.

It is also important that we have economic vitality.

And I wanna thank SDOT.

I wanna thank a lot of the small business owners and members from organizations like the SOTO BIA, for example, who were you know, advocating for that contract to be specifically up-leveled and included as a standalone goal for a while.

And then I took office and, you know, then I looked at the issue and was able to share my feedback and recommendation that that also be included.

And lo and behold, here it is.

So glad to see that little feature, minor but important feature reflected in this resource.

And...

Yeah, because this document is really gonna shape and influence how project prioritization decisions are made over time.

I wanna highlight, so there's this four-pager printout here.

It's called The Future of Transportation in Seattle, kind of summary document.

I love the comments, the select community feedback.

One that really struck a chord with me personally was, this comment here towards the bottom of that paragraph.

It says, maintenance is the unglamorous but incredibly important job that makes our city tick.

Couldn't agree more.

So that said, we'd love to better understand And we talked about it a little in this briefing, but we'd love to better understand.

Can you talk a little bit more about how some of these initial project prioritization decisions were made?

And the plan, it attempts to kind of break out into three separate tiers, as you know, of various higher need projects.

Can you talk a little bit about that prioritization exercise and how those decisions were made?

Sure thing.

Thank you, Councilmember, for your question.

So the project list was developed based in part on maintenance needs, in part on safety priorities, high crash prone locations, link expansion, so places where we see new light rail stations coming and we need to make some investments to connect the neighborhoods to those stations.

plans in the Metro bus long-range plan.

as well as community input and the priority investment networks that are in the part two of the STP.

So those were kind of the key inputs.

From there, we were put together that list of 80, now 81 projects, and considered them according to the prioritization framework that's in the implementation strategy.

So that weighs the projects against various goals of the plan.

and as well as certain external timing considerations.

So for example, a project that might serve the Ballard Station, which isn't planned to open until 2039, that would instantly go into the third tier just from a timing perspective.

So with them in terms of how we prioritize your question was both on the goals as well as those external timing factors.

Thank you.

Vice Chair Hollingsworth.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Estat.

I had a quick question.

I know Vision Zero is kind of a hot topic and traffic fatalities for pedestrians has increased since in the last like 10 years.

Is there going to be a different approach in SCP towards Vision Zero to try to bring those fatalities down for pedestrians?

Good morning, council members.

Francisca Steffen.

So yes, to cut to the chase on the answer.

So there is an approach to Vision Zero embedded in the STP that originated about 18 months ago.

When Director Spatz started, he initiated a top to bottom review of our Vision Zero program because we were aware and transparent about the fact that the numbers were headed in the wrong direction.

And as part of that review, we realized that we needed some internal alignment, and we also made a pivot in the way in which we want to implement Vision Zero projects.

We can certainly have additional information brought to you on this, but in short, we have pivoted from sort of a large singular project approach, sort of putting forward projects that take many years to come to fruition and instead emphasize the known and documented countermeasures that we know work on our streets and scaling those as quickly as we can.

So you might have seen an expansion of the no turn on red signs.

That is one example of how SDOT has pivoted in the last year to bring real and tangible Vision Zero strategies to our streets immediately.

We've also expanded our leading pedestrian intervals to 100 additional locations.

These are examples of the way in which we've sort of pivoted to much more proactively scale up known strategies.

We will still be pursuing many other projects.

It doesn't mean we have lost sight of the need to re-channelize and re-envision some of our streets where we see significant severe and fatal collisions.

However, we realize that those take time and the need is now.

So we have really emphasized that strategy.

Thank you.

I love the no turn on red.

I know that's increasingly popular.

And then just in the pipeline corridor, the improvements that have been made, the stop signs, the no turn on red, I know are very helpful for pedestrians.

So I just wanted to throw that out there.

Thank you.

Thanks.

You done?

Oh, okay.

I'll throw my hand down on Zoom.

All good.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Council Member Kittle.

Chair Saka, thank you.

Director Spatz and team, thank you very much for coming and for your briefing and releasing the SDP.

I really appreciate it.

We've had a lot of discussions previously, and it's great to have this now so we can really dig in and move forward.

I'd wanted to, at the get-go, at the start, to invite you.

I know you've done a lot of outreach.

We're going to have our first District 7 Neighborhood Council later this month.

And because of this, I've asked, you know, we're gonna put a prompt out in terms of all the community councils and the like from D7, District 7. The prompt is, hey, what are your transportation priorities?

So I extend a welcome to one or all of your team to join in on that.

It would be really nice to have a representative from SDOT there to hear from this group, this District 7, you know, grouping.

So invitation.

Second, a lot of things that, great brief, enjoyed the different pieces of it.

Different things that struck me.

I really like the point about streets that work.

I talk about nuts and bolts.

Other council members will talk about basics or fundamentals.

This is a committee and council that is all about streets that work, and that's going to be a big focus, I believe, from us.

And a big part of that is understanding where we are.

And one thing on slide five, coming around the left side of the listing, there was no asset management plan listed on there.

And I was wondering where we were with the asset management plan, the overall asset management plan, and how that is guiding the decisions moving forward with the different elements of the STP?

Sure.

Something that's really exciting about this time is that the asset management plan is coming to fruition right at the same time as the Seattle transportation plan, and both are inputs towards the levy package that we're developing for consideration.

The investments that a transportation levy renewal would fund can both be informed by where we most need to invest in maintenance to attain a service life of a given asset.

And the STP can help us figure out, well, while we're doing that, are there safety and mobility investments that we should be making in that same place?

So I think that, you know, this next levy package will have a much stronger analytic foundation on where to make investments than we've ever had in the past.

Did you give a timeline on that assets management plan?

Yeah, I mean, it's nearing completion and the bridge component of it will be discussed in the next item.

So parts of it are going to be coming to you.

Second piece that I found very interesting for different reasons, and I appreciate, by the way, all the public comments that came before and across the board, all the comments.

I've noted our SOTO representative here talking about, you know, the port.

That is a big piece, and understanding the logistics of the port, rail, road, and the like is very important.

So I look forward to the freight master plan.

And as Direct Chair Sotka noted, you know, the land use piece is going to be huge with this.

And for the land use team, I would say two words, loading docks, because we have to have that logistics sorted so it doesn't get spilled onto our streets, because that's going to be a big issue moving forward.

If we don't get the land use part right, and logistics is pushed onto the street instead of loading docks and with a smart plan for the port and the like, that's going to be trouble.

So thank you for including that.

And tied to that is, you know, for other parts of the city is the line in the briefing called manage curb space.

I suspect that's going to be an area of friction as we move forward because there's competing demands on curb space.

And I just think that that is something that's that we should be working together.

Is that something of concern or is that in terms of the outreach, how's that been playing out in terms of quote unquote managing curbspace as it ties into economic vitality and the like?

It's definitely an exciting and evolving area in our industry, and one of the things we've been doing is I think we have some grant-funded projects to actually digitize what we know about the curbspace so that potentially we could make curbspace available for different needs at different times or on different days of the week.

Francisca, is there anything you want to add about that?

Sure, I'll just acknowledge that yes, curb space is super valuable.

And one of the things SDOT's really cognizant of is that we can play a helpful role in helping acknowledge that this varies by time of day and day of week.

And so we have a curb space management plan and a curb space team that actually is very involved with businesses, other stakeholders that are using the curb and actively managing with signage as well as regulations and paid parking.

So, it's something that we have a team that works with businesses on and something we continue to evolve using new technologies and tried and true methods.

Thank you, because that will definitely be an area of follow-up as we look, as we move forward.

Also, you know, some general pieces.

I was wondering, in terms of the approach, you know, the impact of the pandemic.

At one point, everybody says, hey, we're all going to work remote, and that's just going to be our future.

I believe in the idea of pendulum theory.

Yes, pendulum swings out, and people can make those statements, but pendulum comes back in from remote work to working here in City Hall, hopefully more and more.

How does that play in in terms of where does that pendulum come back to, and how is that impacting the planning assumptions for the STP?

Yeah, that's kind of the part that,

both has us all very excited and keeps us up at night.

Transportation use patterns used to change by a few percentage points a year, and then they changed radically and are changing again.

And I think the simplest way to put it is we have to continue to support you know, transit corridors that get people to the major employment centers, but we also have to invest more deeply in getting people around their own neighborhood.

And some of our citizens may be doing both over the course of the week.

They may be working hybrid, and on some days, they want to walk or bike to their neighborhood center and have lunch there and meet a friend there on a workday.

And on other days, they're taking, you know, the bus or the light rail to the office building.

So it's a really intriguing time to be in this industry.

because we're trying to project kind of cultural shifts, some of which may be durable and some of which may revert back to the other.

I think there's a belief it's gonna be some kind of hybrid and there's a neighborhood focus in both the STP and the future transportation levy renewal that I'm very, very excited about where we have opportunities to further invest at the neighborhood level.

And using that as a transition to my last question, sorry for so many questions.

As the Chair of the Public Safety Committee, obviously, we're gonna have a huge play.

The two committees will work together on traffic and pedestrian safety, so I echo the comments of Vice Chair Hollingsworth on that.

But I also take the opportunity to do a quick shout-out because, Not too many other people know about, you know, the street ends, so really appreciate the shoreline street ends because we have our version on Queen Anne because District 7, in a lot of ways, is an island between our water borders.

You know, I-5 is basically a barrier as well, so we have these border areas, particularly the water areas, where we have these street ends, which in some ways are potential microparks.

And so I'd like to do that.

And speaking of parks, I'll once again highlight the soon-to-be portal park, looking for your support working with City Light, which then would also aid electrification, which goes to the climate and the other pieces of your plan.

So I just thought I'd throw that in really quickly at the end.

Thank you.

All right.

Let's see.

I want to recognize our colleague, Council Member Rivera, who had her hand up.

Thank you so much, Council Member Saka, and thank you for letting me attend and ask questions, even though I know I don't sit on this committee.

Everyone across the city cares about transportation, including in the D4.

And so I want to say that I very much appreciate the Lead with Safety goal here.

It's tied to what Councilmember Hollingsworth said about Vision Zero and all the actions that SDOT is taking toward that goal, including providing safer routes to schools and parks and transit, community gathering spaces, et cetera.

One question I had about that is, how does SDOT go about communicating these to the public?

Because I hear a lot in the district that I represent that they're not aware when these changes are being made and then the changes are made, it causes a little bit of chaos sometimes in the neighborhoods.

And so I'd be very interested to know how you all go about communicating the changes.

Along with that as well is this piece about, well, that's one piece.

The other piece I have is, the goal on streets for people, places we love, and co-creating and enhancing public spaces for playing and gathering to improve community health.

Would love to hear more about that because it's interesting to have this idea of play spaces at the same time where SDOT is the main department that's responsible for mobility and getting folks across the city.

And so the idea that it's also that play spaces is playing into this space is also something I would want to hear more about, particularly because of the concern around fatalities and injuries, accidents, et cetera.

So those are two separate pieces.

If you can address them today, great.

If not, I'm happy to have the conversation later.

Sure, yeah, I think we can do both.

You know, both of your two thematic comments are actually related to changes in our industry that are happening.

And I want to be a change maker in both of these regards.

Like traditionally, transportation agencies drew lines on a map and then told the community what they were going to get.

And that has caused a lot of inequitable outcomes and placed transportation facilities in underserved communities and communities of color, and that all really needs to change.

And something that attracted me to join the department was that the newly developed transportation equity framework, which is a set of like 200 tactics on how to co-create projects with community and bring people into the process who previously weren't connected with government or even distrusted government.

And so our day-to-day outreach about individual projects is guided by the transportation equity framework.

And I think that's a great asset that SDOT has over just in the last few years to help us evolve beyond where the industry previously was.

Similarly, In the past, city departments of transportation were largely concerned with moving cars and trying to mitigate increased traffic, focused on like a level of service of traffic.

And it turns out that the public wants a lot more than that.

The public wants to be able to get around on foot, on bike, by transit, and also to have our streets be places you'd actually like to spend time with and have a conversation with or sit down on a bench and have a coffee together.

And we have a...

people streets and public space activation group within SDOT.

And we're hoping that both the STP and the future levy renewal package will allow us to invest more deeply in making great spaces in some of the public right-of-way locations where that's desired, rather than just focusing on the traditional goals of moving traffic.

Thank you, Director Spatz.

I would love to have a more in-depth conversation about how you communicate with the public on the changes.

Appreciate what you're saying.

Just need more information.

So thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council Member Rivera.

I want to acknowledge, recognize Calvin from our central staff wanted to comment.

Can you hear me?

No.

No.

Oh, here we go, sorry.

Calvin Chow with your council central staff.

I just wanted to add on the public space element.

That is something that the council has weighed in in the last several years with the pandemic and the closure of, you know, interior spaces that's become a big focus in the last several years.

Council members have focused on things like play streets and activation and have approved legislation over the last couple of years.

So there is a bit of a history, a recent history on this.

And I think what the plan is really doing is elevating it to the same level of dialogue across what had been our modal plans previously.

So I'm happy to give you some more background if you like, but...

Yes, that would be great.

Thank you.

Because I know we're post-pandemic now and to council member, Oh my gosh, Bob Kettle's point about transportation use is changing.

I know the police streets were done during the pandemic, now we're post-pandemic, folks are coming back to work in office downtown, and they are also in their community.

So how do we address what we did during the pandemic, now post-pandemic, when we're seeing other things happening, if you will, and uses?

Thank you, Calvin.

Awesome.

All right.

Running at time for this portion, but I want to recognize Council Member Wu.

Do you have comments or questions?

Well, I have, I guess, two emphasis, and I could touch base with you later regarding this, but what jumped out at me was, I know this is super high level, but I'm most interested in performing metrics and implementation, and so was curious about, I'm still reading through the plan, so I don't know if that's going to be discussed in the plan or if that's going to be part of the levy, and I was wondering where, is there an overview of the previous levy in terms of performance metrics and how we learn from that and how we apply it to the new levy, And my second question is wondering where does the racial equity toolkit play in?

And I'm really interested in how these community groups were chosen because they're very specific.

And I was also, I saw that they had reports in the plan.

I was very curious to see what that process looked like in terms of choosing these groups, but I could discuss that with you later.

So if I may, on the first question, Council Member Woodson, it's an excellent one.

So by virtue of the fact that as chair of the Transportation Committee, I also sit on as a de facto member of the Levee Oversight Committee.

It's a team of volunteer experts and transportation policy leaders who are really committed to making sure we fully live up to our commitments in the levy, and just high level assigned to closely track and monitor performance.

And it's designed to be build a better, more accountable system for the levy.

And so I have actually invited, I have my next briefing on that or meeting on that later tonight, by the way, but I've actually invited the chairs of that to come in and give our committee a briefing.

I think they'll be here later this month.

It might be the next committee meeting, but so we will learn more on that because of course, when we ask the departments, hey, everything's great.

But we also need to trust but verify, and that is one way that I intend on doing it.

So go ahead, I'll let you comment on.

Any of that as well?

Regarding the performance metrics, we have to kind of ride an interesting line with a 20-year plan like this, because it will be future funding and project decisions that will drive what actually happens.

This plan guides those decisions.

So the community asked us for more detail on performance metrics, which we tried to provide.

At the same time, it's really when the resources come, that you can figure out how much of each thing you're going to be doing.

And so there's, you know, in some ways, the funding plan may have more specific time-based goals, because then you know that you're going to apply this much funding over this period of time.

And the STP is designed to guide investments over 20 years.

So I think there'll be a variety of additional opportunities to even further refine point-in-time goals for certain aspects that we end up funding.

Chair?

Yep.

May I, and I know we're a bit over time, but I've got a number of questions as associated with slides on your deck, so I'll walk through them with you.

But before we do that, Chair, could you pick up your notebook again?

It's a very good visual that we've got four.

It doesn't even do it justice.

It doesn't even do it justice.

So double-sided, two pages per side on recycled paper.

And you're asking us to vote on this in 28 days.

And my first briefing was yesterday.

So that's an excellent, that is the request.

We are in our own independent oversight body and we will take this up and be thoughtful and deliberate about how we approach this and what we vote on and what we adopt.

So that is my commitment to you.

That is my commitment to this public.

And so, yeah, I'm happy to hear views and perspectives including on timing, but we will be, yeah, and I welcome your input now and offline as well.

And I share that because with my friends at SDOT, you know how much of an amateur designer, I'm an over geek in all of this work.

And so for me to be able to digest that amount of work while I'm taking care of all the other duties as assigned to me as a council member, is a pretty big ask.

And so I share that with you with grace.

And what I really like about this plan is I've long said everyone needs to stay in their lane, whether you're a bike, a pedestrian, freight, transit, single occupancy vehicle, everyone needs to stay in their lane.

But to do that, everyone needs their own lane.

Everyone needs their space within our community.

And so I'll take us back to slide number nine here.

And I think when we were getting going, we might have skipped over some of the first sets that are on our Legistar.

So apologize if I'm taking us to slides not yet covered.

When I'm looking at slide number nine, I'm wondering, you know, we have taken four different plans and merge them into one smart.

But what happens when two modes have the same line on the map, on the same street?

How is this managed?

I'll give you three examples to walk me through.

Bike and ped both have the same line on the same street.

Second is freight and transit.

How does that manage on the same street?

Those are the low hanging easy questions.

How does it work when we have freight and bikes on the same street?

Well, the good news is we actually have corridor projects that have made those type of accommodations in the past, and some of them are happening right now.

I mean, for example, we're about to break ground on our East Marginal Way project, which actually optimizes that corridor for both bikes and freight with fully separated facilities for each.

There's a lot of policy guidance in the STP about how you would go about making modal trade-offs, but ultimately that also requires deep conversation with community and thoughtful work by our staff.

We have a project in your district, the paving of 15th Avenue Northwest, and we've added safety components to that paving project to more maintain and modernize rather than just repave it and lock it into its original condition.

And one of those which you helped us identify was adding a pedestrian signal to link the emerging brewery district on the east side with the central part of Ballard on the west side of 15th.

So I'm confident that Estat has a strong history in navigating those type of challenges of different modes coming together.

It can be contentious at times, and not everybody always agrees.

But I think it is definitely a step in the right direction to have policy guidance in the STP that identifies where we want to try to accommodate multiple modes.

Francisca, is there anything you'd like to add to that?

I think you've covered it well.

I mean, we look very carefully at context whenever we're moving into an implementation.

This document definitely has done some high-level policy-level review of networks and where we want to find solutions and calls those out.

But the hard work begins when you start to peel away at how that design can work.

We know those modes are sharing those streets today.

Right?

They're working together.

And as you said, they're safer when they have their own dedicated space.

And we agree.

And sometimes you can fit that and sometimes you can't.

So we are actively working to figure out ways we can use innovative solutions.

We've got the Route 40 project, which is piloting a freight and bus lane where those two modes could share.

it's a pilot because we wanna look and see how does it work for freight?

How's it working for buses and the people on them?

So definitely we seek to have guiding policy, but also be very thoughtful and context driven because these are real places and real people using them.

Thank you.

I appreciate that high level.

I'm about to ask you a question, Cal, so I'll give you that for in just a second.

I appreciate that high-level overview.

I can assume that we don't have an implementation plan today because you need to know if we passed the levy or not to know how much of this we can do.

Is that a generally accurate statement?

I would say the STP is designed to guide the next 20 years of transportation investments.

we think that a levy renewal package might be a way to partially fund something like eight years of investments.

So the SDP is meant to be durable and flexible so that future elected officials may be able to have different priorities and still work within a framework so that these bike, pedestrian, freight, and vehicle networks, transit networks, all work together successfully.

So there's layers and layers of decisions coming beyond just adopting this plan.

Fantastic.

And I think I've got four other questions, but I also would like to hear from Calvin Chow, our central staff analyst, on your take on this plan.

It might answer my other four questions.

I had 10 questions, so I've already narrowed them down for you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember.

I just wanted to say one thing about sort of integration of modes.

The one kind of big difference, I think, with this plan is previously with separate modal plans, which each had a project list, We got late into the design before we realized there might have been conflicts.

And I think one thing that you can see in this plan is in the large capital projects they've identified, multiple modes are all being addressed by the same area.

So it doesn't resolve the issues, but it clearly identifies the scope of the project.

And that is a difference from previous modal plans.

That's probably the biggest integration piece.

It doesn't resolve them, but it tries to identify them early on.

The decisions about how that actually gets implemented is going to be, if we fund them, how they get scoped, all the project development work that implements it.

This is a really large body of work.

It's a huge document, but it is based on a lot of pre-existing work.

It's really about raising all that up into one place, giving it visibility, truth-checking it again with the public, and restating it, essentially, taking the opportunity for the levy, taking the opportunity with the corporate plan to kind of you know, get visibility on it, make sure that everyone is still understanding where we're going.

I don't think you will find anything in here that you won't have seen previously in a previous plan.

You might see some variations, some things that are highlighted, examples, curb management, public space.

Those are things that have been ongoing activities, but they haven't been highlighted at a plan level previously.

So I think just, you know, with that in mind, it is a lot, but it's also, you know, see it for what it is.

It is a restatement of existing policy in large part.

Thank you, Cal, because you are one of the few people in the city who knows my level of geekness when it comes to transportation, so that's quite reassuring to hear.

Slide number 11. I'll bring this up.

Let's see which one.

I think when you were talking, or at least when we briefed on this, this is where I wanted to lift up the industrial zone changes that we made last year, where, you know, very similar to the comprehensive plan, where we changed zoning designate, where we're gonna be changing zoning allowances and eventually zoning designations, and that needs to tie into our transportation networks and how we're planning.

Last year, we created stronger protections for our maritime and industrial zones, and then on the buffer and in the buffer areas of the industrial zones, we actually loosened restrictions so that it can be more, that urban industrial connectivity can be better.

We had a transportation resolution that went along with it.

And Chair, for just context here, I think that took us four months just for that resolution.

And, you know, I guess the point that I'm making here is that if we don't take freight seriously, if we don't take the movement of our goods as well as our people seriously, we can never get to that 15-minute city.

And the comprehensive plan, I hope that we are able to reach a level in which everyone in our city doesn't have to travel more than 15 minutes to have all of their needs met.

And to do that, we must ensure that a WB67 can get into the grocery store in that local neighborhood.

I look at, you know, Ballard, because it was the second largest city in King County, seventh largest in the state before it was annexed on May 29, 1907, had everything within 15 minutes because it was its own city.

But if you can't get a WB67 to QFC on 24th, then nobody in that neighborhood can walk to get their goods.

And so that's the importance of freight for me in this plan, because I do want everyone to be able to walk to everywhere that they need to go.

And at the same time, we need to be able to get them the goods.

I know, Director, you've told me many times over, we're gonna change how we're doing freight and we might be able to get smaller trucks.

Yes, absolutely, I hope we get there, because I hope everyone's delivering with electric trucks as well.

And there's that transition point, which I appreciate your comments to the last question of we need it to be durable and flexible.

I'm gonna hold my other questions chair, just because I've got, but I'll just make the point of that example I was just giving.

We had a meeting last week.

I see some folks in the audience who were here.

There was a real question about how you get a WB 67 from 24th and Market Street onto I-5.

It wasn't a political question.

It wasn't a try to get you question.

It was just an honest, how do we do this?

And I know that the department has agreed to follow up with, and I'm so incredibly appreciative.

Let me share that.

I'm appreciative that you're willing to follow up, but that's the importance of being able to get goods around.

Because if a truck driver who is not from Seattle is new to an area making a delivery, it needs to be really intuitive for them to be able to get to and from the I-5, 15th and SR-99.

The last question I'll leave with you, you don't have to answer it here, but what is the difference between a safe street and a greenway?

That's a rhetorical question.

In the interest of time, I am going to move us along here after and just for clarity.

So thank you, colleagues.

Excellent questions.

And just just so you know, we're aligned.

So this is the first of a couple.

I believe at the next committee meeting, we're going to be having our own.

Central staff experts, including Calvin, come give us an overview from our own department's perspective on the Seattle Transportation Plan.

So there'll be plenty of opportunities, I guess, on a going forward basis to ask any other questions.

But I do want to actually emphasize, Councilmember Strauss, a point you made about the importance of freight and cargo mobility.

And I think it's a really critical conversation to have.

And particularly when we're talking about the intersection between transportation policy planning and land use.

And as we grow and add population and even density, We need to make sure that the trucks hauling the goods and services around and deliveries around, obviously they have good roads and good ingress and egress routes, absolutely table stakes.

But as we grow and expand population, we also need to make sure that to truly bring to life this whole notion of 15-minute neighborhoods or 15-minute walkable neighborhoods.

We need to make sure we have appropriate infrastructure in place for these trucks and delivery places to go to.

So that means more grocery stores and, you know, mini-marts and restaurants and things like that.

I live in a food desert in Delridge.

And there is another, I represent another food desert in South Park.

And so as we think about the comprehensive plan more broadly, you know, that's one of my goals is to make sure we have, we end the food desert status in those communities, particularly giving Sound Transit, Council Member Strauss, you sit on the Sound Transit Board.

One of the, if my memory serves me correctly, I think one of the, the latest plans for the Sound Transit Link light rail project in West Seattle, it would take out, amongst other things, Jefferson Square.

Jefferson Square, there's a grocery store there, Safeway.

We would potentially remove a grocery store and then still have other food deserts.

So we need to create land use zoning and make sure we have appropriate transportation infrastructure in place to support our population growth holistically.

And then finally, I'll mention the importance of Vision Zero.

Love that comment, Council Member, or excuse me, Vice Chair Hollingsworth.

Vice Chair Hollingsworth on the importance of Vision Zero.

Colleagues, we will be getting a separate briefing to focus solely on Vision Zero, given it is important.

And I had a prep briefing for a briefing last week where I learned, sadly, that my district, District 1, given that it has now subsumed and picked up SOTO, it is now the highest in terms of deaths, traffic accidents and fatalities.

And regardless of sort of where our districts, our relative districts stack on that list, I think we all have a shared goal and a shared opportunity and responsibility to take meaningful action to address that on a going forward basis, including by adding safe routes to schools, like enhancing the safe routes to school program, which is specifically called out in the Seattle Transportation Plan.

amongst other improvements, including potentially bringing to life a once-in-a-generation investment in new sidewalks, new sidewalks across the city.

I'll tell you, you know, a reminder that when I was on the campaign trail, you know, I knocked on a ton of doors, and I saw the critical need in my own district firsthand for adding new sidewalks, like, with respect to the Safe Routes to School program, which adding sidewalks is a key component of that.

like certain schools like Arbor Heights Elementary, Highland Park Elementary, huge needs in and around those communities for that.

So that said, this is really, really important, like substantive, And I'm glad we're all engaging on this.

And my commitment, again, to you, Councilmember Strauss and colleagues and the public is that we will be thoughtful and deliberative about this.

This Seattle transportation plan is less time sensitive and urgent than some other matters.

I think it would be more important that we as much as possible, but still be deliberative about the pending and forthcoming proposed levy renewal package.

So, you know, my hope is that that would be transmitted downstairs, you know, with great expedience and sooner rather than later, and hopefully it matches and aligns with, you know, some of our transportation priorities on the first blush to make sure we can actually get in on the ballot.

All right.

Now, we will now move on to our second item of business.

Will the clerk please read item two into the record?

Next up is the Seattle Department of Transportation State of the Bridges presentation.

All right.

And it looks like there's a transition here.

So thank you, our presenters.

Please join us at the table and share your presentation.

And once ready, please introduce yourselves and begin.

Thank you, Committee Chair Saka and Council Members.

My name is Elizabeth Sheldon.

I'm the Deputy Director at SDOT that oversees the Roadway Structures Division, among other divisions, and I have with me Hi, I'm Angel Garcia.

I am Road Restructure's Asset Manager.

And so we heard in Greg's initial presentation and overview of Estra, I heard from a few of you, interest in hearing more about bridges.

And so taking this opportunity to dive just a level deeper from that high level overview and today hoping to talk a little bit about our roadway structures division, what we do, what we are charged with managing, and then talk a little bit, sorry, I'm going on.

Talk a little bit about the, we had a previous audit that was finished up by the city auditor's office.

So a status update on where we are with that.

And then finally, a little bit about our bridge strategic asset management plan, as you heard a little bit in the previous presentation.

And I apologize, I got the speed it up signal, so I might be going too fast.

So let me know if you need me to slow down just a bit.

So key takeaways, again, kind of what our overall division responsibilities are, status update of the audit response and our bridge asset management program.

Diving a little deeper, so roadway structures, we do more than bridges.

We have more than bridges in our inventory.

So what we look at is we have 135 bridges that we own and maintain, 682 retaining walls, 493 stairways, and then we have joint responsibility, mostly private, but there's some joint responsibility for the areaways that are primarily downtown.

In addition, we have some really interesting oddball things, like a few historic bus shelters, one in Fremont, and I believe there's another one in Madison.

We have an air raid siren that's up on Finney Ridge that we continue to maintain, as well as the seawall.

A little bit, you'll see sometimes a little bit of a different counting in our, particularly in our bridges because different ways that we count them in our inventory system.

I think like the West Seattle Bridge that you might think of as one bridge is, whoa, five or six different bridges.

And so you'll see sometimes a little bit of discontinuity in what that number is, but one in 35 is where we're at right now.

So our group is broken down into our division, three different groups.

The first is our bridge operator group, starting at the top of the PowerPoint, which has 24 seven operations for bridge openings.

We own and operate the University of Fremont and Ballard Bridges, as well as the Spokane Street Swing Bridge.

And then we also operate the South Park Bridge for King County.

In addition, there are the two other bridges that are owned and operated by WSDOT, the First Avenue Bridge and the Montlake Bridge.

The bridge operators are responsible for 24-7 operations, and they are operating over the navigable waters that are under the Coast Guard jurisdiction.

So we have performance metrics that we need to be able to open those bridges.

Let's see, next up.

Do you want questions along the way, or do you want me to hold?

At the end, please.

Sounds good.

Next up is our structural maintenance group.

These are the crews that are responsible for ongoing maintenance of both the bridges as well as retaining walls and stairways.

Emergency response, they do major rehabilitation and mainly response to critical needs and also do some capital replacement of our smaller structures, so stairways and retaining walls.

And then finally, we have our engineering group that houses our certified bridge inspectors, and we inspect bridges per the FHWA guidelines.

So generally, every two years maximum, although there are some bridges that we have under a more critical watch that we inspect more frequently.

We just finished the last, I think, one year inspection of the West Seattle Bridge.

So we are now moving back and everything is operating as should be.

So moving back to a two year cycle for that one, but there's a few others.

We also look at doing repair design.

So most of the work that is, or a lot of the work that's implemented by the crews, the engineering group will come complete designs for that work.

And then we onboard and review new assets as they come into our inventory.

And finally, we act as subject matter experts for both roadway structures and for other work that's happening throughout the department.

Um, I can continue or I could pause.

We're kind of switching gears for questions, whichever let's press, press on.

Okay.

Um, so switching gears a little bit to, um, the city auditor, uh, had a report that came out.

This was, uh, requested by former council member Peterson as part of the closure of the West Seattle High Bridge.

He asked for an in-depth audit of our roadway structures.

The findings generally that we needed to make more of an investment in bridge maintenance and making sure that we are in compliance with federal regulations and really look to updating and modernizing our bridge asset management system.

Next page.

So they had 10 specific recommendations and we are moving through those.

We are mostly completed with all of them.

Some are in coordination with the STP and our funding plan.

So they're kind of an iterative process that we'll hope to complete with those items.

I'll run through these quickly.

So we first was to make sure we're in compliance with the FHWA guidelines.

review and so we worked, there was a lot of time spent monitoring our system and making sure that we had kind of a state of the art asset management repository to house all of the information that we have collected over the years.

So looked and made a big effort to get that all in one place, scan it, it is now digitized and easy to access.

We also looked at what our crews were spending their time doing work, and they were about 80% working on roadway structures work and another 20% or so, it varied a little bit, working on other projects, so doing reimbursable work.

We looked, knowing that bridges are a critical maintenance item, to making sure that the bridge crews were solely focused on bridges and roadway structures maintenance.

That has been completed.

Finally, there are a lot of bridges and structures in the city that are privately owned and maintained.

Think of all the sky bridges out there.

And we had previously been doing...

inspections ourselves for a lot of those.

And so we're looking to transition to have, to ensure that there are special inspectors that are providing reports that we can review so that we would still be in compliance with codes, but have a little bit, free up some of our staff time to continue oversight on, more intense oversight on our own bridges.

This is one that we are looking at.

So that one was completed.

Number five was looking at our staffing analysis.

This is one that's pending based on where we end up with kind of the future transportation funding package and bridge funding.

So we have a basis and then holding until we get kind of a final idea of where we're going with that.

Finally, number seven, looking at a cost-benefit analysis of technology upgrades.

We had historically been on a very paper-based system, and so as we look to transition to more of an electronic database and electronic system where we could get the most benefit for transitioning some of our systems.

Uh, and then eight and nine was, um, this was the meat.

This was at least to me, this was the kind of the fun part is really diving into, um, life cycle cost analysis.

And so looking at, um, different ways to be, uh, most efficient with our funds.

I'll dive into that a little bit later.

And then finally the, the number 10 was really the buildup.

So all of these things build up into an overall bridge strategic asset management plan.

And so that one's pending and it'll be pending until we have kind of all of the pieces put together.

All right.

So shifting, so the, it was great that the audit really helped us formulate kind of what our plan would look like.

And we were able to work to shape that into a really modern bridge strategic asset management plan that has more than just inventory and condition, right?

So that we're looking at bridge performance over time.

We can look at life cycle plans and strategic priorities moving forward to really be the best stewards of our assets as possible.

Yeah, dive in a little bit more.

So, oh, this one was a little bit out of order, but so the first part, right, is we need to have our asset and condition information together.

So we do have a robust inspection and maintenance program that looks at our bridges.

It's a regulatory requirement to have the bridges inspected every two years.

And we, you know, our bridges are, the average age is 60 years old and typically lifespans are, you know, somewhere 75, 100 years.

So we're looking at an older infrastructure and making sure that we're inspecting and maintaining as appropriate.

So with those inspections, we are able to adequately or appropriately prescribe conditions to our bridges.

Generally, we look at three different components of bridges when we look at the condition, the deck, the superstructure, and the substructure.

And then the lowest of all of those ratings, it becomes the overall bridge rating.

So you can look at this chart over time.

You'll see in 2023, we have actually been able to move more bridges into the good.

I think that's mostly from the new bridges that are coming online.

So we had the Lander project and the North Gate Ped Bridge and the Fairview Bridge were able to bring those bridges into new conditions.

So our overall inventory is looking fairly good.

This is a little bit of a current snapshot, a little bit more broken down by deck area.

So you can see the overall condition of the bridges by deck area.

And you'll see a few of those in hashed, kind of hashed condition.

Those are the ones that we actually have load or other restrictions on to be able to maintain.

And so finally, looking at kind of shifting once we have the condition, right, we know the condition and we know how they're rated, we can look at overall life cycle cost analysis.

And this is really focusing on making sure that we're maintaining our assets in those that are in good and fair condition in good and fair condition with a preservation and a maintenance program that can preserve bridges and extend their life at a fraction of the cost of an overall major rehab or replacement.

And so looking at kind of the condition of the bridges and applying the right treatment at the right time, we're able to develop a life cycle cost analysis.

Go to the next slide.

To look at what it would look like if we provide specific investments into our bridge network, what that impact would be on the overall condition.

And so we started this really looking at two bookends.

One is the furthest on the right hand side is unconstrained.

So if we had unconstrained funding, we didn't have to worry about contractor capacity.

We didn't have to worry if we closed all of the bridges at the same time, like to replace them, what impact that would have on the transportation network.

Obviously all of those things add to not wanting to but we wanted to get an idea of what the ideal conditions would be.

And that would basically be what it would take over 30 years to bring all of our bridges into either good or fair condition.

And then on the flip side, on the far left side, we looked at what would happen if we had just our existing funding without levy and with a minimal amount of grants.

And so you can see that it varies kind of going from left to right from a state where many of the bridges are in poor condition and likely would have to take some of those out of service to on the right-hand side, all of the bridges in good or fair condition.

And that adds, that's the red, yellow, and green side.

And then you can see what the subsequent investments are for those conditions.

Looking at the blue is the preventive maintenance and that stays pretty steady depending on, regardless of the scenario.

And so that kind of keeps everything in a state of good repair.

And then you're looking at adding additional capital funding that would be required to take kind of the bridges that are already existing in poor condition and raise them up.

All right, and so really looking at how that preventive maintenance or preservation maintenance program works, it's a fairly consistent amount of funding that will really slow deterioration of bridges and keep them in a state of good repair.

Right now we have our bridge painting program that addresses kind of one element of preventive maintenance, but there are others that we could add that would be incredibly helpful.

One is looking at bridge cleaning and spot repair.

The other one looking at joint replacement.

And then finally, deck replacement and overlays.

So overlaying the deck and making sure it's sealed.

looking at the joints and making sure that they're in good condition, and then cleaning and spot repair really helps address corrosion and keeps bridges sealed in from getting that corrosion in.

I think that's done.

So finally, just summarizing, looking at the overall division goals is really to invest and maximize investments in our transportation infrastructure, really shifting to preserving existing facilities and managing capital improvements and manage the assets so that they remain reliable for our transportation system.

Finally, looking at proactively planning investments for our aging infrastructure.

And again, reiterating the importance of the preventive maintenance program and ability to keep those assets that are in good and fair condition in good and fair condition.

And I think that with that, I'm happy to open it up for questions.

Thank you.

Love this presentation.

This is a topic that's really near and dear to me personally.

Bridges and having the pleasure of living in West Seattle, calling it my home and raising a family there and being a part of that community like everyone else there.

You know, like it's critically important and we learn that.

in part through the design failure of the West Seattle Bridge.

But it's critically important that we invest in our bridges and maintain them.

So love it, love geeking out about this kind of stuff and look forward to working with you all, colleagues as well, you know, to figure out how we can best extend, do nitty gritty simple things like extend the lifespan of our bridges and invest in preventable maintenance for stronger bridges and other things, of course, but love this.

Council Member Kettle.

Uh, thank you, uh, chair socket.

Thank you very much.

Um, this is a very important topic, particularly for district seven.

Uh, we have six and inner Bay, um, maybe more depending on you count Gaylor and so forth and Emerson.

We have Ballard, Fremont, and Aurora.

I know Aurora's not part of the plan, but it's part of the plan in a sense because it's so important.

And not to mention Wolf Creek Ravine on Queen Anne.

They're at Eastlake, the I-5 bridges.

Literally, sometimes you feel like in District 7 you're on an island.

Technically not, but in a lot of ways it does feel that way.

And you know what's interesting about your presentation too, and it's a very important point to go back to the earlier presentation, is that O&M.

You know, if we put some certain money in, we can attract a lot of federal dollars.

It's great.

It's, you know, it's the bright, shiny new toy.

But then long-term is the O&M.

And that's where these bridges highlights that.

You know, so we have to be careful in what we're doing today in terms of new projects.

Mindful, using the bridge example, is like, hey, down the line is O&M.

And as Chair Saka was talking, you know, just, I was like, in my old Navy hat, SLEP, Service Life Extension Programs.

You know, what you need to do to extend the life of a ship is very similar to what needs to be done to extend the life of a bridge.

And these are the kind of mindsets that we need to have moving forward.

And so key to this, too, by the way, and thank you for having it as the culminative point, is the asset management plan.

It is vitally important and, And I ask, you know, because it's, you know, like, really, we can't really vote in November if we don't have the asset management plan.

I don't know how you vote on something where you don't really have an understanding fully of where we are.

And so, as mentioned earlier, I understand, you know, an exact time may not be available, but if there's a timeline that you're looking at in terms of the asset management plan, specifically for bridges, I recognize the bigger one might be harder, but for bridges, if you can speak to that.

Yeah, so we have most of the key components available for the Bridge Strategic Asset Management Plan, and I'm happy to provide a little bit of a deeper dive.

The plan really is, a lot of it is an internal document, so we're working off of, like, a SharePoint and some other internal structures that aren't...

they're tools that will help us do that work.

And so I think we need to look at how to create a summary document for a more external view.

And I think we're close to being able to have that.

I think probably in the next maybe month or so, we would have that available.

Okay, that would be great, and so thank you very much.

I won't ask any more questions, although the highlight, I found it very interesting that you brought up SkyBridge is because my colleague at the Vice Chair, Hollingsworth, we have a D3-D7 SkyBridge proposal out in First Hill, and so that is an area of also consideration, but we won't go any further on that today, but just to highlight the D3-D7 First Hill connection there.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you, Council Member Kettle.

Council Member Strauss.

Thank you, Chair.

I will say I've got more questions and statements than we have time for since we are at time for your committee.

I'll generally say, Big picture, we have enough operations, maintenance, and repairs that we should probably have a bridge levy dedicated to itself, because I think that the consistent funding stream for ensuring operations and maintenance is occurring proactively is just not there, and that's a structural error.

It's not a staff error.

It's not a department error.

It's not a city error.

This is a structural error that needs to be fixed.

Yeah, I've got way too much to say.

I'll take the low-hanging fruit.

So we've got Ballard Bridge that needs to have an EIS replacement.

Magnolia Bridge is currently rated poor.

I note that all of these bridges that are noted as fair The West Seattle Bridge was noted as fair and a week later it was poor.

So that transition can happen very rapidly.

And so while we only have a couple bridges that are listed as poor right now, that the fair is the watch list, right?

And so that's what I mean by we need to have that dedicated revenue stream to be able to address what looks okay on this audit report, but is actually, I think, very dangerous news.

So then the low-hanging fruit is, I noticed that you said bridge operators are operating 24-7.

It's my understanding that after 10 p.m., we have one operator that...

bounces between the bridges, which I think makes sense because the car can travel faster than eight knots in the ship canal.

My question to you is, are we planning to have auxiliary operators for the Fourth of July when every single bridge needs to be opened at the same time?

Yes, we are hoping to have more operators.

Excellent.

Well, I'll follow up closer to the Fourth of July.

I know it feels like a long ways away, but...

I have witnessed the maritime backup, which is pretty incredible that night because with one operator for Montlake University, Fremont, and Ballard Bridge, it gets a little compressed.

Thank you, Chair.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmember Strauss.

And a final note, any colleagues, any other comments, questions?

All right.

Good to go.

Final comment on bridges for now.

I just want to emphasize and highlight a comment that one of my colleagues on the Levy Oversight Committee mentioned at my very first meeting that I attended last month, Lisa Bogardas, who is a member of the Seattle Building Trades.

She said, let's try to avoid adding or chaining on new features onto bridges that are fundamentally broken.

And I thought that, at the time, That comment really struck me, and I found it to be particularly profound and insightful, and I think...

That kind of philosophy and approach is gonna be really instructive with, and will help guide our approach more holistically on how we address the various highly urgent transportation needs across our city.

So let's see.

Thank you, thank you, SDOT.

Really, really do appreciate this presentation, all of them, and the continued partnership and collaboration.

And the final thing, Well, I guess first off, we are, as our colleague aptly pointed out, we are approaching time for this meeting.

And given that, We are, we mentioned at the outset, we are not going to vote on that third item.

I'm going to table that item for now.

So it may be brought up at a future meeting, but we're not gonna get an initial briefing on it today, given the time constraints.

And so that said, I also wanna announce that So I love doing these site visits.

We fixed some potholes.

We visited the frontline maintenance crews a few weeks ago.

We have our next one lined up where get to tour a bridge firsthand and alongside SDOT.

So thank you, Bill, SDOT, Layla, my staffers for working this.

live during the context of this meeting, but I will be doing a bridge site visit and it is scheduled for the West Seattle Swing Bridge for March 29th at 10 a.m.

So looking forward to putting some some operational level details and seeing kind of from a frontline worker perspective, the need and the opportunity here to help bring some of this, these PowerPoint decks and presentations to life for me at least.

So really looking forward to that.

And that said, let's see.

Mr. Chair, if I could say one thing real quick.

I know we're at time, so I'll be really quick.

I want to thank the Duwamish tribe for coming today.

I'll be educating myself on this issue.

You being the original caretakers of this land, when you speak, we need to listen.

And so we'll be reaching out.

I know Council Member Saka will respond.

help educate ourselves on this issue.

And I just wanted to thank you all for being here and expressing what is really important to you and things that we need to listen to.

So thank you.

Plus one, emphasize that.

Thank you members of the Duwamish tribe for being here personally.

I note that I have a meeting that was already scheduled and I'm looking forward to visiting you all at the Longhouse later this month as well.

First of many engagements.

This is a partnership and a collaboration and I'm going to do my best to represent your voice and your interests and learn from you.

And that doesn't always mean, like the same thing for every community.

you know, like adopting whatever, but I will always make sure I have an informed view.

So I look forward to meeting later this month.

In any event, any colleagues, any other business?

All right, we have reached the end of today's meeting agenda.

Is there any further business to come before the meeting before we adjourn?

Final chance.

All right, hearing no further business to come before the committee, we are adjourned.

It is 11.37 a.m.

Thank you.