DATE: December 10, 2019
SUBJECT:
Title
PRESENTATION OF THE HARBOR DRIVE MULTIMODAL CORRIDOR STUDY AND DIRECTION TO STAFF
Body
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The District’s Harbor Drive Multimodal Corridor Study (District’s Study or Study) is a collaborative, multi-agency effort led by the District that takes a comprehensive and holistic look at ways to improve mobility and access along South Harbor Drive. The purpose of the Study was to, together with key stakeholder agencies, identify a series of complementary multi-modal improvements within the corridor, as well as select project elements that could be prioritized for implementation and advanced to sufficient project readiness to apply for State and federal transportation funding sources. The study area spanned the north entrance to the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal (TAMT) to the National City Marine Terminal (NCMT), as well as major thoroughfares to the Interstate highway system (Attachment A - District’s Study).
The Study’s recommendations were developed through extensive collaboration with a Technical Working Group (TWG) and public outreach efforts in the community. The TWG included staff from the District, City of San Diego, City of National City, U.S. Navy, SANDAG, CalTrans, MTS, and the Barrio Logan Community Planning Group (CPG) Chairman. The District facilitated three full TWG meetings and held multiple smaller meetings with agency representatives. Public outreach meetings were conducted in the Barrio Logan community in February 2019 and in the City of National City in September 2019. The Study team also attended three community events and deployed a web-based survey tool to gather input from residents, workers, and business owners to better understand mobility issues within the corridor.
The Study found that no single improvement could adequately address all the corridor’s mobility challenges. Rather, the corridor requires a system of complimentary improvements to enhance all modes of mobility, including freight, passenger vehicles, truck traffic, transit opportunities, and pedestrian and bicycle connectivity. The Study organizes these improvements into five distinct geographical areas and also identifies broader improvements that can be implemented corridor-wide. Based on collaboration with agency stakeholders, the Study includes preliminary design concepts for the following two projects:
• Harbor Drive 2.0
• National City Truck Parking along Tidelands
Staff welcomes any feedback the Board provides on the Study’s recommended improvements and preliminary design concepts. In addition, staff is seeking Board direction to continue working with stakeholder agencies to advance the Harbor Drive 2.0 design concept.
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Receive staff’s presentation, accept the completed Harbor Drive Multimodal Corridor Study and direct staff to continue to collaborate with pertinent stakeholders and seek funding opportunities.
Body
FISCAL IMPACT:
Funds for work associated with the Harbor Drive Multimodal Corridor Study are budgeted in the Government and Civic Relations Department’s FY 2020 budget within the Professional Services expense account (#620100). The study is being funded through a Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) earmark, which was previously appropriated for Transportation Corridor Improvement Fund (TCIF) project. The costs are being reimbursed to the District at 80%, with a 20% match from the District. The professional services agreement to prepare the Study (Attachment B) was for a cost not to exceed $474,000. At the reimbursement rate, FHWA is funding $379,200 and the District will match $94,800. If funds are required for additional work in future fiscal years, they will be budgeted for in the appropriate fiscal year and cost account subject to Board approval upon adoption of each fiscal year’s budget.
Compass Strategic Goals:
This agenda item supports the following Strategic Goal(s).
• A thriving and modern maritime seaport.
• A vibrant waterfront destination where residents and visitors converge.
• A Port with a healthy and sustainable bay and its environment.
• A Port with a comprehensive vision for Port land and water uses integrated to regional plans.
• A Port that is a safe place to visit, work and play.
• A financially sustainable Port that drives job creation and regional economic vitality.
DISCUSSION:
Background
In 2013, the District initiated the Integrated Planning effort as a multi-faceted and comprehensive approach for managing and planning the uses of the District in a balanced way. The Integrated Planning Vision, which includes the Assessment Report, Vision Statement and Guiding Principles, accepted by the Board in August 2014, and the Framework Report, accepted by the Board in November 2015, (collectively referred to as the Integrated Planning Vision) has served as the foundation for the drafting of the Port Master Plan Update. The Integrated Planning Vision identified some high-priority concepts worthy of additional study.
One of these concepts was the “Haul Road,” which was envisioned as an improved connection between the District’s two marine terminals that would allow for more efficient goods movement, as well as enhanced pedestrian, bicycle and transit connections along this portion of Harbor Drive. The potential benefits to the Working Waterfront, the region and multiple constituencies warranted additional study and consideration of this concept as a high priority. As such, the Board authorized staff to work with WSP, Inc. to advance the “Harbor Drive Multimodal Corridor Study” (Study) in November 2017 (see Attachment B - Professional Services Agreement with WSP, Inc., Clerk’s Document 67526, dated November 27, 2017).
Study Area and Scope
The Study area boundaries included the portion of Harbor Drive between the north entrance to the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal (TAMT) and the National City Marine Terminal (NCMT), as well as major thoroughfares that connect Harbor Drive to the interstate highway system, including Cesar Chavez Parkway, 28th Street, 32nd Street and Civic Center Drive. The study area did not focus on local roads and connections in the surrounding areas.
Based on the surrounding land uses and the transportation demands placed on the corridor, the scope of the Study was broadened to include passenger vehicles, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian improvements in conjunction with truck and freight improvements. The objective of the Study was to develop a suite of projects that could be implemented by various stakeholder agencies over time.
Technical Working Group (TWG) and Public Outreach Events
Given the multimodal nature of study, and that several agencies have jurisdiction over different portions of South Harbor Drive, the Study team assembled a TWG to review existing conditions, identify key issues and to recommend potential improvements. The TWG was comprised of representatives from the following public agencies and groups:
• City of San Diego
• City of National City
• U.S. Navy
• SANDAG
• Caltrans
• MTS
• Barrio Logan Community Planning Group
Over the course of the Study, three full-group TWG meetings were conducted and the Study team held 40 smaller, independent meetings with stakeholder agency representatives (See Attachment C - List of Community and Stakeholder Outreach Meetings). The smaller group meetings were instrumental in helping the Study team better understand site specific constraints and to develop and refine the Study’s recommended improvements. In addition, the Study team solicited input from the general public to ensure resident, worker, and business owner mobility-related concerns were also being addressed. This involved distributing comment cards and talking directly with community members at one open house event and two community pop-up events in 2018. It also involved soliciting feedback on the Study’s initial recommendations towards the end of the Study period in September 2019. These meetings are summarized below:
• Harbor Drive Multimodal Corridor Study Open House: February 21, 2018, San Diego Continuing Education Center, Cesar E. Chavez Campus in Barrio Logan;
• Carnival in the Park: February 17, 2018, Carnival in the Park at Cesar E. Chavez Park, Barrio Logan;
• Mariachi Festival: March 11, 2018, Pepper Park in National City;
• Harbor Drive Multimodal Corridor Study Open House: September 12, 2019, National City Aquatic Center;
• South County Economic Development Council Summit: September 13, 2019, Downtown San Diego.
In conjunction with an in-depth literature review, which included more than 30 previous studies along the corridor, encompassing over 90 previously proposed projects, the public outreach efforts helped the TWG identify several key issues that would inform the Study’s goals to serve as the basis for the Study’s recommended improvements. Several other tools provided the Study team with a broad understanding of the corridor’s existing traffic flows, corridor constraints, and potential opportunities including:
• In-depth interviews with major employers and other relevant stakeholders.
• In-person field visits to observe actual conditions.
• Multimodal traffic counts at key roadway segments and intersections.
• Micro-simulation modeling to capture key movements and associated travel times.
Purpose of the Study and Goals
The overarching purpose of the Study is to: “Identify opportunities to improve mobility, safety and quality of life for everyone who lives, works, or plays along Harbor Drive and in the surrounding communities near San Diego’s Working Waterfront.” More specifically, the Study identifies five high-level goals for the corridor, each of which seek to address several mobility-related issues as discussed below.
1. Improve Community Safety, Mobility and Health:
• Truck-related congestion, noise and pollution in residential areas
• Truck and employee-related parking in Barrio Logan and National City
• Auto-related congestion
• Limited bicycle infrastructure and pedestrian enhancements in key areas
• Limited electric vehicle charging infrastructure
2. Improve Goods Movement
• Congestion along designated truck routes between District terminals and Interstate 5
• Poor pavement conditions cause wear and tear on trucks and goods
• Limited areas for designated truck parking and loading facilities
• Rail crossing conflicts with truck routes
• Layout of NCMT and adjacent properties creates inefficiencies in goods movement and intermodal transfers
3. Improve Naval Base Access and Circulation
• Queuing associated with demand entering the Naval Base on Harbor Drive and connecting roadways including 28th Street, 32nd Street, 8th Street and Civic Center Drive
• At-grade rail crossings conflict with traffic flow
• Internal trips within the Naval Base (e.g., wet side to dry side) use public roadways
4. Improve Shipyard Access and Parking
• High pedestrian and traffic volume conflicts crossing Harbor Dr. during peak hours
• Limited bicycle infrastructure and pedestrian enhancements on routes to and from shipyards
• High on-street parking demand for shipyard employees, contractors, and related military personnel
5. Improve Transit First/Last Mile Access
• Limited bicycle infrastructure and pedestrian enhancements on key first/last mile corridors
• High pedestrian and traffic volume conflicts crossing Harbor Drive during peak hours
• Opportunity for enhanced pedestrian and bicycle entry facilities at Naval Base Gate 9 (8th Street)
• Lack of infrastructure to support new mobility services (e.g., ridesharing, bikes, and scooters)
Recommendations
The Study organizes and groups most of the improvements by geographical area in order to realize inherent efficiencies in designing and constructing similar projects that are geographically close to each other, of a similar nature, and that are in the same jurisdiction. Additionally, it helps to consolidate improvements geographically for design, funding and construction purposes. However, these groupings remain flexible; they can be assembled together into projects, they can be done individually, or they can be clustered with other future improvements that are not currently identified. All of the projects are beneficial and complementary. The Study is not prioritizing one assemblage over another but has established logical groupings by geographical area so their relative benefits can be illustrated based on performance metrics, and agencies can pursue future funding opportunities as they arise. The projects are grouped into following two categories:
Geographic Groupings
• Barrio Logan
• Shipyards
• 28th Street
• 32nd Street
• 8th Street/Civic Center
• Bay Marina
Corridor Wide Improvements
• Harbor Drive 2.0
• Efficient Good Movement
• Naval Base Projects
• Parking Projects
• Urban Greening Projects
These groupings of projects include over 90 specific improvements that range from a simple re-striping of a left-turn pocket to a much more extensive grade separation project at a trolley crossing. Within these groupings, the Study identifies 5.2 miles of bicycle and pedestrian improvements to help strengthen the first/last mile connections to transit. Several mobility-related improvements are outside the District’s jurisdiction, which is why staff relied heavily on the TWG and regional partners throughout the process. The Study uses a Harvey Ball diagram to evaluate how each “group of improvements” advance the five goals identified in the previous section.
The Study also developed three preliminary design concepts, which include a design for the Harbor Drive 2.0 concept that would provide the District and/or stakeholder agencies with the basis of a project description to begin environmental review. Following the review and approval of a project-level environmental document, projects become much more competitive for State and federal transportation funding opportunities. The three concepts listed below were chosen, in a large part, because they address key issues identified by both stakeholder agency staff and community members.
Harbor Drive 2.0 - A Greener, Safer, and Healthier Harbor Drive (Attachment D - Appendix H)
As part of the Harbor Drive Multimodal Corridor Study, the project team identified opportunities to improve mobility, safety and quality of life for everyone who lives, works, or plays around the Harbor Drive corridor and in the surrounding communities. Through the literature review and project development process within the Study, the project team identified Harbor Drive 2.0 (HD 2.0) as a project opportunity to improve goods movement through the corridor in a cost-effective manner, while maintaining community safety, mobility and health goals in the surrounding communities. Considering the range of improvement opportunities to support HD 2.0, a concept plan has been developed for the entire corridor with an estimated total project cost of $32 million.
The District currently encourages truckers to use a preferred freight route for trucks to access the Port including NCMT, TAMT, Interstate 5 and Interstate 15. The HD 2.0 concept plan considers truck prohibitions and parking prohibitions in neighboring communities, and it demonstrates how improvements to that route can benefit the local communities, commuters, active walkers/bicyclists, drivers, and truckers at the same time.
Some of the important features of the HD 2.0 concept plan are enhancements that create a connected flexible freight and transit haul road providing enhanced connectivity between NCMT, TAMT and regional freeways, while also providing the capability for potential use by multiple transportation modes such as freight trucks, transit buses and employee shuttles. Moreover, while providing more efficient movement of freight, HD 2.0 also incentivizes freight trucks to avoid entering neighborhoods like Barrio Logan and National City, enhancing the quality of life for neighborhood residents and improving public safety.
The opportunity exists to leverage emerging technologies, such as connected/automated trucks and cars and provide for more efficient freight movement utilizing technology and data to provide for priority truck movement during specific times of the day. Further, because HD 2.0 is technology agnostic, it will not require truck owners to install specialized equipment in their trucks, thereby ensuring that the route can serve both existing and future technologies.
The Study’s analysis provided a “first-look” at the potential travel time savings for a HD 2.0, as the project was incorporated into the 2050 “Horizon Year All Project” travel time analysis scenario. The analysis found that the improvements would result in travel time savings of up to 40%.
National City Truck Parking -
The conceptual Tidelands Truck Parking project is a reconfiguration of Tidelands Avenue in National City to better accommodate parking for trucks on-street. The reconfiguration also includes the implementation of SMART Truck Parking ITS technology to facilitate efficient use of the on-street parking spaces. To provide an estimate for the potential number of spaces that can be achieved, the project team assumed a standard WB-50 truck (55’ in length) as the typical truck for the corridor and 70’ as the typical length for a WB-50 truck parking space. Additionally, the project team assumed that the existing driveway configuration on Tidelands Avenue would remain the same. Based on these assumptions, a total of 67 truck parking spaces are possible along this stretch of Tidelands Avenue.
Anticipated Benefits Associated with the Study’s Recommendations
Based on demands placed on the corridor, the Study team determined that no single project or improvement will overcome the all of the mobility challenges along Harbor Drive. However, the Study found that if all of the 90+ improvement projects and corridor concepts were implemented in their entirety, under a 2050 buildout year scenario the region could substantially reduce vehicular traffic congestion and vehicular pollution. More specifically, drivers would realize the following time savings during the morning peak hour2:
• 6 minutes along Harbor Drive, between Cesar Chavez Pkwy and Civic Center Dr.
• 22 minutes along 28th Street from Harbor Drive to Interstate 5
• 19 minutes along 32nd Street from Harbor Drive to Interstate 5 / Interstate 15
• 22 minutes along 8th Street from Harbor Drive to Interstate 5
When these peak hour time savings are annualized for the project’s 2050 buildout year, the Study found that greenhouse gas emissions (CO2e) could be reduced by approximately 5,395 metric tons, Carbon Monoxide (CO) could be reduced by approximately 42.3 tons, Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) could be reduced by approximately 8.2 tons and Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) could be reduced by approximately 9.8 tons compared to a no-build scenario.
NEXT STEPS
Staff has identified the Harbor Drive 2.0 project as meeting several priorities for the District and partner agencies. It enhances first and last mile connectivity for walkers and cyclists, enhances the state of pavement for drivers and truckers, includes urban greening elements to beautify the corridor, and is highly effective for improving freight movement in the area. The study team has advanced this concept significantly, and the full project description is contained in Appendix H to the Study (Attachment D- Harbor Drive 2.0). Staff recommends that the Board direct Staff to continue working with regional partners to advance the concept for Harbor Drive 2.0 to include, but not be limited to, identifying needs for environmental documents and funding sources.
General Counsel’s Comments:
The Office of the General Counsel has reviewed and approved this agenda, as presented, as to form and legality.
Environmental Review:
This presentation to the Board, including without limitation, does not constitute an “approval” or a “project” under the definitions set forth in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines Sections 15352 and 15378 because no direct or indirect changes to the physical environment would occur. CEQA requires that the District adequately assess the environmental impacts of projects and reasonably foreseeable activities that may result from projects prior to the approval of the same. Further, while the Board may request certain project components be included or alternatives studied, such direction to staff will not bind the District to a definite course of action prior to CEQA review. Full CEQA analysis will be completed prior to the approval of any entitlements, concept approval, or agreements necessary for the project. Moreover, the Board reserves its discretion to adopt any and all feasible mitigation measures, alternatives to the project, including a no project alternative, a statement of overriding consideration, if applicable, and approve or disapprove the project and any permits or entitlements necessary for the same. Those decisions may be exercised in the sole and absolute discretion of the Board. Based on the totality of the circumstances and the entire record, the Board’s direction does not commit the District to a definite course of action prior to CEQA review being conducted. Therefore, no further CEQA review is required.
In addition, this Board item complies with Section 87 of the Port Act, which allows for the construction, reconstruction, repair, and maintenance of highways, streets, roadways, bridges, belt line railroads, parking facilities, power, telephone, telegraph or cable lines or landings, water and gas pipelines, and all other transportation and utility facilities or betterments incidental, necessary, or convenient for the promotion and accommodation of any of those uses. The Port Act was enacted by the California Legislature and is consistent with the Public Trust Doctrine. Consequently, the proposed project is consistent with the Public Trust Doctrine.
Finally, this presentation does not allow for “development,” as defined in Section 30106 of the California Coastal Act, or “new development,” pursuant to Section 1.a. of the District’s Coastal Development Permit (CDP) Regulations because it will not result in, without limitation, a physical change, change in use or increase the intensity of uses. Therefore, issuance of a Coastal Development Permit or exclusion is not required. However, the District’s projects require processing under the District’s CDP Regulations. If a project is formulated as a result of the work plan, the Board will consider approval of the project and any improvements associated after the appropriate documentation under District’s CDP Regulations has been completed and authorized by the Board, if necessary. The Board’s direction in no way limits the exercise of the District’s discretion under the District’s CDP Regulations.
Equal Opportunity Program:
Not applicable.
PREPARED BY:
Laura Wagner
Management Analyst, Government & Civic Relations
Attachment(s):
Attachment A: Harbor Drive Multimodal Corridor Study
Attachment B: Professional Services Agreement with WSP, Inc., Clerk’s Document 67526, dated November 27, 2017
Attachment C: List of Community and Stakeholder Outreach Meetings
Attachment D: Appendix H - Harbor Drive 2.0