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Bend over taxpayers, more light rail is coming to Mesa!!!!
Mesa poised for next light-rail step Monday Council will take deeper look at route to Gilbert Road by Gary Nelson - Jun. 30, 2012 07:33 AM The Republic | azcentral.com The Mesa City Council is poised Monday night to take the next step in extending light rail from Mesa Drive to Gilbert Road. With a preliminary study already flashing green for the additional two miles, the council is expected to approve spending $750,000 for a full environmental assessment of the proposed extension. Mesa began talking about running the line to Gilbert Road even before it was certain the 3.1-mile extension from Sycamore Street through downtown would be funded. Work on that leg is just beginning as crews scope out utilities along Main Street that must be moved to accommodate the tracks. Trains are expected to be running through downtown by late 2015. Last year the council approved spending $500,000 for a feasibility study of the Gilbert Road extension. The report, issued in May, said that leg would cost $103 million to $115 million, measured in 2011 dollars, depending on how it is configured. It recommended a full environmental study to sharpen the cost estimates and evaluate how the line would affect those two miles, and that's what's on Monday's council agenda. Whereas Mesa paid for the first study, money for the second will come from the Maricopa Association of Governments. The first study identified two primary alternatives for Main Street traffic if the line is pushed to Gilbert Road. The first would leave two lanes of traffic in either direction, and the second would narrow Main Street to only one lane in each direction. Planners chose the one-lane option for the extension through downtown, and two lanes between Sycamore Street and Country Club Drive. One feature that could be employed in the Gilbert Road extension that won't be in the first one is traffic roundabouts at quarter-mile intersections. The feasibility study said a park and ride would be needed at Gilbert Road to accommodate some of the 3,000 extra weekday riders that extension is projected to generate. A park and ride also is planned at the northeastern corner of Mesa Drive and Main Street for the first extension. Mesa Transit Director Mike James told The Republic the city and Metro are negotiating with several property owners there whose businesses would have to be demolished for the Mesa Drive park and ride. They include the auto-parts store operated by former Mayor Willie Wong and his brother, Wilky, in a building that housed their grandfather's grocery a century ago. The environmental study will look at historic resources along Main to Gilbert Road, the potential rail line's effect on traffic, parking, land acquisition requirements and "environmental justice" -- that is, whether the extension would negatively and disproportionately affect poor people or minorities. The Gilbert Road extension does not have a timetable nor an identified source of funding. Federal and regional money is paying the entire bill, about $200 million, for the extension to Mesa Drive. Also on Monday the City Council is expected to approve: Several changes to the city charter that will be presented to Mesa voters in the November election. Most are technical, but one would allow voters to choose the mayor in a special election if the office becomes vacant with more than two years left in the departing mayor's term. Currently the vice mayor would take over for the entire term, even if his or her council term would have ended in the meantime. A $207,000 contract to improve safety features of 26 canal bridges throughout the city, including new pedestrian safety railings and guardrails. A new video wall in traffic department headquarters. The wall will display data and images collected by the so-called intelligent transportation system, portions of which have been installed over the past several years, giving traffic managers more ability to keep vehicles moving. The large video display will cost about $250,000, paid for by voter-approved bonds. Assigning $714,000 in unpaid bills to a collection agency. The money is owed to Mesa by delinquent utility customers, merchants who fail to remit sales taxes, and from other accounts. |