|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
In the wake of multiple staff vacancies, Mountain View is setting up a new division within its public works department to address a backlog of transportation and street improvement projects.
Public Works Director Jennifer Ng presented the plan for the new transportation division to the City Council earlier this month, as part of an update on where the city stands with its infrastructure projects.
Mountain View has nearly three hundred projects that are underway, with the vast majority managed by the public works department, according to Ng. Of these, a substantial portion involve transportation and street improvement efforts.
The work includes planned upgrades for major thoroughfares like Shoreline Boulevard, Rengstorff Avenue and Middlefield Road as well as basic maintenance projects, like road repaving.
Getting the projects across the finish line, however, has not been easy. The city has a shortage of transportation planners, with just two out of five positions filled, as of April 14. Since then, Mountain View has hired a transportation manager, leaving the city with two remaining vacancies, according to city spokesperson Lenka Wright.
This has meant that some projects have been put on the backburner, like a proposal for bike lanes on Terra Bella Avenue.
“We’ve already had to triage, like an ER room, with all of the work that’s on the transportation team and the limited bandwidth that they have,” Ng said at the council meeting.
The new division within the public works department – which will merge the existing traffic engineering and transportation planning teams – will help address the backlog by focusing solely on transportation and traffic projects, according to a city staff report.
“Bringing transportation planning and traffic engineering together is expected to improve communication, coordination and collaboration as the combined team works to advance the city’s transportation goals,” the report said.
The division will be headed by a chief transportation officer who will guide the implementation of major policy initiatives, according to the report. Some of these initiatives include a transportation ordinance to reduce drive-alone trips, a Vision Zero policy that aims to eliminate all traffic fatalities by 2030 and an active transportation plan that seeks to improve bicycle and pedestrian safety in the city.
Recruitment for a chief transportation officer will start this spring and is anticipated to continue through the fall, according to the report.
Several public commentators praised the plan at the April 14 meeting.
“I really hope that that is expedited, and we start seeing that impact because I think it’s been a department that’s been really missed for many months,” said Mountain View resident Silja Paymer, who is currently running for City Council.
Good idea.
Dear Emily, re transportation projects. There may be a backlog but it appears that Public Works has been engaging recently in a number of projects that are very sketchy and that no one seems to want or need. Three examples: lowering the speed limit on Grant Road from 35 to 25 (not compliant with state standards that recommend reducing not more than 45mph; lowering the speed limit on Sylvan Avenue from 30 to 25 (my neighborhood); and placing a no u-turn sign on westbound 237 at Centre St. (by BMW facility) when there hasn’t been a need for that in the 30 yeqars I’ve lived in the neighborhood. These are a waste of time and resources when there are, according to your reporting, more urgent needs. You might look into Public Works more closely.
William Adler
wfadler395@gmail.com
If Mtn. View wants to eliminate all traffic fatalities by 2030, they have their work cut out for them. Just a little over 3-1/2 years to go. The roadways need to be repaved as well—Shoreline Blvd between ECR to the Bayshore freeway; all of El Monte, including Springer Rd to the Los Altos border. Same thing with Miramonte—from El Camino to the Los Altos border. The bumpiness is so BAD. I am sure that there are other roads too that need lots of attention!!!
I hope this will help get the Stevens Creek Trail extension unstuck. It’s been stalled so long that the project is moving backwards and seems to be preparing to repeat the feasibility study done from 2015-2017. Last section opened in 2013, 13 years ago with no apparent progress.