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REQUEST FOR COUNCIL ACTION Date: August 25, 2014 Item No.: 7.h Department Approval City Manager Approval Item Description: Request a Variance from State Aid Rules for the County Road B2 Sidewalk Project B ACKGROUND 1 The City is currently installing a sidewalk along County Road B2 from Lexington Avenue to 2 Rice Street. The sidewalk is being funded primarily by Parks and Recreation Renewal Program 3 funds. Ramsey County, as part of their updated cost participation policy, is also contributing 4 funds to this project. 5 While developing the construction plans for this project the City was aware of the potential for 6 the County to participate in the funding of the sidewalk as this is on County right-of-way, but 7 staff was not certain that would occur nor were they aware that the County would use State Aid 8 funds for their contribution. 9 Staff did not become aware of the State Aid funding situation until after the project was 10 advertised as part of the overall Parks and Recreation Renewal Program, making use of the Best 11 Value procurement process. At that time, significant delays and likely extra costs would have 12 occurred to pull the sidewalk package from the overall group of packages. Therefore staff 13 continued with the advertisement and consideration of award while seeking State Aid approval, 14 which required staff to submit plans to the State Aid office of the Minnesota Department of 15 Transportation. While the bid package containing the B2 Sidewalk project was awarded on May 16 12, 2014, the project received official State Aid approval on June 3, 2014. 17 State Aid Rule 8820.2800 Subpart 2A states “only projects for which final plans are approved by 18 the state-aid engineer before opening bids or approving a force account agreement are eligible 19 for state-aid construction funds.” The timing of our award is in violation of this rule, therefore, 20 the City needs to seek a variance on behalf of Ramsey County in order for them to use State Aid 21 dollars on this project. 22 Staff has had numerous discussions with both Ramsey County and the State Aid office on this 23 issue. Due to the timing of Ramsey County’s clarification of their cost participation policy as it 24 applies to sidewalks and trails, the City of Maplewood also awarded a project which included a 25 trail on the Ramsey County system prior to receiving State Aid approval and will also be 26 requesting a variance. There is a process for requesting a variance from State Aid rules. 27 Requested variances are heard by a Variance Committee made up of five individuals appointed 28 by the Commissioner of Transportation, including one or more of the following: County 29 Engineer, City Engineer, County Board elected member, City Council elected member. 30 With this resolution, the City of Roseville is officially requesting a variance of the referenced 31 rule so that this project may be eligible for State Aid funding from Ramsey County even though 32 Page 1 of 2