Drafter

Clerk 04/12/2018

Title

AN ORDINANCE making a net supplemental appropriation of $515,000 to the roads operating fund and a net supplemental appropriation of $5,602,000 to the roads major maintenance capital fund to begin immediate design efforts to replace four restricted bridges that impede safe passage for heavy vehicles and to create a 2018 bridge safety program; and amending the 2017-2018 Biennial Budget Ordinance, Ordinance 18409, Sections 61 and 132 as amended, and Attachment A, as amended.

Body

STATEMENT OF FACTS:

1.  Following a bridge collapse, and, more importantly, a recent decision to allow heavier trucks on roadways, the Federal Highway Administration developed new calculations for determining the weight that a bridge can safely carry.

2.  Federal, state and local governments are evaluating publicly-owned vehicular bridges using the new criteria and formulas and are determining whether additional weight restrictions must be placed on bridges under this new requirement. 

3.  King County owns and maintains one hundred seventy-eight vehicular bridges.

4.  King County is systematically evaluating each of its vehicular bridges based on current condition assessment and each bridge’s unique materials, utilizing the new complex Federal Highway Administration formulas.

5.  Of the fifty-seven bridges evaluated to date, the road services division has determined new vehicle weight restrictions are necessary for twenty-one bridges.

6.  Some of those bridges are restricted from transporting certain types of fire apparatus, garbage trucks, cement trucks and other heavy vehicles.

7.  Those restrictions on heavy vehicles and resulting detours could pose public safety concerns if not promptly and systematically addressed.

8.  Four of the newly restricted bridges were prioritized to begin a bridge safety program based on criteria including the type of vehicles that are restricted, the impact on traffic flow, the alternative routes for heavier vehicles and the impacts on communities.

9.  The first four bridges selected for replacement also rank highly using the King County priority process for bridge replacement, which was approved in 1994 in Ordinance 11693.

10.  To resolve the most significant issues expediently, the road services division needs to invest in a bridge safety program to begin design for replacement of these four bridges.

                     BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:

                     SECTION 1.  Ordinance 18409, Section 61, as amended, is hereby amended as follows:

                     ROADS - From the road operating fund there is hereby appropriated to:

                     Roads                     $515,000

The maximum number of additional FTEs shall be:                     7.00

                     SECTION 2.  Ordinance 18409, Section 132, as amended, is hereby amended by adding thereto and inserting the following:

                     From the roads major maintenance fund there is hereby appropriated and authorized to be disbursed the following amounts for the specific project identified in Attachment A to this ordinance.

Fund                     Fund Name                     2017-2018

3855                     ROADS MAJOR MAINTENANCE                     $5,602,000

                     SECTION 3.  Attachment A to this ordinance hereby amends Attachment A to

Ordinance 18409, as amended, by adding thereto and inserting therein the projects listed in Attachment A to this ordinance.