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<br />June 12, 2006 <br /> <br />TO: <br /> <br />Eugene Mayor and City Council <br />Lane Transit District Board of Directors <br /> <br />FROM: <br /> <br />Stefano Viggiano, L TO Director of Development Services <br /> <br />RE: <br /> <br />Selection of Third EmX Corridor <br /> <br />Background <br /> <br />Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is identified as a key transit strategy in TransPlan and the <br />Regional Transportation Plan. L TO has been pursuing implementation of the EmX, the <br />name given to our community's BRT system, on a corridor-by-corridor basis. Franklin <br />EmX, the first EmX corridor, links downtown Eugene and downtown Springfield. That <br />corridor is under construction and scheduled to open in December 2006. <br /> <br />The second EmX corridor, Pioneer Parkway EmX, will extend the Franklin EmX from <br />downtown Springfield into the Gateway/RiverBend/lnternational Way area of northwest <br />Springfield. The two EmX corridors would operate as a single, continuous route, <br />providing direct service among all activity centers on both corridors. The Pioneer <br />Parkway EmX is in the environmental analysis stage, with completion of the <br />Environmental Assessment and project approval scheduled for September 2006. If <br />environmental reviews, project approvals, and funding approvals go as planned, service <br />on the Pioneer Parkway EmX could begin as soon as late 2009. <br /> <br />It is expected that the third EmX corridor will be in Eugene. In 2002 the City Council <br />selected Coburg Road as the next EmX corridor in Eugene. L TO staff and City staff <br />conducted a planning study in collaboration with a Coburg Road stakeholder group. The <br />stakeholder group had many varied opinions about the benefit and feasibility of a <br />possible EmX line. In January 2004, the group approved a report that documented the <br />advantages and disadvantages of various possible EmX design options along the <br />corridor. <br /> <br />Since it became apparent that funding for a third EmX line was many years out, a <br />decision was made not to pursue at that time a more detailed follow-up design study for <br />the Coburg Road corridor. It was further agreed by both the Eugene City Council and <br />the L TO Board that when it became time to start working again on a third EmX corridor, <br />a new corridor selection process should be conducted--rather than assuming that the <br />third corridor is going to be Coburg Road. <br /> <br />Schedule for Third ErnX Corridor <br /> <br />The L TO Capital Improvements Program currently shows construction of the third EmX <br />corridor in 2014 and 2015. This assumes, of course, securing the necessary federal <br />matching funds. When federal funds are used for a project such as this, a prescribed <br />series of steps that include an alternatives analysis and an environmental analysis are <br />