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Mr. Kelly said he lived near the Franklin corridor on East 11th Avenue and did not mind the construction at <br />all as he found the project exciting. He said the contractor, Wildish Construction, was very good about <br />signing the ever-changing detours. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly expressed dismay about the delays in the construction of the BRT system. He said the community <br />needed to get serious about securing resources to make improvements to the transit system given rising gas <br />prices. He called for political courage on the part of the elected officials. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly believed the transportation model being used by the Lane Council of Governments (LCOG) <br />assumed the complete build-out of the BRT system in 2025, and suggested LTD communicate to LCOG <br />that the modeling needed to reflect likely reality. <br /> <br />Mr. Viggiano said the schedule slips were tied directly to the reauthorization of the federal transportation <br />bill. Until that bill was passed and the rules developed for the new ;;Small Starts" program, which is how <br />LTD has programmed funding for the Pioneer Parkway project, LTD staff was forced to guess what would <br />occur, which placed progress on hold. As soon as the bill was passed and ;;Small Starts" was defined, he <br />thought progress would be quick. <br /> <br />In response to Mr. Kelly's comment about the transportation model, Mr. Viggiano did not think the LCOG <br />model assumed full build-out of BRT by 2025 but he would double-check. Ms. Gardner said that model had <br />been adjusted to reflect the PCE project up to Level 2. <br /> <br />Mayor Piercy said she was asked that morning about the loss of parking related to the construction of the <br />Franklin BRT corridor, and asked for comment from LTD. Mr. Eyster acknowledged some parking would <br />be lost because of a lack of space. Mr. Viggiano said LTD worked with all affected property owners and <br />communicated with them throughout planning and construction. LTD had attempted to address concerns <br />where it could. In the case of the business in question, the lane around the business was designed to allow <br />for parking of delivery trucks. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman determined from Mr. Viggiano the total cost of the BRT project to date was about $23 million. <br /> <br />Ms. Bettman recalled that she had not supported the selection of the Coburg corridor because BRT was <br />intended to be a commuter route and was intended to mimic light rail in bringing people to their jobs from <br />their homes rather than be a city service for getting people around the community. She had preferred a route <br />out West 11th Avenue or Highway 99 as she thought those areas would most benefit from the public <br />investment in the infrastructure. There was already considerable private investment in the Coburg corridor. <br />She looked forward to reevaluating that issue. <br /> <br />Responding to a question from Ms. Bettman about the first PCE corridor, Mr. Carey said that LTD staff <br />was seeking a cross-city route, which had a number of benefits for both LTD and the City, particularly <br />around the Eugene Station, which would face capacity problems in the future. Staff had attempted to match <br />two well-established routes with similar frequencies together, and the LCC route had come out as a strong <br />contender. Two other routes were considered for linkage, River Road and Highway 99. River Road had <br />seemed to be the more compatible of the two routes. <br /> <br />MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 27, 2005 Page 5 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />