Is that a thumbs up or is that Wait a minute. Good evening. It's now 5:30 and I call this workshop of the Victoria City Council to order. Our workshops are informal and with that we're going to dive right into our agenda. We have one item on our workshop agenda this evening which is an update on the arboratum area transportation plan and various related transportation projects projects. Presenting us starting us off this evening is our city engineer Cara Garren. Miss Garin, welcome. >> Good evening Mayor and city council. Tonight I have all sorts of guests presenting with me tonight. So >> awesome. Welcome to all of them. Yeah, I'm going to lead off by telling you who is all here tonight. So, I'm going to start on that end. We have Eric Johnson representing Carver County, who you have seen plenty of times before on the Arboritum area transportation plan. Diane Langenbach from Mindot is here tonight. Lyndon Robent from Carver County who you know, and then Dan Lis is the project manager for the Highway 5 project. I think you've been here at least once before. So, um, our main focus tonight is going to be on the Highway 5 project. Um, so this is generally what we're going to cover, but there are a few other updates we're going to give. So, this is going to be a presentation from several of us. So, without further ado, actually, Lyndon is going to kick us off here. >> Mr. Rob Gent, welcome. >> All right. I'm only gonna take 45 minutes or so. Okay. Less than two. So, thanks for having us. I know It's been a while since I've been here. Um, but we've come a long way with your help. Long, long way. Not easy, but uh, very satisfying, I think, when we're going to when we're finally done with our implementation of this project. So, this, if you remember, when we started the study, >> when was that, Eric? >> 2019. 2019 we had a vision for all transportation you know in and around the arboritum it just happened that the arboritum was surrounded by these corridors it's the main reason it's called the arboritum area transportation plan but we knew we had some problems to solve in Victoria Chaza and Chanas for the long term so if you recall we came up with this implementation plan that's shown on the screen And you know, you know, mayor, how funding works. You get a little bit at a time and you you come up with some money from the city, the county, you get mind to help and you do a project. So, we looked at a a realistic approach of how we could we build these projects over the next 20 years and green, yellow, orange, short, mid, long-term vision for that whole area. So, that was the plan. Then when we started talking to you guys and the public, we realized Highway 5, that's a tough road to close down three, four, five, six times over the next 20 years. So we heard pretty clearly that, boy, it'd be nice if we could do a larger vision, painful, but close it down strategically and not have to come back over and over again. not only the inconvenience to the public, the businesses, but also the expense. Each time you transition in and out of a project, you're spending half a million to a million just to connect to an old road or whatever. So, we started applying for grants and today, as you know, we've we've we've come up with a much larger project that basically consolidates the green from the east, the yellow, the orange, half the green to the west, that orange up and down rolling acres, all into one mega project that we're here to talk about tonight. And with the help of you guys, our legislators um have been really helpful at the state level. Congressman Emma has been awesome. Um Cloverar Tina Smith, we've consolidated or we've collected how many grants so far? >> 11 >> 11 grants. And so we've got to the point now where we have a fully funded project. And we've reduced not only the city's burden on the cost share, which I know is was very significant when we first started this, and we'll talk about that, too. Um, it also reduced um the burden on the county. So, we're in a good spot, and now we just want to make sure we do it properly. You know, how we how do we build this thing? Um, we know the environmental process has been a challenge. We know people are concerned about the environment in this community. It's a beautiful place. I I completely get it. Uh we know that people are concerned about pad and bike safety. We try to accommodate that. Nothing's perfect, but I think we have a pretty good product, the best that we can do. And uh we think we can hopefully with some good communication, which is going to be key, build it in a way that's not painless, but at least uh at least least painful as we possibly can do it. And that's gonna it's definitely going to be a challenge, but we'll do whatever we can to make that happen. So, with that, I think I'm done. >> One. >> Well, that one. Yeah. So, >> what are you looking at here? >> Yeah. Right. Spaghetti M. Part of our communication strategy is to figure out not only what's going on with the orange project on on Highway 5, but everything in the community. And with your guys' help, we programmed a lot of projects, you know, five and 11 west by the Dairy Queen, that roundabout, uh, through the park reserve that's currently under construction. Lots of stuff. 82nd Street, which is a huge, which will be a huge help, I think, up that would help out Highway 5 when that has to be closed in 2027. Dan will give a little more info on that, but you can see there's a lot of investment that went into this and we appreciate everything you've done to help us with this and try to make it make it happen. But not not simple, but we have a hopefully a strategic approach on keeping the public informed from here or the next three three years of construction. That'll be quite a challenge. I don't know if you any of you drive to the cities, but 212 is down on one lane right now. So, It would have been nice if we could have built this road this year while that was happening, but we can't. But, uh, hopefully it won't be that tough, but it's going to be a challenge. So, >> yeah, the only thing I'll just add to that is just that in and around Victoria, there is construction happening everywhere after really years of not a lot of investment in the transportation network and all the time that I've worked in really harbor county. So, it definitely is a challenge for folks. At the car show on Wednesday night, we heard from a lot of people who are having to find creative ways to get from one end of the community to another. So, um it was handy to show this map to remind everyone that um there is definitely a lot going on that the county is working hard to coordinate. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We'll figure out some creative ways electronically so people can be informed of what's happening when. We've got a few ideas, but we'd welcome more from you guys. We have a great communication team, not only your folks, the count and the city of Chaska and Chan and our county communications people. We're all going to work together and mind of course to make this work. So, thank you. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. I know there is a lot going on right now and I it can be very frustrating for our residents and and as Lyndon mentioned um you can't underestimate how much work went into trying to get this project done in a fashion that was the least painful possible and the fact that we were able to accumulate all the funding needed to get this big of a project done while I know it's very painful I feel like this is the better option the lesser of the evils if you will. So, um there are um lists that folks can sign up on to get these construction updates and um I'm sure Eric's going to talk about that a little bit. If not, Eric, I I encourage you to um tell folks how they can get to those things because they come to your email. It's very timely stuff. Tells you what's going on, what's open, what's closed, and then um and that'll be very helpful. So, we um appreciate your patience as we work our way through this over the next three years. All right, Cara, back to you. >> I'm gonna turn it over to Dan to talk more specifically about the planned improvements for five. >> Hi, Dan. Welcome. >> Well, hello, Mayor and Council. I know you've seen some of this before. So, uh, just, uh, pace me as you want to hear more information. So, I'm gonna defer to the skim through information as, uh, we try and give you an update and talk a little bit about staging and what to expect. So, I'm going to start with a video simulation. You might have seen this already. We played this at the open house. This is what the public is is seeing for what the job is going to be in a couple years. We do this for a couple reasons. It's going to be tough for the next few years of construction. It's pretty important to see it's going to be a great outcome in a few years and just bear with us until we get there. Um, but it it it also shows me the selections that you've made to aesthetics and such. But I'll play through it and uh you can stop me if you'd like to take a look at any any scene. So, we had a pretty good open house. About uh well, I think over a hundred people showed up and they they all uh stopped by the video screen to see what the job was going to result in. So, this is your downtown commercial avenue roundabout area. This one's pretty hard to visualize. So, this was the scene we were anxious to to show. So complete transformation of the west portion of the city and this is really design accurate. So it takes a bit of time for us to put these models together. What you're you're seeing is is pretty accurate geometry on where the curb lines are, what landscaping is is generally going to be out there. It's it's not perfect, of course, but it's pretty close to our our overall plan. So, this gives you a pretty pretty solid depiction of what will be and of course the overpass. Now, we're going to key in on Rolling Acres Bavaria looking north. Again, a badly needed improvement right here. This is uh actual traffic volumes uh put on the intersection. So, uh they're they're not just putting cars in, they're actually putting in cars from our traffic traffic models uh based on some of the Q lengths that they that they've uh uh modeled. So, you can see the significance of the double left turn lane. If that uh that was not there, you'd have cues all the way up past the Apple House entrance. So, shows what we've actually projected for traffic needs. So, and the Melan Creek underpass and of course these uh rolling acres road some of the selections that were made at the past last meeting that we visited at. So, we appreciated your feedback and and uh guidance on on coming up with a plan for rolling acres. We think it's going to turn out wonderfully. It's going to be a dramatic improvement to the area visually and meeting some of the goals that we heard from the residents about speed management and pedestrian mobility. So, we think that's going to be a fantastic outcome. Minasha Parkway, you've all heard a great deal about that and the new arburedum entrance. So, this is generally what this is going to look like. We've also had quite a bit of discussions about this location, but again, this is going to be one of the major milestones of this project. Uh when we open, I'll talk a little bit about that. The staging plan. Uh this is going to be a top milestone of 2027 is the day this signal is turned on in that uh intersection is is active. So that's going to be later in the fall of 27. And this is a view looking from the arburetum and their specific request from the arburitum side was plain concrete. No investment in aesthetics where that was not necessarily the case from the north. So this is a rare circumstance where we actually had different aesthetics on the north side versus the south side of the bridge and that is why and 41 plenty of discussion on what the right solution was there. what ultimately was decided upon, of course, is a lot more lanes and a lot more turn turn lane uh expansion here. So, this is going to be the long-term solution at 5 and 41 and it um operates quite well. So should be should be a very uh key improvement that and one that we'll actually reference in the staging plan is significant to uh getting completed in 26. So there's there's a bit of methodology in our staging plan as to going after that intersection first. So we actually had the capacity at that intersection during during the highway 5 closure. So any questions on what you saw or you like me to go back to anything? >> Council questions. I I'm just curious the um the house that was recently built like across from the arboritum uh how did that affect I um that's right on Minasha like did that affect much of our planning on where how this road would be and I guess like from a safety standpoint like are they do they will they only have a right in out or right in and out to that >> right in and right out. >> Yeah. So, uh, it was certainly a a point of significant coordination because obviously there's a lot of discussion about whether or not that access should go away, whether or not that, uh, uh, location should be acquired. Um, that being said, it it it ended up being an acceptable outcome to maintain a rightin, right out at that location with a operator that wasn't really looking to sell. And so, uh, was it a consideration? Absolutely. But it was also felt that the right, right out would be the safety improvement necessary to keep that driveway in a functioning state for the near future. I mean, it's he he went into the build knowing full well that he was going to be having to take a right and looping around in any number of different ways to get to the east. So that was very transparent and he was fully aware that he was not going to be able to take a left in out the highway. So the right in was dramatically different than having any type of a access that maintained a left >> Thank you. >> in or left out. >> Dan, do you have a picture of um Highway 5 as it comes through like right straight out here? Um there is room for four lanes coming through Victoria and I don't know if we've seen that all the way back to like kind of county road 11. >> Yeah. So this current project stops um essentially at the fire station entrance. So when if we have time left, we'll be talking about the part through downtown that's left that we are now pursuing funding for. But during the arburitum area transportation plan, the study did identify that we do have adequate room within downtown to accommodate the fourlane. The difference within downtown is we're operating at lower speeds. So midat standards through downtown are different than when you're traveling at 55 miles an hour. So the lane widths are narrower. Um we aren't we're accommodating um turn lanes within the existing um lanes that are there. So, uh, that was studied and we could fit it without having to acquire any, um, businesses or homes or >> that's what I remember to be the to be the, um, situation, but it's hard to imagine it, I guess. >> Yeah. Um, in the study, we do have some renderings of that. So, if it's useful, I could locate those and send those around. >> Sure, that'd be great. Thanks. All right, council. Other questions, comments on this? All right, seeing none, then uh, we'll move on. All right. Well, uh, another big topic on this project was noise. So, you, as you may have been, uh, informed and aware of, there's there was a noise study, substantial one, was required and and was definitely desired by the residents in the area. There's a lot of comments on on noise on highway expansion. What's it going to do to our noise levels? So a substantial amount of study was done on on noise modeling before and after conditions. Uh it came down to uh only one wall met all the criteria uh necessary to bring it through to a vote to the benefiting properties. So many walls were considered, many walls were studied in terms of cost benefit and uh whether or not it it met the criteria necessary to invest in a wall. Uh this was the uh only location uh that uh it's by the Meline Creek underpass uh town homes uh nearest to the highway that justified that uh the final final review uh by the property owners. So there was a voting process part of the public hearing that occurred recently in June and it uh was voted in. So at this point uh it could have gone either way. We have had them voted down as well. Uh but uh in this case it looks to be uh in support that's supporting uh the the wall and so would be included in the project and uh we've gotten a few questions as to why this one versus other locations. Why not across the street? Why not uh in of our house? But uh the bottom line is is we follow standardized formulas, criteria and cost benefit uh ratios so that we're we're not arbitrary. And that's what we've had to explain to every resident. So if there's any questions about that, that's that's the best answer we can offer is that this is all about formulaic determination so that it's not referential to any one location and this is the this is the location that met the criteria. So there's any questions on noise? My understanding is that the the wall or the barrier is like that's pretty predetermined too like uh is it mindot that makes that determination on what that exactly is like we don't really have any say for aesthetics and stuff like that. >> Yeah because because it's in a mindot right away they do have the standards they've updated them more recently to concrete as their as their guideline. Um I I think there there could be some uh impact as as as far as color things to that nature. I would say generally speaking their policies are concrete and if it's a aesthetic cost over and above then it then it's the local cost and so is the maintenance. And so that's what comes along with making it look we could put stone on these things but there'd be a cost and then there be the maintenance of of any type of element like that. So um yeah at this point it's concrete any other questions. Is that reasonably accurate? That is correct. >> Diane, can I ask you to come up to the podium so we can hear you? We can't hear you from back there or the people at home can't hear you. Just state your name for that. >> Council members, I am Diane Lambbach and I am the Mindot South area engineer for Carver and Scott counties. And yes, I was just going to confirm that uh concrete is the standard for the wall and as for maintenance, mindot maintenance uh would maintain the uh highway side and then the city would be responsible for the local side of that wall. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions on that? Moving on. >> All right. and uh recap on the project schedule. This is a high level uh review of really the final design delivery. Of course, the study goes back many more years, but uh this is uh the preliminary design through final delivery. It looks fairly simple, but it was quite a quite a challenge to get it get it to this point. It was uh thought for a while that we might be into 26 depending on permitting and and agency approval timelines and we've been fighting that the entire time. But on a project this size, just to give you a magnitude on the significance of that, uh one year is easily uh easily in the $2 million plus range in terms of taxpayer dollars. So, it's it's tremendously significant to keep these projects moving and getting them uh to the bid as as soon as possible and practical. Uh, and so tremendous amount of energy went into getting this project lined up for uh bidding this fall. And at this point, I think we're we're on on track to do that. Well over well over a hundred people were involved in in this effort here. and uh probably a couple hundred by the time we get into every agency member that's touched the jobs. So, it's just really a collection of many jobs piled together in one massive uh permitting effort. The uh brunt of the work is going to be obviously 26 and 27 as you've heard. So, what this really indicates is we we got this down to two major construction seasons. Um, this was by all typical standards a three-year project depending on how how this got sequenced, but one of the goals of the agencies and all the stakeholders that uh we we visited with was quicker uh is the least painless way to to get this done as opposed to lots of incremental stages that that dragged out over a period of three three years. So all efforts was was was made on trying to get this down to two years with with a single closure to highway five a single season closure. So that is what uh is represented here is highway five closure over the 27 season and 26 is really in preparation for that moment. So, so the uh regional alternative routes are going to take a tremendous amount of uh traffic. So, when I talk about the staging plan for this job, it should be noted that really the staging plan for this has been going on before this project even started. The staging plan goes back to 82nd Street. the decision to to build to build that this year. The the decision to uh prepare some of these other projects in anticipation for all the diverted traffic. Uh the staging was really thought of as as a region and how how projects lined up in sequence, which is what the that that figure at the very beginning was intended to depict. A lot a lot of work is being prepped for the the Highway 5 closure. So, um, talking about staging on this project is probably a little short-sighted versus the complexity of of putting this all together so that when five was closed, it was it was going to going to work without some colliding other project that was going to route people uh even further out of the way. So, phase one in 2026 is uh is geared towards your north south movements. That that's what we're doing this first season. It's it's is getting five as prepared as possible uh to close it down. So, we're doing everything off to the side of the of the highway, anything outside of boulevards on out that would prep work if there's walls. Uh any work we can do along the five quarter, we will do if it doesn't shut the highway down. Uh but a majority of the work is really going to be focused on this highway 5 and 41 intersection and the Bavaria and Rolling Acres Road. What we want is is for that north south movement to flow as efficiently as possible when traffic is routing around with the five closure. So to do that it was essential for us to to get five and 41 operating functionally well. Uh and so that's that's why this one is is a is really a prep prep work of the five closures. So what we're doing is five is under uh being constructed under traffic in this area. So it's going to be half at a time. It will be significant slowdowns uh in 26 uh and and some queuing because we are uh building that half at a time under traffic. So that intersection is not going to be working the way it is today. There will be some uh delays. That's why it's highlighted in orange, but traffic is still active and on it. Um to the north, the red section, that's under closure. So we're closing the north leg of 41 uh while we're keeping Rolling Acres Road open so that there's a alternative uh north south route wall 41 is closed same with Bavaria that's being closed while we maintain uh 41 to the south uh open so that there's always an alternate means nearby to go north or south during this phase >> next phase go ahead >> Dan one quick question on that so Bavaria is closed just from 18 over to five right yeah okay got That's where the trails going in along Bavaria. >> Y >> the road will get resurfaced and then they've got to add additional lane work south of five. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> So, flipping that over, same methodology. Five is being constructed half at a time, keeping traffic on it, but there'll be certainly uh delays and backups at that location while that's being done. Uh then we flip over have the north north side of um highway 541 open while uh rolling acres road is closed. Uh so that that's a very impactful stage. Uh there's there's going to be a lot of um local access only management of traffic through a very narrow corridor. So we're going to be working hard to to work with the residents on getting in and out of their various access points through a construction zone, but it would be close to all through traffic. Um and then of course 41 to the south is is being constructed in this phase uh the same time as rolling acres and then we have a closure to the regional trail uh for a period of time while that underpass is being constructed as well. All of this is to prepare oh I'll I'll hit this one before I get into the next phase. So stag stagger lake road which is which is another big topic here in 26. We we determined that uh we are going to need significant amount of time to to searchcharge uh that north embankment of highway 5 through this area. The purpose of this is is to is to consolidate the soils underneath it and in preparation for final final widening. So with a searchcharge, you're basically loading up the soil and the materials and you're letting it settle. It's just a programmed settlement period. It takes a significant amount of time to do it. And so what we're needing to do in this scenario is to load that up and let let that dirt sit for an extended period of time. So the the effort here again with this with all of this being towards let's get this at the end of two years is this would start in 2026. would sit over over the year and then in 27 it would be it would be finished up. So that is something that might be a newer topic here if it hasn't been discussed thoroughly. So I'll pause for any questions as to what the thinking is on this and what alternatives have been considered. So >> that's in the same area where the road kept settling for years and years and years. So essentially they have to do the same thing we did in 2012 adjacent to where it was that work was done back in 2012. >> Yeah. >> And are they closing Stiger Lake Lane at that point? So, how long? Stiger Lake Lane will be closed for an a year from where to where? >> Just where it connects to Highway. >> Just where it connects to. >> Okay. So, we we had really been counting on that to be a a great local alternate route and that has now vanished. >> What's the alternative for that? will be coming back through downtown >> through downtown on five >> like through to Victoria Drive. >> Okay. Okay. Okay. Council, other questions about that? Exciting closer. >> Yeah. All kinds of exciting news. Yeah. apologies to lay this out here at a quick update. This this warrants its own separate discussion as to how this would would uh play out as far as kind of the local movements during this 26 season. So, we certainly be happy to follow up with some information that would give you a little clearer picture about how this would work. But it it all ties back to some design realities that none of us are super excited about dealing with, which is unpredictable soils that really need a significant amount of time to stabilize before we're building the permanent road on it. >> I know that's been a that area has been a problem for decades. >> Yeah. And we're we're obviously very concerned that it not be a problem after this project is done. So that's that's the rationale here for okay >> some of these settlement recommendations from the geotechnical engineers >> council other questions comments on that >> I guess my only question would be how confident are you in this preloading will actually work >> well uh we have to be as confident as is as as we can be about any one of our solutions short of you know short of any 100% call on you on any any outcome here. I mean we we all all have looked at all different types of options to answer your question bluntly you know high 90% percentile chance that this is going to do what we are expecting it to do. >> Excellent. >> What happens is during the monitoring period we see things are going better than expected. We're actually monitoring how it's moving. I mean, it can it can actually shorten if if it settles uh and stabilizes in a certain amount of time. Um, that being said, if something starts moving in a way we don't like, it is possible we'll make a judgment call and say, "All right, we're going to want to do something different." But most of the time, uh, high, like I said, high 90s, this is going to be a solution that's very predictable and programmed. >> Thank you. Okay. So, uh final final chunk of uh uh the 26 season is constructing the roundabout uh at the church. Roundabout is is a a tough one to build under traffic and and we need traffic on that at all times to get traffic in and out of the uh nearby neighborhood. So that is the last thing that happens in 2026 is constructing the roundabout and the big season is early in 2027. I would finally proposed. Um this uh this will be well publicized. People are going to start choosing their routes. Otherwise, um, a rule of thumb that a lot of folks have have come to go by that have seen these these large projects play out where there's major road closures is is uh they say about a third third and third of the traffic will uh displace about a third will find some local local routes and then uh a third is is going to is going to completely avoid the area. And so, um, we'll have to see what those final percentages are as to how many folks are going to come right down here to to 82nd Street, how many are going to choose to take Highway 7 as opposed to Highway Five and, uh, how many might just make make trip decisions that include, you know, not going this way at all. Um, staying staying at home and working and any number of things can happen. So uh but it at the end of the day here it is going to be very well publicized about how to get to every single business uh during this closure period. We're we're working very hard to make sure that uh folks that have good information and good materials to to to keep their operations running. Our customers know how to get to and from an area the best possible route. And we hope to avoid as much confusion and frustration as possible. uh during this phase. So, um but what what we'll be doing is focusing on getting the west half uh into the downtown Victoria done first. So, we're going to we're going to be trying to do is get that leg from 13 into the downtown completed earlier in the season. So, this would not be all of 2027 uh this western portion of the closure. As soon as that's done, which closer to summer is what we think this uh can be completed at, uh we can open up that segment all the way up to 13. So then at that point, traffic's going to be coming all the way through downtown up to 13. We are going to expecting a closure across Lake Minwashta to be until fall of uh of 27 because of the work that has to be done across the we'll say the causeway uh by the lake where we're widening in those in those tough muck areas. That's going to be a long construction process and we're thinking September is going to be about the soonest where we'll be able to get even half of that back open. The big date is going to be um It's going to be October 1st. We're trying to turn on the signal at uh at the new arboritum access miniwashed parkway. We go from a temporary signal to permanent and that would be the official opening date of that intersection. We might be still having westbound closed or or eastbound closed at that phase. We'll allow we'll allow westbound to come up to the signal on October 1st, but we may still have an eastbound closure after October 1st until they're finished uh with their work over the lake. So that that would be the sequencing to 27. It's listed as one big closure, but again, west half, we're trying to get that done early. So the downtown Victoria area is finished up. eastern half east of Rolling Acres. Uh October 1 is going to be the big day where it's it's going to be uh it's going to look like an open highway possibly to everybody but the eastbound. But just to just to clarify because I've heard some questions from the residents 27 starts Highway 5 closure, right? Western eastern call it two different phases but through 27 it's just closing. It's not going to spill in at this point into 28. >> Um well, according to every deadline we're going to have in the schedule, uh it is not going to spill into 28. There will be work in 28. >> Sure. >> That's going to be the finish up work boulevard work. >> It'll be it'll be open. >> It's going to it's going to be we call it substantially complete. So there there's there's always the trail over work and following season, but we're going to have all the highways open, all the roadways open. >> Um you know, we we as you said, what what type of uh confidence level do I have on on some of these things I 90s that they're going to be able to hit their schedule? There's a lot of a lot of incentives and a lot of uh damage damages that are out there for these contractors to bid these job and miss schedule. That being said, uh we have tremendous rains all year that you know the delays start to build up. So we can never say >> Yeah. No, understood. >> Until it's all over. >> Yep. Appreciate that. Thank you. >> I'm confident it will be done in two years. Any questions on staging at this point? >> I don't see any. All right. Carry on. >> All right. Well, uh, we are to that topic considering some incentives to try and make sure the contractor, you know, has has reason to finish early if they can. So, we're going to be considering some incentives uh for for this bid. And uh of course we've got uh instruction communications approach that is really geared towards your business community to make sure that there's um plenty of outreach, plenty of uh available resources that they can keep their customers confident that they they have uh um means to get to and from the business without interruption even even despite all the construction happening in the area. Is there any other comments you'd like to make on communications? >> Just that we are coordinating right now with Jen to get another um business meeting schedule the presentation will cover a lot of the same information, talk about that updated information with the Stiger Lake Lane closure and talk through in more detail what that looks like and what that'll mean. Um I imagine we'll be a hot topic of that conversation businesses. So, I'm gonna be turning it over to Eric here. And just leaving this topic, Eric might have a few additional comments on the communications as well. But, uh, uh, just just so you know, there's tremendous energy going into how do we how do we prep the public for for this, it's going to become very real once once this project bids and and, uh, we have our next open house. So, >> we appreciate that, Mr. Johnson. Welcome. >> Yes. Thank you. Yeah. on communications. We, as you know, we've been working at this for six years, working with the community in uh different ways in different phases of the project. So, we're working right now the partners, the cities, the county, the state to figure out, we know what from what we've gathered to date, all the different groups and interests. We want to have a targeted approach that hits everybody uh with good information. So, we're working on that plan right now and we'll make sure that's a plan that everybody supports before we go into that next phase. Also, you mentioned website and information. So, yeah, folks can I don't have it in the slide deck here, but if uh we do have a big mailing list of folks who get uh who get distributions from that. Uh if you Google Carver County Highway 5 project, you'll find it and you can sign up on that website. We have a lot of QR codes on our materials and things everywhere we go. People can sign up with a couple clicks. Just don't have that here tonight. >> No problem. Easy to find it. And plus, our staff here in Victoria can direct you as well. >> Good. Lyndon hit on on the funding package here uh in his intro and how much uh work and success we've all had. Uh I was wrong before I said 11. We've we have 12 different sources of competitive funds uh and or earmarks. Uh with federal funds, we've leveraged eight different awards um and state funds for so we're $und00 million the $121 million project now uh come from outside sources. Early this year, we we heard we were uh selected for the $25 million rural grant and um with the administration change and executive orders, some of that seemed to be in jeopardy for a number of months, but just a couple weeks ago, we started uh working on our funding agreement. So, it seems like we're on track to realize these uh rural funds. So that the beauty of those funds are they're they're applicable to the whole project. A lot of these other funds were for Highway 5 only. So that really helps out uh both the city and the county cost share on rolling acres road. In addition, Lynon and the county led a a campaign in the last session here to get our state general funds which were for just a small portion of Highway 5 eligible for the whole project. So that too greatly helped on balancing the money we have and minimizing the local shares. Um I'm going to hit on that on the next slide here. Thanks. So we have 83% of funding from outside sources. those state and federal funds we've leveraged and then the the rema the remaining 20 21 million comes from this city county state and U of M. Uh so Mindot is contributing 6.3 million plus uh major construction services uh for inspection here as we built that. So that also contributes millions of dollars uh in in energy. The U of M is helping fund some of their their ads to the project and their their signal leg of Minowasha Parkway. That's that 870,000. Um and then the city and county. So the county after we apply all the funding, the county is is around $12 million and the city estimate is 2.4 4 million and that's come down quite a bit. Um a year ago I think the city well car you can correct me city was budgeting somewhere north of four times that amount this project and the county probably up to three to four times that amount. So, we we've had more success than maybe we anticipated a few years ago in in the pursuit of funding. >> Yeah. Any any questions on funding? >> This is incredible. Thanks to everybody who worked so hard on this. Um this is a giant project with lots of different funding sources and a lot of moving parts on that. So much appreciated on that. taxpayers should be happy happier. >> Yeah. I'm just going to hop in in a little bit more detail on the city share. So, originally the city share for the project that's in front of you right now, if there was no outside funding that was able to be applied to the city, the city share would be 11.4 million. Um, over the last year I've been up and down in terms of the numbers that have been presented to me. At one point it was as high as nine. Um, I believe Trisha's last estimate had 5 to7 million in it in the city's long-term projection. Um, I've been optimistic in this 2.5 million, but wasn't prepared to share it until really a week ago. was the update then from Eric and Lynden finally that the um 2.4 was able to be shared. We're still working through the details of what that 2.4 specifically um includes in terms of how we're going to finance that. So I met with Trish early this week to talk through that. Um so as noted here on this slide, 1.5 of it is associated with Highway 5 and 910,000 of it is associated with um Rolling Acres Road. A portion of that has to do with the extension of a critical water main loop. That's a new water man loop between um really the Meline Creek development and up um the overlook neighborhood. So we we don't have our water system looped really at all in the north part of the community. So we are very limited when we have certain things happen in that area in terms of um if we have an outage we don't have a second way to back feed up there. We've been waiting for quite a long time to have that loop in place. Um this gave us an opportunity to install it while the highway was under construction. We have to put a new water man under Highway 5 and under Rolling Acres Road. So certainly doing it while the highway was closed presents us a much more cost-effective opportunity to do that. Um other share of the city's project costs will be paid using our state aid funds. So that is gas tax money that the city receives um annually that is sitting in a account held at the state um that were allowed to spend for the city's share on um projects such as these. Some portion of these costs are for some of the enhancements that we added. We cannot use gas tax money for the enhancements that we've added on the project. So, we're working through those details right now to refine that so that Trish can get it updated into the budget for 26 and 27. Um, but it it's quite remarkable. Um those two things that Eric touched on with the rural funds and the change that um was able to get made at the legislature were a huge piece of the puzzle of being able to get those funds allocated in a way that really was a big benefit for the city in terms of pulling funding in a way that will benefit not having to use general tax levy funds towards the project compared to what we were previously anticipating. ating we had been anticipating that we would have to issue street reconstruction bonds for a large share of the work on rolling acres road which would have had to be paid back. Your debt service levy would have had to be paid with general taxes to cover that over you know whatever period of time your finance director would have determined we would have had to finance that over. So um it is a pretty major improvement in terms of the benefit of these changes. um this next slide here. Um and in the spirit of time, I'm gonna stay on the slide here. And because Dan went through the um uh video, I did just want to highlight some of the local enhancements and benefits that are really specific to the city of Victoria beyond the um obvious transportation improvements. I think I'd be remiss to not speak to the transportation improvements. In the 25 years I've worked here, it is the number one complaint that I get from folks is um why does the city keep approving developments when there is no plan to address traffic on Highway 5? And for years, sorry Diane, I didn't have a good answer for that. I would just say, okay, there's nothing the city can do. We don't have control over transportation funding. Um, we I did not anticipate that we would be able to see a four-lane highway 5 anytime soon, but the county took the lead on the sales tax and uh did not anticipate that they would be able to leverage all these outside funds that we would actually see these improvements. So, the transportation improvements are huge, but um pedestrian overpass at Highway 5 and 78th Street, the underpass at Meline Creek Park, the underpass on the Lake Minnotonka Regional Trail. Um I wanted to remind everyone that we are getting a sidewalk that we talked about at one of my updates along the west side of Rolling Acres Road to connect a few folks up to the roundabout at by Mount Olivet. Um, we're actually included in the project is replacement or mill and overlay of an older trail that we have along rolling acres road. We're finally getting the trail along Bavaria um between Highway 18 and Highway 5, the median and landscaping and irrigation um for Rolling Acres Road, the landscaping and irrigation for all the roundabouts. We've talked about the aesthetic upgrades on the pet overpass, the new water man that we just talked about, and then there actually is a number of replacement and relocations of city sewer and water mane that has to occur to accommodate the projects. Um, under normal circumstance, that can fall on the locals to pay for. Um, so there's a lot of impacts to our existing sewer and water to accommodate these projects. And under a traditional project, we would be on the hook for paying for that. And um with all the outside funding that is helping pay for those projects versus us having to use city sewer and water funds to pay for those improvements. And then of course some additional um landscaping in various areas. So just wanted to note those. Um any questions about that before I move on? Council questions, comments on those items. All right, moving ahead. Um, so just to note at upcoming meetings, um, and we've covered this already, there it needs to be a joint powers agreement between the city and the county related to the funding. There'll need to be a cooperative agreement between Mandot, Carver County, Chanhassen, and Victoria um to address all the cooperation between all of the partners related to the project. Um there'll need to be a municipal consent waiver. So, what that has to do with is if Mandot was just completing a project within the city limits that we weren't a partner to, we would need to consent to the project. But because we are a direct partner with the project as we have been since 2019, um we need to address that. Um so any questions on any of that before I just touch on downtown Victoria briefly before you move on to your next regular meeting? No. Seeing none, go ahead. Okay. Um the one last thing we wanted to touch on was the fact that um we've been talking about what happens what's left with downtown. So um we have the purple project that's under construction over on the west side of downtown with the Dairy Queen and the Highway 5 and 11 improvements. We have the project that we just covered in blue. And we've been getting a lot of questions about, okay, now what are we moving the bottleneck to downtown Victoria? Um and so we do have just a couple of slides um that I am not going to go into technical detail about but we are aware of how um operations are going to change in terms of what the impact is going to be of dropping that you know we're taking our four lane it's going to drop to two lanes as we move into downtown. So, we are going to see some incre in increased congestion within downtown. Um, it is for that reason that the city council, as you all have been aware, we are immediately turning around and applying for funding to complete the section within downtown. So, um, do I have a slide on that? Yes, I do. So um we submitted an app we requested congressionally directed spending through Emmer's office and um Clolobashar and Smith's office. Unfortunately we were not successful with that endeavor for 26 but we'll continue pressing for future years. Um and these are some other um endeavors underway. So, we will continue on that pursuit as we continue to work on the downtown section. Um, with that, I believe Commissioner Commissioner Udman may want to say a word or two. >> Commissioner Udman, welcome. >> G, if I go past two minutes, >> just a couple thoughts. Matt Udman, county commissioner representing Ches and Victoria. If I haven't met you in the audience, if you need the slides, we can get those to you because I know that there's a pinch for time. But I think just to state the obvious, um, sometimes we forget who these tax dollars are for, and I know you guys don't because you get to field the calls, and Mayor Deb, you've said that already. Um, but I think some of the things that maybe were missed that weren't in were inadvertent, but the option to do nothing is always an option. And I think the do nothing option was always the thing that we leaned on because we didn't know if the state was going to do it. Wasn't on their plan for 25 years. And kudos to Lyndon and his relationships. And kudos to Bolton and Bank and kudos to partnership with cities and the state to say let's give this a shot. When I first got elected about five years ago, the first thing I did is I jumped in a truck with Lyndon and we um zip down 82nd Street behind the arboritum. And I said, "We got to get this thing open because it needs to be the relief valve for Highway 5." And so Lyndon shared with me that since then, this is the most complex project that he's ever worked on and he's well regarded as the top engineer within the state. And so for him to say that tells you really what we're what we got going on here. And so the construction that's going on at 82nd Street behind the arboritum is one of the puzzle pieces we didn't even mention today. And that's going to carry 6 to 10,000 cars to be able to get them where they need to go when construction is happening. Um Eric, you didn't say it, but but you'll affirm this, I'm sure, because you had asked somebody asked about the house that's north of five. Um, I remember being in a meeting where when when projects run up to a high enough cost, you have to do reverse engineering to try and take some cost out of the project. And we put our heads together and said, "Why can't we move that bridge that was supposed to be 1,600 ft from in front of that house? Why can't we move that west a little bit ways?" And just by moving it a couple hundred yards, it it kept us from having to buy an access in and out and have having to buy additional land that would have been six to eight maybe$10 million worth of cost. And sometimes that gets lost. Somebody can pull that door shut. That'd be great. Um, and and sometimes we forget that in getting these chunks together, Lyndon's team said, "What if we did a lot fewer chunks, but we did it all at the same time?" And, and what if we went and got funding to do that? And so, literally when the project started, it was going to take four years. And it was going to be about 27 different chunks. And now we're down to a handful of chunks in two years. And it's going to be a painful two years. There's no doubt about it. And then sometimes people forget about communications. And a lot of it's um things that we've been inspired by the city of Victoria and the things you've done to say the community wants to know what's going on. Not just a response but proactive. And so for the first time ever in Carver County, we have a communications department, chief communications officer that we're learning by a ton of different projects and we're going to bring that to the table. And so these are some of the things that sometimes we forget. And I like to come to the uh meetings that are maybe a little controversial or there's a lot of questions, others don't, but I do. We're all available. I mean, Chad does a great job of responding immediately. Mayor Deb's out in the community. We're all here, right? We answer these things, but if there's a hiccup that's coming on, I'm sure somebody else has done it, but the amount of data pings that's used to design what's in front of you today is mind-boggling. Like, they can they can ping your phone and you don't even know it. But the amount of thousands of regressions to get to this solution that some may say is dumb or they're inconvenience because it's a little bit too long to find out the flow of traffic in the models, those things are done because it's your tax dollars. And so the net of this is is it'll probably be about half the length it was supposed to be. It's going to get done when it might not have been able to get done because it wasn't even on the the state's plan. And there will be hiccups, no doubt about it. But we're considering a lot of those things um as we do so. And then the last thing is is I think it's it's fruitful to say this. We're all in nonpartisan roles and of course we have our political leanings, but this road wouldn't have been done without the support of Congressman Phillips, who's a Democrat, ran for president, without the support of may uh Congressman Emmer. Like this is a bipartisan effort. And in a time when things are very divisive, this is a chance for us to elevate and say, "My gosh, we brought everybody together. Look at this. We've got the state, we've got the county, we've got the city, we've got residents, we've got both political parties present when a bipartisan support to get something done that is the most complex project in the most robust decade of the county's history. And so, a thank you to everybody that's here and all the conversations that you've had and the phone calls you're going to receive. Um, it's it's a place for us to elevate something that's going great in a growth community, the fastest growing county in the community, and and the healthiest and the happiest because we're willing to take on some of these things. And so hopefully we can use as inspiration to do even more in the future. So that's my two minutes. Thanks. >> Thank you so much, Commissioner Udman. All right, with that, any last comments from you, Cara, the engineering team that's here? >> No, mayor. >> Can I ask one question before I know we're running up against >> Roberts? >> I don't Did you have I don't Maybe you had it on the slide and I just missed it or forgot. The section that you talked at the end about right the downtown area. Do we have like a like what that section itself will cost? Did you have that? And like do we know like what the gap basically is? >> I I think at this time it's let's estimate 15 to 20 million, but there's a lot of planning that needs to go into this to tie it in and tie the local system in. >> So that's a whole process. >> Sure. I was just curious the general number. >> Those are scary numbers. All right. All right. Last comments, last call. All right. Seeing no further discussion, uh there are no further items on our workshop agenda this evening. So I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion to adjurnn. Second. >> We have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. We stand adjourned. We will reconvene for our regular council meeting in just a matter.