goSBCTA e-News - November 2018

The San Bernardino County Transportation Authority (SBCTA) is the transportation planning agency for San Bernardino County.

SBCTA is responsible for cooperative regional planning and furthering an efficient multi-modal transportation system countywide.

SBCTA proudly serves the more than 2.1 million residents of San Bernardino County.

Holiday LED Light Exchange and Energy Efficiency Starter Kits available at Community Events

The San Bernardino Regional Energy Partnership, along with Southern California Edison (SCE) and So Cal Gas, invite you to participate in the 2018 Holiday LED Light Exchange and Energy Efficiency Starter Kit events happening in the months of November and December at local community events.

This opportunity is free to all SCE and So Cal Gas residential customers from San Bernardino County.

To participate (all criteria must be met):

Bring up to two inefficient, incandescent holiday light strands to exchange for up to two LED holiday light strands. (Old strands must be 50-count or higher, still work, and contain all bulb parts.)
Show a copy of your SCE bill for the light exchange and So Cal Gas bill for the complimentary energy efficiency starter kit (electronic bill will be accepted).
A license or photo identification matching customer name and address on the utility bills.

For additional information, including dates and locations for the events, click here.

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Economic Conditions Weigh on Bids

At the request of staff, the SBCTA Board this week approved the rejection of bids for construction of the Redlands Passenger Rail Project's Rail Storage and Maintenance Facility. The request was made because bids received far exceeded the engineer estimates, rendering the bids as unreasonable. The project team will review the Invitation for Bids, evaluate it for potential cost reduction ideas, and re-advertise at a date early in 2019.

This draws attention to a challenge that transportation agencies throughout the state will face in delivering projects in the foreseeable future. Factors like current unemployment rates elevating the cost of labor; ongoing trade wars increasing material costs; and, the passage of Senate Bill 1 last year infusing more funding to local jurisdictions and planning agencies have created an economic environment that spurs higher bids. Just as with the passage of Prop 1B in 2006, one of the unintended consequences of that infusion of resources for transportation projects statewide was a spike in bid and project costs because of the availability of materials and contractors to handle the influx of projects.

These contributing factors to rising costs are outside the control of the transportation agency, but SBCTA staff will do everything it can to capture trends that could lead to cost savings. We will carefully evaluate prices to better project appropriate escalation factors, consider downscoping options that do not drastically impair the intended functionality of projects, and present a revised delivery schedule in the updated 10-Year Delivery Plan for board approval.

This appears to be the state of the industry for the foreseeable future. However, since the revenue infusion is finite, it is anticipated that these inflationary pressures will stabilize, somewhat easing the budgetary challenges.

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Arrow Service Featured at Mobility 21

The Annual Mobility 21 Summit held in Los Angeles brought together more than one thousand representatives of the transportation community from throughout the region. This gathering of the industry's finest spends the day discussing key economic and funding conditions, best practices in project delivery, and a glimpse to the future of transportation here and elsewhere.

SBCTA Executive Director Ray Wolfe and Director of Planning, Steve Smith, along with SBCTA Board member & SCAG President Alan Wapner, were panelists at this year's Summit.

In addition, the event featured an opportunity for the Mobility 21 member agencies to highlight key transportation solutions that are in practice or under development. SBCTA, in partnership with Stadler US, took the stage to showcase the Arrow Service vehicles slated for the new transit service scheduled to begin in mid-2021.

One of the exciting elements under consideration is the development of a zero-emission train that can run on the same alignment as freight and existing Metrolink commuter service. If successful, this will be the first-of-its-kind in North America.

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Barton Road Project Prepares for Second Half of Bridge over Interstate 215

The Interstate 215 Barton Road Interchange project will improve traffic congestion and lengthen the existing bridge to enhance local circulation and access to and from Interstate 215.

This project also includes improvements to city sidewalks, adding bike lanes on Barton Road and a roundabout west of the bridge at the southbound on- and off-ramps. Some local streets will be reconfigured and improved, including Vivienda Avenue, Michigan Street and Commerce Way. All freeway ramps will be realigned and signals will be upgraded.

Significant progress has been made on this approximately $105 million project located in Grand Terrace near the San Bernardino and Riverside county line. Recently, crews required a full closure of the interstate to remove the false work (or temporary bridge support structure) for the recently constructed south side of the overpass. Complex staging and extensive utility work contributes to the significance of this milestone as crews now prepare to build the northern half.

The project is expected to be ready for full public use in 2020. Follow the project on our website or sign up for email alerts by clicking here.

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Inland Empire Children's Book Project

The Inland Empire Children's Book Project is an organization that helps build literacy by putting books into the hands of children who have little or no access to them. The new or gently used books that are donated are then distributed to classroom teachers with current school identification.

SBCTA is proud to once again be participating in collecting books for the Inland Empire Children's Book Project during the month of November. Anyone wishing to donate new or gently used books is welcome to do so by stopping by the Santa Fe Depot and dropping off the books in the bin located in the lobby area.

For additional information on the Inland Empire Children's Project organization, click here .

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Veterans ride FREE on Omnitrans on Veterans Day. For Additional information, click here.