Item 18 Agreement with HDR Engineering, Inc. to Conduct the First Street Multimodal Boulevard Study

Home Browse Search

City of Santa Ana | First Street Multimodal Boulevard Study RFP NO. 25-029 | E. Proposed Work Plan 18 Collaborative Decision Making Process Selection of the preferred alternative will be based on community input, a benefits and constraints analysis, and technical evaluation of the alternatives. The HDR team will use a suite of tools to demonstrate the operations and multimodal benefits, including delay, travel time, visual simulations, and non-motorized benefits. In addition, HDR will evaluate the operational benefits of a dedicated bus lane, potential bus islands, or other treatments identified in the alternatives analysis. HDR will develop a scoring matrix that will clearly evaluate the alternatives and provide this information to the community, stakeholders, CBOs, and City Council for consideration. Ultimately, HDR will deliver the tools and information needed to make informed decisions in selecting the preferred alternative. In addition to operational and multimodal benefits, the HDR team will conduct a community benefits assessment that demonstrates the identified improvements identified align with the goals of the grant. We will work closely with Estolano Advisors in evaluating land uses within the study area to provide recommendations that connect people with places. In addition, we will look at existing businesses and land uses to identify not only future residential land use opportunity areas, but also goods and/or services that can help the community thrive. They will also assist the HDR team in identifying potential mode shift indicators using community analytics data and other demographic data sources. Integrating land use and travel patterns with the recommended improvements will create a holistic understanding of the benefits of this project. Streamlined Design Program The primary challenge of this project is delivering a bid-ready design package within 12 months. If the traditional approach of completing tasks sequentially is followed, the project will require more than the 12 months allocated. To address this, the HDR team proposes overlapping certain tasks to complete the project within the required timeframe, as discussed in Section B. Most critical to this process is running design stages concurrent with community engagement. During Phase 1 of outreach, we will collect all necessary data for the project. To streamline the alternatives development and the final engineering for the project, the HDR team will prepare all design plans on a rectified basemap based on LiDAR technology. This method of developing the basemap yields highly detailed information from curb heights to drainage inlets to sign locations. During Phase 2 of outreach, the design team will develop all three alternatives to a 30% level on the base map. This will streamline the process of transitioning from 30% design to 60% design once a locally preferred alternative is selected. During Phase 3 of outreach, the design team will begin to develop the 60% plans. Dawn Wilson, HDR’s Project Manager, will oversee coordination of both the outreach and design teams, allowing the design team to begin engineering plans while simultaneously vetting the preferred alternative with the City and community. This approach has been successfully implemented by HDR in previous projects, where final design work was carried out alongside the planning phase to successfully shorten the overall project timeline. By following this process, the team will have a well-established conceptual design for the locally preferred alternative when the team presents the recommendation to City Council in December 2025. Environmental documents and finalization of the Feasibility Study will be completed in tandem with the 60% design. Final plans, specifications, and estimates will be the focus of most of 2026. With that said, there will be limitation on the types of improvements that can fit within the design schedule. Therefore, we assume that the improvements will occur within the existing roadway (curb-to-curb), and that existing curbs and driveways will remain untouched. If curbs, curb ramps, or driveways are impacted or need to be redesigned, the HDR team will discuss design options with the City, as we anticipate that level of design may not be feasible within 6 to 9 months. Developing a phased project, moving curb details to the construction phase, or funding the curbs through other funding programs may accommodate the longer schedule needed to deliver this more complex design. .HDR’s Experience with Transformative Projects in the City of Santa Ana is Demonstrated by Our Success on the OC Streetcar Beginning in 2015, HDR worked closely with the City of Santa Ana, City of Garden Grove, and OCTA in providing Program Management Services for the project. HDR performed value engineering and made recommendations to reconfigure the project to allow it to receive a medium-high rating in the competitive FTA New Starts funding program. We helped accelerate the project by gaining FTA approval for entry into engineering in under 2 years and supported the development of a financial plan that positioned OCTA favorably for consideration of nearly $150M in FTA grant funds. Our services include review of all designs for guideway, stations, systems, and utilities for the fleet of eight streetcars. Our team provided environmental documentation, risk assessment, funding analysis and cost estimating. We developed ridership forecasts using FTA’s Simplified Trips-on-Project Software (STOPS) model during Project Development for the New Starts Program. Responsibilities also included the development of the Project Management Plan required by the FTA for the agency to demonstrate its organizational and technical capacity to successfully deliver this project with federal funds. Through this project, we have established a strong working relationship with the City of Santa Ana and OCTA. We’ve demonstrated our commitment to meeting aggressive projects schedules, developing plans that are competitive for future grant programs, and working on projects that are transformative in the City. We will deliver the same quality and responsiveness on this project.