On May 14, 2019, the City Council approved the ITS Masterplan, Reso. 2019-106, which identified a phased backbone traffic control infrastructure and a central traffic control system. The ITS Master Plan builds upon the General Plan and Traffic Circulation Element by setting the vision, goals, and objectives for traffic flow from an operational perspective. In addition, the ITS Master Plan identifies cost estimates and implementation priorities.
Staff reviewed the cost estimates and implementation priorities for the communication trunk lines that are needed along the City’s major corridors for the initial phases. The ITS Masterplan took into consideration the various technologies available (e.g. line of sight wireless, fiber, copper, cellular, etc.) and concluded that the cost estimate for the major corridors of Sunset Blvd, Sierra College Blvd, Rocklin Rd., and Pacific St. would be approximately $3.5M.
Additionally, staff considered future needs (e.g. autonomous vehicles, smart cities, etc.) along with the need for data capacity/infrastructure flexibility, and concluded that a fiber system will provide for additional growth and flexibility. Utilizing Wave Broadband will allow the flexibility needed and access to their network that is continuously upgraded to keep pace with new technology.
In an effort to minimize infrastructure costs and additional City staff time, staff requested and received two potential agreements from Wave Broadband that were based upon the ITS Master Plan and recently negotiated efforts by the IT Division. Wave Broadband has a state franchise to operate in Rocklin, providing communication services throughout the City, and they provide the fiber/connectivity services that link the City’s remote locations (e.g. Fire Station 24 & 25, Recreation offices) with the main campus. Wave Broadband has the existing infrastructure in place to meet the required needs for ITS. Using their infrastructure will also provide the City flexibility to implement more corridors sooner and at a significantly reduced rate compared with installing our own system and/or other service providers that would also need to install additional infrastructure. Staff also considered staffing resources to implement this needed infrastructure and took into consideration associated legacy costs compared to an independently monitored and maintained system. The cost recovery for the simple City owned backbone communication vs. the proposed Wave Broadband agreements are over 26 years and does not account for legacy costs.
These two agreements represent a phased approach, based on the priorities identified in the ITS Masterplan. Phase 1 covers Sunset Blvd and Pacific Street and Phase 2 covers Sierra College and Rocklin Road. Both agreements are for a 36 month period with non-recurring up-front costs and monthly-recurring charges ($133,104 per year) as outlined below:
With this change in direction, staff is scheduling the project to begin after July 1, 2019, and will be including $7,840 in non-recurring and $133,104 in recurring charges for a total of $141,000 (rounded from $140,944) in the final FY 19-20 operating budget. This is in addition to the $250,000 capital budget request that is currently included in the FY 19-20 draft budget, for the purchase of a city-owned traffic management software system and associated equipment, bringing the total project amount for FY 19-20 to $391,000.
Currently, $1,334,000 is approved in the 2018-2022 Capital Investment Plan which is funded in the FY 18-19 budget in Lighting and Landscape District 2 (Fund 235) and Traffic Circulation Fee (Fund 302) for ITS infrastructure and the central traffic management system equipment. The YTD capital expenditures are $26,686.80 and it is anticipated that any remaining capital funds will not be used.