By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Upgrading the city’s international bridge to create “fast pass” lanes will cost about half a million dollars, members of international bridge board have learned.
International bridge board members discussed the upgrade at their most recent meeting on April 22.
The city’s bridge superintendent will have to request funding to create the “fast pass” lanes through the budget process if bridge board members decide to recommend it to city council.
Members of the city’s international bridge board began discussing the “fast pass” lanes during their meeting in March, and bridge board member Seferino Gomez III and Mayor Al Arreola, who serves as the bridge board chair, asked city staff to make a longer presentation at the board’s April meeting.
Bridge Superintendent Jose Castillo gave the update on the project.
Castillo told the board, “Quite simply, we’re not going to be getting the Lane 4 Auto Pass (lanes). Reason being, is when the city goes into an agreement with a vendor, in this case (it) would be E-Transit, (the company contracted for the city’s) toll pay system back in 2017. Anytime (the city) gets into an agreement (with a vendor), any changes, modifications or improvements to that system cannot exceed 30 percent of the original cost. With all the changes that have been done over the years since 2017, if we were to try an upgrade, it would exceed that 30 percent. So that’s why we’re not going to be getting that (project) at this time.”
After Castillo made his statement, Gomez asked, “If I remember correctly, it was going to be an upgrade to all the lanes, correct?”
Castillo replied that at first, the city had looked at upgrading only a single lane, then considered upgrading all of the lanes, “which was much more expensive.”
Assistant City Manager Manuel Chavez added, “Yes, I think at the beginning of last fiscal year, we had set aside some funding to upgrade Lane 4 and during that discussion, we were looking at just Lane 4 in itself, but eventually we would have to upgrade all four (lanes), and so the bridge board did recommend to fund the Lane 4 (upgrade).
“Once we were working with the vendor, and within our purchasing policy, we started to realize that the particular contract (with E-Transit) was expiring, so we were looking at if we were to do the work, as Mr. Castillo mentioned, it would exceed the required amount to do a change order, without coming back to re-approve the current contract, and once it was determined that it was going to exceed (the 30 percent), then the process would be either to bid this out, which in this case would not make sense, because we have a current vendor,” Chavez said.
Chavez added upgrading all four lanes would cost “a little bit less than half a million (dollars).” He added since the project is not budgeted, Castillo would have to present the project during planning for next year’s city budget.
“In the meantime, as Mr. Castillo mentioned, we’re not able to do it based on the current situation,” Chavez added.
Gomez asked how long the city has been with E-Transit.
Castillo replied, “It’s my understanding we’ve been with E-Transit since they built the system back in 2017.”
“I don’t think it would be a big deal if we’re going to spend more money with them. . . and get this project done, versus saying we can’t get this done because we’re going to break a contract and stay stagnant,” Gomez said.
“If there’s an issue that comes up, I assume we’d reach out to E-Transit and come up with a solution,” he added.
Chavez said upgrading only one lane would mean there would be two different tolling systems at the bridge, adding it would make more sense to upgrade all four lanes.
“Under our purchasing process, whether we do one (lane) or all four, it would put us in a category where we would either have to bid it out, and again, it didn’t make sense because we’ve had E-Transit, so that original agreement has expired. We do have a renewal on the city council agenda tonight (April 22).
“(I’m) trying to see if I can answer your original question. There are some softwares that will provide a free upgrade, but in this particular case, we would have to upgrade not only the software system, but some of the hardware, which, in this case, for them, is costly, so that’s why they’re charging us for that upgrade, so I’m not sure if your question was to re-negotiate that portion?” Chavez said.
“It sounds like to me . . . the reason we can’t move forward is because of an internal policy, not because they don’t want to,” Gomez commented.
“It’s state law,” Chavez replied.
“So if it’s more than 30 percent, it cannot be done,” Gomez said.
“Right,” Chavez replied.
Arreola asked if the bridge board and council had approved setting aside a certain amount of money for the fast lane upgrades.
“It was something like $400,000, and now you’re looking a half a million to do all four lanes?” Arreola asked.
“Yes, a little bit less than half a million,” Chavez replied.
Gomez commented, “And that’s my confusion. We’re at $6.5 million to $7 million a year (in revenues from the international bridge) approximately. We want to take $500,000 of that money to reinvest into the bridge to make more money, possibly pay that off within a year – and again, I’m just going off calculations in my head – and we’re not able to do that because of state law?”
“We would have to go through a process,” Chavez said.
“Whether it’s to bid it out, the funding we would have to set aside, as I mentioned. We keep a certain amount in the bridge (reserve) fund and the rest, per ordinance, gets transferred out. So if we were going to set this aside, then, yes, we would have to make arrangements to do so, and right now, the reserves that we currently have are set aside are for the second bridge project,” the assistant city manager added.
“So the (bridge board) would have to make a recommendation for the city council to consider amending the budget or,” Gomez said.
“Setting aside the funds for the entire project,” Chavez said.
Gomez asked if the board made a formal recommendation at its next meeting, whether or not it could be considered during the budget planning for the coming fiscal year.
Chavez said Castillo would be recommending certain projects to the council and upgrading the lanes could be presented to the council during this year’s budget process.
He added Castillo has another project he’d like to propose and that could be part of his presentation to the board at its next meeting.
After the meeting, Gomez said he believes upgrading to the fast lane system is important for the continued growth of the bridge.
“There’s families, there’s business people, tourists, everything that helps out city grow economically. I think it’s something that’s a roadblock or speed bump that’s holding us back,” Gomez said.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
