TAMRMS#: B06
10.1
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Gravel Lot Engineering Standards
Notice given by: Councillor Hughes
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PROPOSED MOTION(S):
recommendation
That a new service level is presented to council for approval that includes engineering standards for all city owned gravel lots, that will determine maintenance levels and status required for subterrain reconstruction of gravel parking lots.
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ADMINISTRATION’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE INTENT OF THE MOTION
Administration understands that this motion gives direction to staff to develop engineering standards for gravel parking lots that would be applicable to both private and public development and to have documented levels of service associated with ongoing maintenance and asset management strategic direction for public lots.
ADMINISTRATION’S RECOMMENDATION
Administration recommends “Alternative 1” to Council for consideration of approval.
PURPOSE OF REPORT
The purpose of this report is to present a motion for which Councillor Hughes gave notice on May 6, 2025.
ALIGNMENT TO COUNCIL DIRECTION OR MANDATORY STATUTORY PROVISION
N/A
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Although the current municipal Land Use Bylaw stipulates that “a parking lot shall be designed, located and constructed such that it is hard-surfaced”, there exist approximately sixteen (16) public gravel parking lot structures within the City’s inventory of parking lot assets that service city facilities (buildings) and recreational services, parks, and city infrastructure, such as storm ponds.
Despite these assets being owned, operated, and maintained by the City (unless otherwise noted in a lease agreement with a tenant of the city lands), there have never been specifications within the Municipal Engineering Standards and there is no formally documented Level of Service Standards for gravel parking lot structures.
Clearly defining specifications and level of service standards would help in stakeholder communication and establish expectations that may be achieved with consistent service delivery that is appropriately defined and supported by necessary project charter development and updates for funding resources required to meet defined service levels.
It is also good asset management practice to fully understand the inventory of assets, condition ratings, best practice or desired specifications the City establishes the assets to meet which are then supported through service levels and maintenance planning. In terms of asset management, gravel parking lots are at a very primary / introductory level with a general inventory awareness; however, no other formal details that help to inform towards nor deliver strong asset management programming.
The proposed motion, as it stands, is beneficial and needed in advancing asset management on gravel structures; however, there is no current approved direct funding associated with gravel parking lot structures. Administration estimates the scope of work to cost approximately $65,000 and requests dedicated funding with the motion to support the acquisition of consulting resources and professional services to complete the geotechnical investigations and life cycle analysis on gravel parking structures and help in the documentation and development of the Asset Management Strategy and specification. The scope of work would involve:
1. Inventory collection.
2. Condition assessments and reporting.
3. Best practice reviews and standard creation.
4. Level of service investigation, stakeholder engagement, and development.
5. Maintenance strategy developed from existing condition assessments and outcomes of standards and service levels to achieve.
a. Note that the maintenance strategy could help identify ongoing or annual maintenance targets and longer-term significant strategic actions and investment.
6. RMR Project Charter development for gravel parking lots, identifying necessary maintenance funding through a more defined program.
The above actions and deliverables focus on the aspect of asset management, with defined service levels and maintenance plans based upon the current condition assessments. In addition to those actions, a focused effort would be to establish design standards and specifications that would be applied to Municipal Engineering Standards that follow local St. Albert context but may be informed by industry best practices.
Prior to this motion, Administration had become aware and was taking action to address a separate, yet similar, asset management and design standards gap that involved gravel road structures. Based on the similarities Administration recommends “Alternative 1” for Council consideration and provides further background within that section.
IMPACTS OF MOTION
Financial:
The motion, as proposed, does not have financial implications; however, with no funding assigned to it, the level of effort and work would not involve inventory condition assessments and data collection, maintenance planning based on conditions and needs, and ongoing programming / funding communicated within a charter.
Compliance & Legal:
None at this time.
Program or Service:
The motion, as proposed, would establish standards and specifications that would inform new structure installations and how Public Operations may service existing structures, however, there would be a gap of information as to the state of current gravel structures in comparison to the newly developed standards and no overall asset management programming.
Any level of service standard must be confirmed as feasible for Public Operations when applicable to services completed by City resources. Alternatively, contract services for scope beyond City resource capacity may be applied; however, these would be communicated within relevant RMR project charters and would be subject to budget deliberations and Council approvals.
Organizational:
None at this time; however, the City’s objective of developing improved and sustainable asset management plans for all of its assets will not be achieved.
Formalizing and setting new service level standards could impact Public Operations resource demands. An objective would be to clearly identify resource impacts with intent to maximize effectiveness of existing resources for as long as possible.
Risks
Development of standards and specifications of assets without awareness of existing asset conditions and “state”, may result in existing conditions that do not meet developed standards or specifications.
ALIGNMENT TO PRIORITIES IN COUNCIL’S STRATEGIC PLAN
Mature Asset Management Program
ALIGNMENT TO LEVELS OF SERVICE DELIVERY
G.1.8 Asset Management - Transportation Network Asset Management & Maintenance
ALTERNATIVES
If Council does not wish to support the proposed motion, Administration presents the following alternatives for Council’s consideration.
Alternative 1: That $65,000 is approved and funded through the Stabilization Reserve to have the Municipal Engineering Standards updated to include specifications for gravel road and parking lot structures, and Level of Service Standards developed for each, and presented to Council for consideration of approval. This recognizes the standards will align to best practices of asset management, and applicable Repair, Maintain, Replace (RMR) project charters will be developed for implementation of established service levels.
Background
Following annexation, the City took ownership of multiple gravel roadway segments to which continuous maintenance and asset management will be performed until such time as development and urbanization occurs. Due to historic low quantity of assets, low volume of concerns, and less network and resource impacts of gravel structures, there have never been gravel roadway (or any gravel structure) standards and specifications within the Municipal Engineering Standards.
Due to the priority of roadways and in recognition of lack of formal standards and no documented asset management planning for gravel roads, along with a trend of increasing reported concerns and Public Operations maintenance demands, Transportation Engineering initiated a process of collecting network wide condition assessments of gravel roadway segments, with intent to close the gaps of information.
The objective and project intent are to establish the baseline of existing conditions of the City’s gravel road infrastructure and deliver the following:
• A documented practice of how the gravel assets will be inspected, criteria rankings and condition meanings, and how information will be used to support asset management practices for these structures.
• A documented summary of the current/existing gravel roadway asset inventory, valuation, and condition ratings.
o This is inclusive of reporting on peripheral critical assets
• A formal asset decision model with methods, processes, and criteria that support life-cycle planning.
• Documented service level standards and applicable service level delivery needs:
o How we asses and measure service delivery according to defined levels of service.
• Anticipated annual cost to meet desired levels of service as well as a 20-year financial plan
o Within this focus would be the development of applicable project charters associated with RMR of gravel roadway structures
Administration recognizes the intent of this gravel parking lot motion to be in line with the key objectives and deliverables that were identified for gravel road structures and recommends to Council to combine the gravel parking lot structures with the work planned and in process for gravel roads.
Financial:
$65,000 funded through the Stabilization Reserve to pay for the additional work of the gravel parking lot structures.
Note - the gravel road structure standards and asset management planning work is funded through cost savings established through alternative network road assessment technology application. The requested funds ($65,000) are specific to fund the additional consideration of gravel parking lots and is not a value associated with work being performed for the gravel roads.
Compliance & Legal:
None at this time.
Program or Service:
This program would follow best practices for asset management and empower the development of evidence-based standards and service levels with a supplemental maintenance strategy and long-term funding source through a new Gravel Parking Lot RMR charter. Combining the work for gravel parking lots with gravel roadways generates potential cost savings from economy of scale of work and ensures alignment with an overarching plan for network wide gravel structures.
- Note: the intent is that the gravel parking lots and gravel roadways would follow a similar path of background work and program development, but each will have its own maintenance plan and program and dedicated RMR charter.
Any level of service standard must be confirmed and feasible for Public Operations when applicable services are to be completed by City resources. Alternatively, contracted services for scope beyond City resource capacity may be applied, which would be communicated, requested and potentially funded via a RMR project charter dedicated to gravel parking lots.
Organizational:
None at this time; however, work performed would be incorporated into the EMMAM project as part of the asset management for gravel road and parking lot structures.
Risks
Reduction of risk through well developed and enacted asset management planning of city road and parking lot infrastructure. Long-term deterioration of gravel assets with more responsive programming versus planned asset management generates risk of liability for conditions and could increase long-term costs of maintenance delivery.
Alternative 2: That $65,000 is approved and funded through the Stabilization Reserve to have the Municipal Engineering Standards updated to include specifications for gravel parking lot structures and Level of Service Standards developed and presented to Council for consideration of approval.
Background
This alternative removes the added context of combining work with gravel roadways and returns to the initial intent of the motion of focusing on gravel parking lot structures, with the added funding ($65,000) to complete the scope of work recommended and requested by Administration to meet the intent of the motion.
The objective and project intent are to establish the baseline of existing conditions of the City’s gravel parking lot infrastructure and deliver the following:
• A documented practice of how the gravel assets will be inspected, criteria rankings and condition meanings, and how information will be used to support asset management practices for these structures.
• A documented summary of the current/existing gravel parking lot asset inventory, valuation, and condition ratings.
o This is inclusive of reporting on peripheral critical assets
• A formal asset decision model with methods, processes, and criteria that support life-cycle planning.
• Documented service level standards and applicable service level delivery needs:
o How we asses and measure service delivery according to defined levels of service.
• Anticipated annual cost to meet desired levels of service as well as a 20-year financial plan
o Within this focus would be the development of a project charter associated with RMR of gravel parking lot structures
Financial:
$65,000 funded through the Stabilization Reserve to pay for the work of the gravel parking lot structures.
Compliance & Legal:
None at this time.
Program or Service:
This program would follow best practices for asset management and empower the development of evidence-based standards and service levels with a supplemental maintenance strategy and long-term funding source through a new Gravel Parking Lot RMR charter.
Any level of service standard must be confirmed and feasible for Public Operations when applicable services are to be completed by City resources. Alternatively, contracted services for scope beyond City resource capacity may be applied, which would be communicated, requested, and potentially funded via a RMR project charter dedicated to gravel parking lots.
Organizational:
None at this time; however, work performed would be incorporated into the EMMAM project as part of the asset management for gravel parking lot structures.
Risks
Reduction of risk through well developed and enacted asset management planning of city parking lot infrastructure. Long-term deterioration of gravel assets with more responsive programming versus planned asset management generates risk of liability for conditions and could increase long-term costs of maintenance delivery.
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Report Date: June 3, 2025
Author: Dean Schick
Department: Engineering
Department Director: Dawny George
Managing Director: Adryan Slaght
Chief Administrative Officer: William Fletcher