Salinas Rail Project - Union Pacific Railroad Reimbursement Agreement:

1. APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Executive Director to execute reimbursement agreement with Union Pacific Railroad to reviewing Monterey County Rail Extension Kick-Start designs, in an amount not to exceed $125,000;
2. AUTHORIZE the use of Regional Surface Transportation Planning funds for this purpose; and
3. AUTHORIZE the Executive Director to take such other further actions as may be necessary to fulfill the intent of the agreement, including approvals of future modifications or amendments that do not significantly alter the scope of work, or change the approved contract term or amount.

Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) is the owner of the coast mainline tracks, upon which TAMC is proposing passenger rail service via the Monterey County Rail Extension Kick Start project. UPRR requires passenger rail projects to have a reimbursement agreement for UPRR to review the project designs that impact their property.

This design review reimbursement agreement has a not-to-exceed amount of $125,000. This agreement replaces and supersedes a 2010 agreement between TAMC and UPRR that was never used that set aside $200,000 in state funds for this work. As the state funds have since been expended or designated for other purposes, staff recommends using Regional Surface Transportation Funds set aside in the rail project budget. 

TAMC has been planning the extension of rail service to Monterey County (the “Monterey County Rail Extension Project”) for over two decades. In that time, TAMC has completed a state-required Project Study Report and certified an Environmental Impact Report to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. Using state funding, TAMC has performed the planning, due diligence environmental review, and design for the project.

HDR Engineering is under contract to do the final designs for track connections to a new layover facility in Salinas (Package 2) and track access improvements at the Gilroy station in Santa Clara County (Package 3), including two at-grade road crossings (10th Street and Luchessa Avenue). HDR's contract includes a task of coordinating with UPRR on any designs within UPRR rights-of-way in Salinas and Gilroy. This agreement (attached) will reimburse UPRR for their review of HDR's designs.

UPRR and TAMC previously entered into a design review reimbursement agreement, dated 2010, with no expiration date, for a total not-to-exceed amount of $200,000. UPRR never billed any work to that agreement, which is now voided and superseded by this new agreement. Other work anticipated for future agreements include a rail line capacity analysis and a construction agreement, for future consideration by this Board.