Agenda Item Wording:
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Council Presentation for Tulare Avenue Project Bike Lane Configuration- Receive a presentation for the Tulare Avenue Major Road Rehabilitation from Demaree to Cotta outlining the project bike lane configuration and provide direction to staff on final configuration of bike lanes along Tulare Avenue.
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Deadline for Action: 11/17/2025
Submitting Department: Community Development
Contact Name and Phone Number:
Jonathan Frausto, Associate Engineer, Jonathan.frausto@visalia.city, 713-4369
Diego Corvera, Senior Civil Engineer, Diego.Corvera@visalia.city, 713-4209
Chris Crawford, City Engineer, Chris.Crawford@visalia.city 713-4331
Jason Huckleberry, Engineering and Building Department Director, Jason.Huckleberry@visalia.city, (559) 713-4495
Department Recommendation:
Staff recommends that the City Council authorize staff to proceed with Alternative 1, Original Striping Plan with Parking Modifications as described in the summary below.
Summary:
After Phase 1 (Mooney to Watson) of the Tulare Ave. project was striped, there was some confusion about how the new Class IV bike lane and parking configuration would function. Staff moved forward and provided flyers to residents along the project that explained the new configuration and how it was meant to function with parked cars, bikers, and trash cans. In around late October, some residents contacted a City Council Member asking questions and voicing concerns about the new striping configurations. At the November 3, 2025 Council Meeting, Council asked staff to stop the striping on the project and revisit the striping configuration to determine if there were any additional alternatives that Council should consider. City staff met with interested Citizens on November 13, 2025 to listen to concerns and provide clarification to residents. After reviewing all of the plans and resident concerns, the following two alternatives are being presented to Council:
Recommended: Alternative 1, Original Striping Plan with Parking Modifications
1. Narrow the width of the bike lane to 7’ from curb face where there is a Class IV bike lane and parking occurs and make the parking lane around 10’ wide so parked cars are further away from the travel lane. This would be implemented throughout the current project.
2. City staff will perform a speed study to see if the speed limit on Tulare Ave. can be lowered. (Engineering guidance suggests this configuration will reduce vehicle speeds)
Alternative 2, Striping Modifications from Woodland St. to Demaree St.
1. Demaree St to Mountain St: Change the striping to utilize Class 2 bike lanes with parking against the curb.
2. Mountain St to Woodland St: Change the striping to utilize Class 2 bike lanes for eastbound traffic (southside of roadway) and Class 3 bike lanes for westbound traffic (northside of the roadway).
The Engineering department recommends that the Council choose Alternative 1 because Staff believes it is the best alternative for all roadway users (See full discussion of the project impact analysis below).
In order to facilitate the more narrow bike lanes, the Engineering department is currently working with public works towards purchasing a smaller street sweeper that can fit in the narrower 7 ft. bike lanes. The City currently has Measure R trail money that could be used to purchase this street sweeper per some preliminary discussions with the Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG). Staff anticipates that if the street sweeper is purchased using these funds, there won’t be a significant increase in maintenance costs due to the Class IV bike lanes. There are other current and future projects that will also benefit from the use of this sweeper, especially since it is anticipated that the State will continue to require bike lanes with future pavement project grants.
This project currently has a significant amount of grant funding ($2.9 million) with a current construction completion deadline of December 30, 2025. In order to complete construction prior to this date staff needs Council to choose an alternative that will be used to finish the project. Project construction extension has been requested, this will extend construction completion to February 2026, but final invoicing and paperwork for the project needs to be completed by April 1st 2026. This will require construction completion to occur in January 2026 to give staff enough time to finalize all necessary paperwork and reimbursements.
Background Discussion:
The City of Visalia is currently maintaining a street network of approximately 507 centerline miles of roadway and nearly 100 million square feet of pavement. In an effort to appropriately direct maintenance activities and optimize the use of the limited maintenance funds available, staff incorporated a Pavement Management Program (PMP) 11 years ago, following the lead of other similarly sized California municipalities.
Tulare Avenue, as identified in the Pavement Management Plan, was selected for resurfacing. This project includes a pavement rehabilitation of approximately 2.9 miles of roadway on Tulare Avenue from Demaree to Cotta Street. The rehabilitation work includes removing isolated areas of pavement failures, also known as digouts, grinding the existing pavement section and overlay with hot mix asphalt. In addition to these improvements the project will also upgrade some of the existing curb ramps to meet current Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and Public Rights-of-Way Access Guidelines (PROWAG). The project will incorporate some traffic signal improvements at intersections throughout the corridor. With these improvements the City of Visalia is implementing multimodal transportation enhancements in the form of Class IV Bike lanes through the use of modular curbing and on-street parking protection.
Bike Lane Configuration, Past Efforts:
In April of 2021 staff presented to Council the parking protected Class IV bike lane configuration along the Tulare Ave rehabilitation project between Santa Fe St and Roeben St. The presentation outlined the reason for this bike lane configuration, benefits of the Class IV bike lane and the disadvantages. Staff requested authority to present this proposal to the public following Council approval and feedback.
With approval from Council, staff proceeded to go out to the public with survey questions, project description and scheduled a public workshop on May 12th, 2021 from 6pm to 7pm. The public workshop was offered virtually for any resident who wanted to learn more about the concept, the same council presentation was given to the residents who joined the virtual workshop. The intent of the workshop was to receive feedback from impacted residents and adjust the design as necessary to ensure the public’s needs were being met.
Staff returned to Council on June 7th, 2021, to present on the feedback received from the public through the public outreach surveys and workshop efforts. The majority of the public who responded to the surveys supported the project. Major impact to the public was loss of on street parking, this was clearly conveyed to Council and alternatives were proposed to mitigate the parking loss that was approximated. Council did not approve any alternative but rather proceeded to approve the Class IV concept for the Tulare Ave rehabilitation project as presented and recommended by staff with a 5 to 0 vote.
Benefits:
The Class IV bike lanes will offer more robust protection for bicyclist, opening up the opportunity for younger riders and school children to ride their bikes to school. Tulare Avenue between Roeben St to Santa Fe St has seven (7) schools either fronting Tulare Ave or within a block north or south of the corridor, furthering the benefit to students.
This configuration will also narrow the vehicle travels lanes to calm traffic speeds along the corridor. The addition of parking being closer to the travel lane will further the traffic calming affect along the corridor. It is anticipated that the posted speed limits along the corridor will reduce by 5-10mph following this striping implementation. This speed reduction will serve the residents along Tulare Ave and motorist alike reducing severity of crashes and improving ingress and egress for adjacent homes.
The separation of the bike lanes also provides predictability of all modes of travel. Providing a safe and separated path of travel for bikes keeps them apart from vehicles, this will reduce mixing of bikes with cars, minimizing conflicts and will provide for smoother movement for people in all modes.
The City was awarded a $14M ATP project for Class IV separated bikeway between Tulare Avenue to Houston Ave along Santa Fe Street. Within that application this Class IV bike route along Tulare Avenue was explicitly incorporated in the grant application as a connection route. This was a major contributor to the competitiveness of the grant application. Future ATP projects can benefit from the Tulare Ave Class IV corridor as a multimodal connection route.
Disadvantages:
A clear disadvantage to this bike lane configuration is the loss of on street parking. Ahead of the presentation to council in April of 2021, staff performed a parking analysis of the entire corridor and approximated 794 parking spaces were available along the corridor (assuming 20ft space per parking space). An inventory of the number of parked cars along the corridor was checked at different days of the week and different times of day. It was observed the highest number of cars parked along the corridor was 82 vehicles around 6:30pm on a Tuesday (average number of parked cars observed was 63). This resulted in a parking utilization rate of 10.3%.
During the design concept evaluation, it was approximated that a total of 177 parking spaces would be lost with this bike lane configuration. This equated to 18 parking spaces lost that would be otherwise be in use based on the percentage of parking utilized. The majority of the parking lost is occurring east of Woodland St. It was observed and presented that throughout the corridor many single family residences had long driveways and two car garages to accommodate vehicle parking along with various areas along the corridor had short blocks allowing for local street parking access.
Based on the final design, Staff has reevaluated the parking inventory from Cotta St to Roeben St based on 24ft parking space and determined an approximate parking utilization rate near 18% (based on the high of 82 cars parked during 2021 evaluation). Additionally, Staff has designed setback distances at each access point (driveways) to improve sight distances, as well as adjusted bike lane widths to accommodate street sweeping as they currently operate.
Current Project Status:
Phase 1 from Mooney to Watson is permanently striped. Phase 2 from Demaree to Mooney only has centerline road striping completed. Phase 3 from Watson to Cotta has not been striped. Striping and signage is the final component of the project that is pending to complete the project.
Fiscal Impact:
The Major Road Rehabilitation on Tulare Avenue from Demaree to Cotta Street is funded using the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program (STBGP) and the Highway Infrastructure Program (HIP) through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Account (RMRA) (SB1).
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Tulare Ave from Demaree to Cotta (CP0602) |
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Project Funding Source |
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Surface Transportation Block Grant Program (STBGP) & Highway Infrastructure Program (HIP) |
$2,989,000 |
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Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Act (RMRA) (SB1) |
$3,865,000 |
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Total Project Funding |
$6,854,000 |
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Estimated Project Costs |
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Project Management |
$120,000 |
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Construction |
$5,202,396 |
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Construction Contingency (~15.0%) |
$780,500 |
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Construction Management |
$420,000 |
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Construction Services (Materials Testing, Inspection, etc.) |
$330,000 |
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Total Estimated Project Costs |
$6,852,896 |
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Surplus (Deficit) |
$1,104 |
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Prior Council Action:
April 21, 2025
Awarded construction contract: Authorized the City Manager to award the construction contract with Yarbs Grading & Paving for Tulare Avenue Major Road Rehabilitation from Demaree to Cotta in the amount of $5,202,396.00; Authorized the transfer of $400,000 within the RMRA (SB1) Fund between projects; and authorize the additional appropriation of $3,065,000 from the RMRA (SB1) Fund.
April 21, 2025
Awarded construction management services: Authorized the City Manager to execute an agreement with 4Creeks Inc to provide construction management services for the Tulare Avenue Major Rehabilitation project from Demaree to Cotta in the amount of $420,000.00.
April 21, 2025
Awarded construction material testing services: Authorized the City Manager to execute an agreement with Krazan & Associates to provide geotechnical material testing services for the Tulare Avenue Major Rehabilitation project from Demaree to Cotta in the amount of $72,500.00.
June 5, 2023
Adopted Resolution No. 2023-20 to designate SB1 RMRA 2023-24 funding to 1) Tulare Ave Road Rehab from Demaree to Cotta; 2) Plaza Drive Intersection Improvements; and 3) Center and Acequia Street Rehabilitation.
July 18, 2022
Accepted and approved the appropriation of Surface Transportation Block Grant Program (STBGP) funds and Highway Infrastructure Program (HIP) funds totaling $2,989,000 to the Major Street Rehabilitation - Tulare Ave from Demaree St to Cotta St Project.
June 7, 2021
Council received 2nd staff presentation on parking protected bike lane concept along Tulare Ave with multi modal Intersection enhancements. Pubic feedback was received and presented to Council.
April 5, 2021
Council received staff presentation on parking protected bike lane concept along Tulare Ave with multi modal Intersection enhancements.
Recommended Motion (and Alternative Motions if expected):
recommendation
Recommended Motion: I move to authorize staff to proceed with Alternative 1, Original Striping Plan with Parking Modifications as described in this report.
Or
Alternative Motion: I move to authorize staff to proceed with Alternative 2, Striping Modifications from Woodland St. to Demaree St as described in this report.
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Environmental Assessment Status:
Environmental assessment has been cleared by Caltrans.
Attachments:
1. Project Location Map
2. Tulare Avenue Bike Lane Presentation