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HomeMy WebLinkAboutContract 63359CSC No. 63359 Memorandum of Understanding Purpose: This Memorandum of Understanding (the MOU) records the understanding and agreement between Tarrant County, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC, the City of Forest Hill, and the City of Fort Worth. All entities agree that the Tarrant County designed and funded improvements as part of the 2021 Tarrant County Bond Program to Wichita Street to provide broad community benefit. The City of Fort Worth agrees to accept a Drainage Easement and channel maintenance responsibilities. However, the City of Fort Worth desires to manage expectations for long-term maintenance, channel condition, and function within the Drainage Easement. The City of Forest Hill agrees to maintain the roadway drainage system within their city limits. Additionally, this MOU formalizes the joint floodplain permitting effort between the City of Fort Worth and the City of Forest Hill. Background and Project Information: 1. Wichita Street, south of IH-20, is currently 2-lane roadway (1 lane each direction) with a rural cross section. The existing roadside ditches, located on the west side of Wichita Street and south of South Creek channel, do not have any significant capacity and are frequently overtopped. Engineering modelling shows the roadway to be inundated during a 1-year design storm event. 2. Tarrant County, in coordination with the City of Fort Worth, City of Forest Hill, and City of Everman, proposes to reconstruct Wichita Street between IH-20 and Tiffany Meadows Ln as a 5-lane roadway (2 lanes each direction, and one turn lane), with an urban cross section. This includes curb and gutter, inlets and storm drains sized to convey runoff that falls within the right-of-way (ROW) only. 3. The project budget does not provide funding to construct a storm drain system in the ROW with capacity for conveying offsite runoff. Therefore, Tarrant County, in coordination with the City of Fort Worth, City of Forest Hill, and City of Everman, proposes to maximize public safety and drainage capacity, and construct a drainage channel on the western side of Wichita Street to collect and convey runoff to the creek. 4. Tarrant County requests that the existing City of Fort Worth drainage easement be extended North and South to encompass a larger portion of the roadway improvements, and that the City of Fort Worth take ownership of the proposed channel and perform maintenance, repair, and regular mowing. 5. The proposed channel improvements would be located on Oncor property, in a Drainage Easement to be dedicated by Oncor to the City of Fort Worth. 6. Tarrant County proposed a channel design that maximizes drainage capacity while still fitting within the available easement width, and using a cross section that would be maintainable by current City of Fort Worth resources. The design was optimized to fit the project constraints and deliver maximum public benefit. 7. Exhibits in the Tarrant County engineering analysis show that the proposed channel would exceed its capacity and pond in the Wichita Street ROW during a 2-year design storm event, and would overtop Wichita Street in a 5-year design storm event. Initial ponding or overtopping is shown to occur between Autumn Run Dr. & Heritage Ln. The analysis assumes existing offsite conditions and an ideally maintained channel. OFFICIAL RECORD Page 1 of 6 CITY SECRETARY FT. WORTH, TX 8. The Wichita Street roadway improvements include two main creek crossings: (1) over the North Fork of South Creek; and (2) over South Creek. At these creek crossings, multi - barrel culverts are proposed, and designed to convey a 100-year storm. However, due to downstream drainage capacity constraints and flood risk, some of the new culvert barrels will be blocked until such time as downstream capacity is available or it can be demonstrated that adverse impact would not occur by unblocking the culvert barrels. 9. With coordination and consensus, the City of Forest Hill, or the City of Fort Worth may remove culvert blockage after downstream capacity is improved, or it is demonstrated through engineering analysis that there would not be an adverse impact from opening the culvert barrels. Floodplain Permitting Coordination: 1. The more significant activities within the FEMA floodplain and floodway will occur within the City of Forest Hill city limits. This work includes the multi -barrel culverts at the main creek crossings. Therefore, it was decided that the City of Forest Hill is the Floodplain Administrator and permitting authority for this project. 2. The City of Forest Hill and City of Fort Worth staff worked closely to review the County's engineering and hydraulic modelling analysis in support of a floodplain development permit. 3. The Wichita Street project includes cutting a channel within the City of Fort Worth city limits, and within FEMA Zone A Special Flood Hazard Area. This area of floodplain is caused by backwater from the main creeks and therefore the cut activities would not cause any significant impact to the floodplain limits based on the results of the flood study. City of Fort Worth Maintenance: 1. The Wichita Street project delivers broad community benefit and improves both roadway and drainage conditions significantly compared to current conditions. The existing roadside ditches on the west side of Wichita Street have no significant capacity, therefore almost any additional channel capacity creates a benefit for the community. 2. Ordinarily, it is the City of Fort Worth's policy that drainage infrastructure meets or exceeds minimum design criteria contained in the latest version of the Stormwater Criteria Manual (currently 2015 version). However, due to the project constraints and overall community benefit, the City of Fort Worth agrees to accept the Drainage Easement and channel. However, the City of Fort Worth shall not make improvements to the channel that would increase capacity or bring it up to current design criteria and standards. The proposed optimized channel design for the west side of Wichita Street would vary from City of Fort Worth criteria as follows: a. The channel may have side slopes with a 3H:1 V ratio, whereas criteria requires 4H:1 V. b. The channel may have less capacity than is needed to provide capacity for the 100- year storm event plus 1 foot of freeboard. c. Existing flows may be used instead of fully developed. 3. The City of Fort Worth would take ownership of the channel and drainage easement, only after the following: Page 2 of 6 a. Underground electric and other utilities that conflict with the channel are removed. b. Inspection by City of Fort Worth finds that the channel was constructed as designed with minimum 80% vegetative cover, per the plans and specifications. c. Tarrant County and/or the City of Forest Hill provides City of Fort Worth with as - built survey and record drawings. d. After the channel is constructed, vegetated and inspected, and found to meet requirements, the City of Fort Worth shall add the channel to its inventory. 4. The frequency of mowing performed by the City of Fort Worth shall depend on available resources and priorities. At time of this MOU, the City of Fort Worth plans to mow 2 or 3 times per year, which is how often other City of Fort Worth maintained channels are mowed. However, that may be more or less in the future. 5. Maintenance or repair of the proposed channel would be based on available resources and City of Fort Worth priorities. The channel is designed to overtop in a 2-year design storm or more frequently. The design capacity for less than a 100-year design storm shall not cause it to rank higher on prioritized maintenance actions. 6. The City of Port Worth has limited capacity to perform maintenance on channels across the city. The channel along the west side of Wichita Street would be maintained on a similar frequency as the average channel within the City of Fort Worth. The channel may be subject to sediment accumulation or erosion, and subsequent loss of drainage capacity between the infrequent maintenance cycles. 7. The flat longitudinal slope of the channel (more than 1800 feet at 0.2%) may result in sediment accumulation and standing water. The City of Fort Worth recommended that the design include a concrete pilot channel to minimize any sediment and standing water issues. Tarrant County agreed to include this as supplementary bid item, but it's construction will depend on available project budget. 8. Tarrant County, the City of Forest Hill, and Oncor agree and accept that maintenance will be limited, and that undesirable conditions may exist for an extended period of time between maintenance cycles. 9. Storm drain system maintenance would be limited to inlets and pipes within the City of Fort Worth city limits, unless coordinated and agreed upon with City of Forest Hill. 10. The channel capacity would diminish over time due to sediment accumulation, erosion, or other factors; however, the presence of the channel even with reduced capacity represents a significant improvement to roadway drainage compared to current conditions. Therefore, no matter the frequency of maintenance, the City of Forest Hill residents and the travelling public at large will benefit compared to today's baseline condition. City of Forest Hill Maintenance: 1. The majority of the proposed Wichita Street project is located within the City of Forest Hill, and therefore the City of Forest Hill will be responsible for maintenance of all the storm drain systems within their city limits. This includes the storm drains, inlets, inlet grates, as well as the two main creek crossings where Wichita Street crosses (1) the North Fork of South Creek, and (2) the South Creek channel. 2. Maintenance activities will be performed at similar frequency and prioritization as other drainage systems with the City of Forest Hill. Page 3 of 6 Oncor and City of Fort Worth Coordination: 1. Oncor agrees to help define and participate in (in conjunction with the City of Fort Worth) a clear and efficient protocol for communication about routine mowing and access to the drainage easement. Such a protocol should identify an individual person as a point of contact to facilitate quick and seamless communication. 2. Illegal dumping and nuisance abatement would remain the responsibility of Oncor as the property owner. Binding Agreement, Authority, Parties Bound: This MOU has been duly executed and delivered to all parties and constitutes a legal, valid and binding obligation of the parties. Each person executing this MOU on behalf of each party represents and warrants that they have full right and authority to enter into this MOU. Sovereign Immunity and Applicable Law: THIS MOU SHALL BE EXPRESSLY SUBJECT TO THE PARTIES' SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY, TITLE 5 OF THE TEXAS CIVIL PRACTICES AND REMEDIES CODE AND ALL APPLICABLE FEDERAL AND STATE LAW. THE PARTIES EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT NO PROVISION OF THIS MOU IS IN ANY WAY INTENDED TO CONSTITUTE A WAIVER OF ANY IMMUNITIES FROM SUIT OR FROM LIABILITY THAT THE PARTIES HAVE BY OPERATION OF LAW. NOTHING IN THIS MOU IS INTENDED TO BENEFIT ANY THIRD PARTY. This MOU shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Texas. Venue for any legal action involving a Party shall be in Tarrant County. Multiple Counterparts This MOU may be executed by the respective Parties in multiple counterparts, and the validity of the MOU may not be challenged by a party because the parties failed to execute one single copy of the MOU. [REMAINDER OF PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK] [SIGNATURES ON FOLLOWING PAGE] Page 4 of 6 COUNTY OF TARRANT STATE OF TEXAS Scott B. Hall, Director Transportation Services Date: 10-01-2024 APPROVED AS TO FORM: iminal District Attorney's Office* *By law, the Criminal District Attomey's Office may only approve contracts for its clients. We reviewed this document as to form from our client's legal perspective. Other parties may not rely on this approval. Instead those parties should seek contract review from independent counsel. Page 5 of 6 CITY OF FORT WORTH Jesica McEachern Assistant City Manager Date: 09/30/2024 Approved as to form and legality: Matthew A. Murray Assistant City Attorney CITY OF REST HILL Venus M. Wehle City Manager Date: oq 11-2 lgba� 1 Approved as to form and legality: Autumn Keefer Assistant City Attorney Page 6 of 6 ATTEST: p By: U Name: Jaruiette Goodall Title: City Secretary 4,dgU4pnn� IFORt�o. md x'd!60 o ova o*ha4 000- nEXA?opp OFFICIAL RECORD CITY SECRETARY FT. WORTH, TX