Public works lays out 6-year transportation plan and 2026 capital priorities

Public Works Director Andrew presented Chelan's currently adopted six-year transportation plan and outlined the city's 2026 street-capital priorities at the March 3 workshop.

Andrew explained the plan ties into the city's 0.3% Transportation Benefit District (TBD) sales-tax revenue stream and the need to prioritize projects into four buckets: grant-competitive projects, cash-funded priorities, planning work to ready projects, and preservation of existing assets. "We start collecting funds in 2025," Andrew said, underscoring that while TBD revenue provides a path to execute projects, it is insufficient alone for large investments without supplemental grant funding.

Andrew walked the council through projects tentatively planned for 2026, which staff estimated at roughly $1.8 million in project costs including annual street preservation, Apple Blossom pedestrian trail work, the Farnham-Webster intersection improvements (largely grant-funded and under contract), Woodland Avenue rapid flashing beacon, Johnson-Emerson replacement work, Riverwalk alley service improvements (paired with sewer lift-station work), and early work on a neighborhood sidewalk expansion initiative slated to begin in 2027.

Council members asked for further detail on traffic modeling and the bridge-related study that could materially affect prioritization of large projects. Andrew said the bridge analysis is under contract and that results should be available within about a month; he recommended maintaining project momentum in 2026 while deferring any irrevocable decisions about large, multi-million-dollar bridge options until the study is complete.

Next steps: staff will return with budget amendments to create 2026 capital authority and present bridge-study findings to inform long-term prioritization and potential grant applications.