Translate[Archived] Question # 36: How much has the Complete Streets staff spent on outside engineering consultants in each separate calendar year of 2019 and 2020?
Question:
How much has the Complete Streets staff spent on outside engineering consultants in each separate calendar year 2019 and 2020? If this task was brought in-house and shared with other T&ES groups, what would be the cost? Do any of the professional engineers who currently work for T&ES have the skillset to design these projects and if not, what would be the cost of training them to perform those duties? (Vice Mayor Bennett-Parker)
Response:
In calendar year 2019, Complete Streets staff spent approximately $220,000 on professional services consultants, which includes engineering and planning support, traffic counting, and other project related duties. In CY 2020, due to budget reductions resulting from the COVID-19 public health emergency, Complete Streets staff spent approximately $56,000.
The cost to bring these services in house would be the equivalent to three full-time Traffic and/or Civil Engineer IIIs or IVs that have specializations in pedestrian and bicycle design. Salary and benefits for 3 Civil Engineer III positions is approximately $389,000, while Civil Engineer IVs would be approximately $410,000. Additional licenses or new traffic analysis and design software would also be required to run the analyses needed and complete the design. Additionally, there may be projects with unique circumstances that require a specific design expertise that could still require outside consultants. There are engineers and planners in T&ES and DPI that have the needed skillset to design these projects; however, they are currently assigned to other projects and programs.