And so, how many miles does that give us a year for the most part? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: The line-stripping crews are -- the intent of the line-stripping crews are to keep up with the paving. That's why we have the second line- striping crew. When we only had one, we were falling behind. But with the two, the intent is to be directly behind paving.
Thank you very much. Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla and Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, Phillips, Bass, Lozada and Driscoll.
Thank you. Thank you all for being here and always taking our calls and trying your best to get to our services. But my question is, we have past resolutions in Council to have the speed cushions at parks and schools and I know we've been rolling them out . What is our budget for the speed cushions around those facilities? And when do we expect them to be done? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Our speed cushion budget is 1.5 million.
Will that -- COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Our target is 50 schools per calendar year.
And so, how many years would that be before -- COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Well, our backlog we have about 300 -- I did the math. It was like six years to get all schools in the backlog.
So is that something that if we increase the budget on those speed cushions, we would be able to do more in that year? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: We are actively installing speed cushions as our crews are paving the streets and then we have two contracts, on-call contracts that will help us install the speed cushions as well. So we anticipate to pick up the pace.
If there's an increase in the budget, then we should see an increase in those schools because it's always some schools have them, some schools don't have them? And the ones who don't have them feel like nobody's paying attention and you can't do them all at the same time because of budgetary restraints. So I guess the question is, if that was increased, then you could do more? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Yes. If the funding is increased, we could definitely do more.
All right. Thank you. A question about crossing guards because crossing guards, we always get calls and concerns about filling in the vacancies when people leave. Where are we with hitting our complement on crossing guards? And do we have a budget to account for the needed open spaces that we are required to do for schools? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Thank you for your question. We have 837 budgeted school crossing guard positions, of which 774 as of today are filled. We have 63 in the vacancy as of today. When the Managing Director's Office testified, the last time we said there was a vacancy of 80. It varies. So today's vacancy rate is there's 63 vacant positions. In your district, we are 77% staffed.
Okay. Now, out of that 800 that you're budgeted for, is there also a need to have more than that? Are there areas that aren't getting crossing guards because we don't have a budget for them? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Yes.
And how much do we need to make sure we have crossing guards for every school? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Well, we have 1000 -- the number fluctuates. It's 1037 or 1041 actual school crossing locations according to the schools that are open currently. So we would need the difference in budget between the 837 and 1041. We can get you that number and get back to you --
I do want to flag if I may, Councilmember, that it depends like the Commissioner said on the schools that are open in any year, and we know that there may be changes in the schools that are open over time. It also depends on the families and where the families live and where the students are coming from. So sometimes that'll add a need. And sometimes a need will go away when students leave elementary school, for example, and they go --
Yeah. I think we're just trying to get a round number on what we need. So we need to increase the budget to be able to add another 200 crossing guards basically is what my question was. So thank you very much.
I don't know, Mark. You know Kristin is from South Philly. You asking her all them questions. You know when Phillips is -- you know, when the Northwest come like Clean and Green and Sanitation, he just get all softballs. She's from South Philly, man. Take care of our own. But I'm just having fun. Kristin can handle herself. I'm just joking. The Chair recog -- now, Rue, you came back and you're in the queue.
I'm ready now? Great. Thank you so much, Council President. Thank you all so much for being here. I wanted to follow up on outdoor dining. Thank you, first of all, especially you, Mike Carroll, for our conversations around outdoor dining and what you are helping to move along. But small business owners are looking for creative ways to increase revenue and we believe that outdoor dining can be a potential source, especially that Philadelphia will play a host to the world with numerous 2026 events. Far too often, my office works with business owners who cite a cumbersome and confusing application and permitting process for streeteries and sidewalk cafes and get frustrated with the program. We've seen instances where applications can take up to a year, which our partners in the industry find unacceptable. Again, thank you so much for the conversations you've been having with us. But can you tell us how has the department worked to simplify and streamline the application and permitting process and to work with the Commerce Department to actively engage establishments around the program and its benefits? If I could put a couple more questions in there too. In December 2025, I passed my outdoor dining bill in an effort to improve opportunities for restaurants to operate sidewalk cafes by right. How has or will the Administration and department work to increase outdoor dining capacity ahead of welcoming the world for the 2026 World Cup and other 2026 events? And have there been revisions made to the eCLIPSE system for better communication and transparency between Streets and Licenses and Inspections? And I hope to get some bike lane questions in too, but I'm going to throw that out for now.
Thank you, Councilmember. Yeah, I appreciate the chance to work with you and your staff on these issues. And I'll say that legislation you passed will hopefully simplify things for businesses so that they can avoid in many cases the ordinance process, which certainly added a lot of time and work on everyone's part. The work you mentioned with Commerce I think is key. As you're aware and your staff's aware, we are working on a guidance that's specific to sidewalk cafes. We'll continue to refine the guidance that exists for streeteries. And I think with those two tools and maybe some graphical-based summaries, that it should make it a lot clearer what people need to do so they can understand and visualize some of the constraints on what they can do. We certainly want to make as much as possible some of the information that restricts where these things can be automated or part of the process of applying so that people don't waste time and then find out at the end that they're talking about a location that's not eligible either because of the width of the sidewalk or the location in the city, make sure people understand ADA requirements, which is a big factor in this. So those things are in the works. We're pretty confident we'll be in pretty good shape in a few weeks rolling some of the stuff out in draft form, and look forward to having a second conversation so you guys can get an eye on the product that we have and that we propose to put in front of the businesses there. We feel like we're in decent shape I think based on some of the things that you heard, working with L&I in making some user-help user prompts available in the eCLIPSE system. I think that should help quite a bit. Talking a little bit more with the folks in the Right Of Way Unit in the Streets Department, I'm very confident that they can take appointments with folks who feel like they have problems, do the outreach directly, especially on the technical issues that come up as folks are working their way through applications. We're certainly interested in making it clear when people do not need to have a design professional involved in the process. We heard from you several times that that was a real sticking point with different businesses. And again, I think I'm hearing good stuff from Commerce Department in terms of, let's say, a more concierge-like point of contact. And that sort of customer care aspect is something that they excel in. The business action teams are really exceptional at that. We want to make sure that they're making that very visible towards people who want to do more business this summer, so we're working every day with them to figure out how to make that available for the restaurants that you're hearing from.
So I'm sorry I had to step out and I hope these were not asked. I really did want to ask Vision Zero questions and to see how much funding was allocated in the FY27 budget for Vision Zero for installation, planning and maintenance of bike lanes across Philly? How is the department ensuring equitable distribution of bike infrastructure investments across Philadelphia neighborhoods? What portion of bike lane funding supports protected lanes with physical barriers versus painted lanes? What community engagement processes are used before redesigning or installing bike lanes in neighborhoods? And finally, how does bike lane expansion integrate with broader transportation goals, including climate initiatives and public transit access?
Yeah. We talked a bit about Vision Zero. I think the gist of your question, we have $5 million of Vision Zero funding. We leverage that with a lot of other funding. We try to incorporate Vision Zero on everything the Streets Department does. And a lot of the projects that we're looking at in terms of the capital side, we're talking about $70 million of investment that we're trying to bring online, these projects take time so you won't see all those projects delivered in FY27. And some of what you see delivered this year was stuff that we got funding for two or three, maybe even four years ago. So we're always trying to churn as much infrastructure out as possible. I recommend people look at the Connect Plan from 2018 and some other planning documents, Vision Zero annual reports and you'll see the progress that we've made going back a decade or so. So we intend to keep the progress moving forward, I'll say the pedal down and keep rolling along here with these types of investments.
Thank you. Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, Councilmember Dr. Anthony Phillips, Councilmember Cindy Bass and Quetcy Lozada. Then we'll have Driscoll. And then actually, Member Young, there will be a second round.
Thank you, Council President. Good afternoon, Commissioner Del Rossi, Deputy Managing Director Carroll, thank you to you and your whole teams for the work that you do every day. But I have to give a special thank you to Deputy Commissioner Rich Montanez, who is always just very responsive and willing to join us out in the community for community meetings about infrastructure and street safety. And my constituents are very engaged and they tend to care very loudly, but he always handles it with a lot of grace and I really appreciate your partnership. So I have some questions about roadway infrastructure. And then if I can get to it, I have questions about the timing of neighborhood traffic safety projects. So last summer in my district we had so many streets that got repaved in such a tight vicinity at the exact same time that my constituents coined it "The Great Repaving." And while I'm certainly grateful for the attention and the resources, especially as I listen to my colleagues ask about when their districts are going to get attention, I do think that we have to do a better job at communication. And so, I want to specifically ask how we can improve community engagement and notification so that so much chaos doesn't ensue as it did in my district last summer? And to be clear, my question is not about courtesy towing. I know that that practice is being modified, but most neighbors do not receive specific information ahead of time about when paving projects are happening, which creates quite a lot of disruption and stress, and that is especially magnified when the city is tearing up to streets 4 within a couple-block radius, 5 because then no matter where people 6 move their cars, they end up moving 7 to a street that is getting worked 8 on. And so, I wanted to ask how 9 the Streets Department plans to 10 improve your public notice process for the upcoming paving season to ensure earlier and clearer notices of street work? And also related to street paving, I heard us just have a conversation where we acknowledge that the contractors have a 60-day service level agreement. But the current process is that contractors rip up all the streets they intend to pave at one time and then they don't come back to actually finish the work for weeks or sometimes months at a time, and that leaves our residential blocks dusty and also hazardous. And so, while that might be an easy process for contractors, it causes a lot of distress to homeowners and people living on the block. And so I wanted to ask, what would it take to change this practice so that blocks are repaved much sooner after they are milled? So, one, about the communication and public notice and then just about the process and getting the repaving done a little faster once the milling is completed. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Thank you, Councilmember, for your question. In your particular case, the notifications were -- they forgot to put the notifications on the doors. So typically, what happens during the paving season is when we're coming to an area, we will put these on the doors and it's in English and Spanish, and they're put on and you notify and it gives you the information if you have any questions and things like that. So in your particular case, we apologize they were not put on the residents' doors. Between the milling and paving, it's a five-week period from mill to pave and sometimes it's extended due to weather. But in that five-week period, we also need to reset the utilities so the manholes that are in the blocks that are being paved, they also need to be reset. Once they are reset, then the contractor can drop back or city forces can drop back and pave the streets after the utilities are reset.
Okay. I'd like to just maybe follow up. I feel like in a lot of instances the streets just remain milled for much longer than five weeks. And I understand that we have to work according to weather, but we can also kind of time that out, right, we know when the bad weather is going to come. So I'd like to reserve the opportunity to follow up with you all. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Yes.
And then I wanted to ask about the timing of traffic safety projects. Routinely Streets tells me and my office that a priority project in the 3rd District will be completed in a particular year, but then it almost never ends up happening on the timeline that we're told. For example, there were five or six streets in my district slated to be restriped or to get speed bumps last year and it never happened. And perhaps most egregiously, two new traffic lights that I helped fund at a key location between SEPTA's trolley portal and the Woodland Cemetery were supposed to get done in 2024 and then we were told they would get done in 2025. And now, we're being told that it's getting delayed yet again because the Streets Department has to do FIFA- related improvements first. And again, this project was approved over two years ago, and it's especially concerning because these traffic lights were part of a multi-agency process that our government crafted and supported. And so, that's something frankly that since there were so many important stakeholders involved, I don't understand why my office and I now have to fight or constantly bug you guys to get the project to actually happen and to prevent it from falling off of your list. So what assurance can you provide that this important work is actually going to happen this summer? I'll also add that this is -- because the trolley portal is there and people run in the woodlands and there's a bike lane there, it's kind of a key area for us to be concerned about as it relates to traffic safety. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Thank you for your question. I believe Deputy Commissioner Montanez -- Mike, Deputy Managing Director.
It probably makes sense for us to meet with your staff because there's a little confusion about which projects you're referring to. So I think we should probably sit down and go through that to make sure that we're all on the same page. In general, different things come up in different projects. And the time period you're talking about has been one where there's been incredible inflation. And so, sometimes what happens is that we run short from the estimated funds to what we actually need to spend to complete a project. And so, we have to accumulate the funds to finish the job and close it out. So that seems like that might be an issue on some of the jobs that you're talking about. There are often a few other things that can creep in the way. There's been a few emergencies that have come up in different places. I think around the trolleys in particular, SEPTA had to do some work, which was an emergency work project that they had to take on. So we probably should sit down and fairly, methodically walk through project by project to find out what details apply to the things you're talking about. We always want to get products done on time, because the longer they're open, the more expensive they are. So we are very incentivized to close projects out. And if it's a matter of communication where we need to improve, like many of the things we're talking about, we'll do better. We'll try and coordinate with you and figure out the best way to get the information you need in a timely way.
Thank you. I look forward to talking about the project and this would be a great one to get done for FIFA, right, so that people can actually visit this part of the 3rd District. Thank you so much.
Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. I just have a question just following up on the Councilwoman's line of questioning around repaving. And it brought to my mind that -- I'll just use my own neighborhood as an example. We had our streets repaved. It looked very nice about two years ago. And then about six months ago, the streets were just ripped up and for pipes to be installed by Water or Gas or whoever it was. Why? Why have we not been able to get this down to a science by now that, okay, there's going to be piping laid in 2026, in January 2026, so we shouldn't tear up the streets and redo them in July of 2024? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Thank you, Councilmember, for your question. We do have a GPIS system that utility workers, they're supposed to put their information into the system and it's supposed to flag conflicts. And there's also a moratorium in place where, if a street was paved within a certain time frame, this should not happen.
It did. It is. It's still happening. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Unfortunately that frustrates me more than anything when we go out there and pave because we know what it's like to get streets paved in the city of Philadelphia. So when that happens, we have the same frustration --
On average, how much does it cost to get a street repaved? How much does it cost you? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: One block with ADA ramps at each intersection is about $350,000.
So I would say in this little area it was probably to blocks at 6 least that were paved. And so, 7 it's just very disturbing that this 8 coordination doesn't seem to 9 happen. It didn't happen then. I 10 don't know how we can get it to happen now. And even with all of the things that we have in place, clearly there still needs to be more. So I'm hopeful that you all will go back to the drawing board and try to figure this out. Because listen, I can't walk my dogs around a block without a neighbor saying, we just got it done, like what's going on. And I'm going to give them Commissioner Del Rossi's phone number and they'll be calling -- COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: I understand.
Because people are very mindful of the fact that it's expensive. A lot of blocks want to be repaved and need to be repaved and then we now have to go back over another repaving. So just a thought. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: I'll get in touch with your office for the location and we'll look into what the time frame was.
Thank you, Chairwoman Bass. I too want to just say thank you so much, Commissioner, I forgot to say and, Deputy Commissioner Montanez, for working with me this past year on several different initiatives. It's really appreciated. I'm looking forward to doing more though. I want to direct this question to Director Carroll. Director Carroll, you oversee OTIS, which sits in a position that connects the streets, the Water Department, SEPTA and other agencies that often have work that overlaps with the Streets Department. Why are these agencies still not communicating effectively when it comes to coordinating street work such as the one we just mentioned?
Yeah. So there's a few factors and the goal is always to improve that coordination when it comes to the Water Department and the Streets Department, for example, and those are the two agents that I have direct oversight over. There's a fair amount of the work that takes place in the Water Department, which is emergency in nature. And that's the clearest way of putting it. And the fact is there's a determination that needs to be made when an emergency takes place as to whether that remediation is going to be taken on in a manner where then a contractor is brought in or whether the Streets Department is going to play the role of the contractor. And there's no way to know that until you begin the construction work itself. So when there's a contractor that's brought in, sometimes that's something that happens on an emergency contract. There's a certain amount of contracting capacity that exists in the region and in the city. And when we're bumping up against that, there's going to be delay because we need to wait for them to be finished with what they're doing to free up resources, to free up equipment before they go to the street. And that delay can affect sometimes the work in the street itself to restore something like a cave-in or it can affect the finishing, the sort of restoration of the street after that work is done. And so, you may see that the pipe was fixed, but it'll take a week or two for a crew to come out and to backfill a hole and to pave the hole. With the Streets Department, it should be cleaner because the Water Department can communicate more directly with Streets Department staff. Sometimes though you have a similar issue where the Streets Department is engaged in other maintenance activities at the same time. And this winter was one of the bad examples there, because the Streets Department was engaged in snow fighting at the same time we were trying to address the restoration from some pretty significant main breaks that the Water Department was able to address on their own, but waiting for the Streets Department to come after them.
Okay. I also want to thank you for that response. I think there should be -- I don't know what to say. But even with all these changes, I don't know how to phrase it, but I would love for us to come up to a commitment to coordinate these entities better in that regard. But I do want to say that the Streets Departments deliver core services and quality of life, such as signage, pavement marking, street lighting, traffic-calming measures, however, many neighbors are unclear on what services -- some neighbors, a lot of neighbors, but some neighbors don't know what services they can request. That's only a few. But a lot of neighbors don't know how to request them correctly and they also don't know how long these services should take. Can we get a commitment from you all? We see it on the department website all the services that are offered, but maybe a commitment that we can pass out to our neighbors in a nice visual, like how to request these services, a service level agreement for these services so that we, even our neighbor service people and constituent service people, can be able to direct our neighbors to that as well? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Thank you, Councilman, for your question. We will share our service levels and we can absolutely work with your office, and we are in the process of revamping our website. We can definitely help you with the residents so that they can understand what they can reach out to the Streets Department for, because that's a challenge that I've had for years in this capacity because no one really understands what the Streets Department does. We are traffic signals, signs, markings, right-of-way, contracts, bridges. I mean, I could keep going on the things that we do. But we can definitely work with your office and get together a pamphlet or core services that you can hand out.
Okay. Just dedicated communications customer service team. Is there a dedicated leader on your team that deals with community relations and so forth? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Yes.
Who's that? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: We have our Director of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs who works with Council, who works with constituents, and then we also have a communications manager who handles our social media and things of that nature.
Thank you, Councilman. Chair recognizes Councilmember Driscoll.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Let me I guess begin, Commissioner and Director. You're probably aware I've had my fair share of catastrophes in the 6th Councilmanic and my comment is, I just want to go on the record thanking both of you and Richard Montanez and I see Steve Lorenz back there for the professionalism and rapid response that I've received. And we're always working together on routine things, but you guys have surpassed expectations when it came to these big events. So I just wanted to put that on the record. The other thing I just want to comment on, I think we want to get ahead of the PR curve as the speed cameras go on, particularly on Frankford Avenue. So I have Roosevelt Boulevard in my district. When I was in the House of Representatives, I co-sponsored the legislation to enable the city to have these speed cameras. And it appears, and I think we're going to face this problem when Frankford Avenue goes online, there's this notion that it's a money grab by the city or the state. And that's the furthest thing from the truth. My district office is on Frankford Avenue. And I would say in the post-COVID world, there's this kind of chaos in the driving world that a stop sign is a maybe or a red light is a maybe. And the reason that we're doing these speed-calming measures and these light cameras and speed cameras is because we have to, to save lives and to restore order on the streets of Philadelphia. So I guess what I'm asking is perhaps through whatever districts it's going to affect, that as they go online, that we communicate in an effective way both from the legislature and from the executive branch, that we're doing not just warning notices, but sort of a PR campaign that we're doing this to help and it's not a money grab?
So thank you for the question, Councilmember. And I will assure you that Mayor Parker is already on the case and she has implored both the Commissioner and I to get out there and to share that message, to get on social media. We've had productive conversations with some of your colleagues to try and enlist folks in the community to echo that message. And so, that is the order of the day, for us to make sure people understand what we're doing and why we're doing it and how effective it has been where we've done this work in the past. And you're familiar with a lot of the statistics on the Boulevard. But the number of speeding violations went down by over 90% when the cameras were put in place. We saw dramatic improvement in terms of lower numbers of people getting killed and lower numbers of people being injured when those cameras went up. And so, we hope to replicate that experience in other parts of the city where it's needed. Like you say, it's not for nothing. People are dying and they're having life-altering tragedies in these places. And so, we need to come in and we need to do something. And this is one of the most effective tools that's out there to manage those sorts of events. So we really appreciate your support and we get the message. We need people to understand that.
I'm glad to hear that, but I just will caution you that the driver on the Boulevard is going to be a little different than the driver on Frankford Avenue. It's going to be the residential people that have gotten into these bad habits. And so, I think that that communication is going to be key. So thank you and thank your entire department for your hard work.
Thank you, Councilman. Chair recognizes Councilmember Young.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the City Controller in February issued a report that found that 133 of 140 inspected speed cushions, 95% has slopes exceeding 10% grade specified in the blueprints and recommended by safety guidelines. And were at 13 least twice at grade. We 14 introduced a resolution to hold a 15 hearing on this particular matter, 16 because I believe that it's that 17 grave of an issue that we have in 18 the city. So given this finding, 19 what immediate corrective actions 20 is the department taking to 21 inspect, remediate and reconstruct 22 the noncompliant speed cushions? 23 COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: 24 Thank you, Councilman, for your question. What the Controller's report kind of enlightened for us was inspection. We were so focused on installing speed cushions because we receive about traffic- 6 calming requests per day for speed 7 studies. So fully staffed up, we 8 can complete about 12 a day. So 9 with 9 coming in a day, in that we kind of lost the inspection piece. You're working with asphalt. You're working, you know, it's a skill. On a hot day you're working with asphalt. It could go either way. So in some cases the slopes were affected. They are slightly higher. We thought that maybe in some cases the temperature would work with us. But what we did do is go out there and inspect and we are correcting. And prior to the Controller's report, we were receiving some 311 requests about traffic calming and the speed cushions and we were out there looking at them, so we were already addressing them. We're working with Law to go after the contractor to see what ramifications we can do with the contractors in those cases, but we are out there addressing them. We also put inspections in place and we're working on a modified design so that it's easier to install in the field.
Thank you. You mentioned that you're getting 9 a day, but staff can handle 12 a day. So it seems like it's not fully operational. It seems like that there's room for staff to handle 9 requests I guess adequately a day if I guess they're able to handle 12. So there's three less that they're getting a day. So I just think that that's something that we should really take a little bit more deeper dive into because I know just driving just anecdotally, you know, on certain streets your car is on two wheels when go over a speed bump popping wheelies, and then on others you're kind of coasting over. So it's like what's that rationale in the location of the speed cushions, the type of speed cushion that is in place? I think that's something that I am requesting that our Streets Department really take a deep dive into because it affects our quality of life. Yes, neighborhoods want speed cushions. They want traffic calming, but they don't want to create other issues with their vehicles. I mean, if I hit a speed cushion and I bend my rim, can I call Risk Management? Do I put my risk management complaint similar to what we do with potholes? Like, what can we do because I'm thinking about, what's that, 11th Street in my district, right, when you get south of Temple University campus. I mean when you're on a bus, the 8 bus going over that speed bump, 9 you're flying going over those 10 speed bumps. So I think that's 11 something that we really should 12 take a deep dive into as we are 13 continually going to install 14 traffic-calming measures, 15 particularly around our schools 16 where it's needed. 17 But we need to ensure 18 that it is done properly and 19 safely, because some of these 20 cushions can end up -- I mean, 21 again they're over the recommended 22 safety guidelines so they're 23 deemed -- to me, that means they're unsafe. So I just want to make sure we really, really ensure the safety of our communities when it comes to speed measures. I want to echo my colleague Councilmember Mike Driscoll about the 25-mile-an-hour speed limit, particularly on Broad Street where I represent from City Hall up to Hunting Park. And essentially, I think it has created a safer Broad Street for our city. I mean, we do get complaints from constituents for some reason who want to use Broad Street as the Indy NASCAR series or something, but that's not essentially what it is. So I do want to commend the city and let folks know and go on the record to show that I am supportive of slowing these cars down as we look to have a safer city. So thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Councilman. And I just wanted to mention along those lines, because in some parts we represent the same area, I have one side of the street and Councilman Young has the other side of the street along Broad Street. And one of the things that I've mentioned for the last few years is Broad and Lehigh. So again, I have one side, he has the other side. And there was a time I want to say during the pandemic, maybe 2021 or 2022, when there were I want to say three fatalities, back-to-back-to-back. And we talked about it quite a bit and we still haven't seen any changes. And the problem is if you're speeding, if you go north on Broad Street, by the time you reach Lehigh, the pitch is too high of the street. You cannot see over the other side of Broad Street or the other side of Lehigh Avenue going northbound on Broad Street. And so, we've talked about. It's part of the High Injury Network, for whatever that's worth, but we haven't seen any sort of speed-calming measures right there. And again, there were three fatalities I think almost three months apart that really didn't get a lot of attention. And yet you have other traffic fatalities where someone will get hit and killed and they get a lot of attention. And it's not saying that they shouldn't. But it just feels as if there's an inequity that because it happened at Broad and Lehigh, that there's not the same value on the people who lost their lives to these traffic fatalities.
I just want to assure you that that is getting as much attention as we can here in the city. We did put in a grant agreement. We put in a grant, a federal grant. We were awarded the grant. Unfortunately, this is one of the grants the Trump Administration has been slow- walking with us. And so, we need to get that to agreement so we can implement the project that addresses the issue that you're referring to that was highlighted by the three tragedies that you mentioned. That area though is covered by the cameras. So we hope that that at least slows people down on Broad Street as they approach the intersection. Hopefully, that has a good effect too. But we hear you loud and clear.
Yeah. I don't know that anyone was ever arrested, if there was any arrests. I think in one case there was an arrest and then it's been very difficult to get someone to trial, that same person to trial on this vehicular homicide. And so, I think you all do a great job, but I have to push back on this particular situation a little bit in terms of the amount of attention. Because where there's been again other traffic fatalities, you know, you can see things that actually have been put in place as a result of what happened there and they happened after these three fatalities. And so, I'm glad that we're working with the federal government to try to get some additional resources to try to address the problem, but the sooner, the better. But I thank you all for your work. Chair recognizes Councilmember Landau.
Thank you. Thank you, Chair. I am the Chair of the Technology Committee, and I wanted to talk about StreetSmartPHL, which I'll be honest, I didn't know existed for a long time, but I've been diving into it. And it is a program where you put in an address and you can click a variety of things from paving to permits. And it at least has some colors show up and some things you can find to see what is happening around your neighborhood. They show you current projects and future projects. I know we tried. I'm sure we did this many, many years ago. It is slightly cumbersome, worse on the phone than it is on the desktop, and it doesn't really give you everything that you need. You've got to keep layering on top of it. So the first few questions are about what metrics do you know about the website? Do people use it? Do you have a sense of how many residents use it? Do you know what functions are used most often, the paving, plowing, sweeping? Any possibility you can get the Water Department in there? Any possibility you can get some more realtime work in there, right? Sometimes it'll tell you a permit, there's going to be work. You go by that street and there's nothing happening. It's not really a change in realtime. And so, do you have improvements planned on it? Any expansion, any other layers? And I think that's it for now. Thanks. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Okay. So for our permits -- in StreetSmartPHL, you know, it's a GPIS-based tool. So there's time frames for our permits. So the contractor will pull a permit for, say, a week period, but it doesn't drill down on the exact day it's working. It just has the time frame in which it's open. We just recently with our GIS -- our GPIS application, our paving is in StreetSmartPHL. That's the paving that we'll be doing this April. And it's from last year's funds because our funds for paving won't be available until February, January. So our next year's paving will be in StreetSmartPHL there. So it loads the information in and we use the (inaudible) and snow. But I do believe in one event we had an issue with it because it's married to the root, so we are working with our IT folks to be more innovative with our technology and things like that. I don't know if, Deputy Commissioner Montanez, you wanted to add something.
Good afternoon. Deputy Commissioner Richard Montanez. Yes, so the contractors, the plumbers have a certain window to do work. For example, a plumber's permit is 30 days. That's the amount of time they're given to do the work. So you will click or PermitPHL and you'll see that there's a permit issued here for 30 days. The main goal that the Streets Department had is for residents to be aware of what is happening out there and notify us if there is something happening and it does not have a permit, because the illegal plumbers is what's causing a lot of our issues too or people doing work that are not supposed to be doing work in our streets. There are emergency contracts at times. They do not make it. It usually takes us 5 hours to put that permit in there. 6 But we try to stay on top of it as 7 much as we can. 8
9 It's a manual input of the 10 information. There's no way of 11 just having an automatic 12 extraction? 13
The 14 information comes automatically out 15 of our permit program. We're 16 currently in the process of trying 17 to update that system, trying to do 18 at least a refresh of the system. 19 And then after that, you might see 20 some improvement. That refresh has 21 taken us a little time just because 22 trying to marry a couple systems 23 together. 24
Is there any way to get the Water Department and PGW and PECO in there also so that when they shut down streets, people know about it?
So PWD does put their permits in there. We issue their permits. PGW, we try to get them to put it in there. A lot of them, if you see their permit, would say EUN, which is emergency utility notice, so we can't control that. SEPTA puts theirs in. PECO, unless it's an emergency, they do put theirs in. Verizon, Crown Castle, AT&T, so we're able to get a lot of them in there.
Thank you, Council Lady. Chair recognizes Councilmember Harrity.
Just a quick question. My pothole bill, 250066 I believe it was, are we enforcing that now? Are we going after these contractors? Are we still using the fact that we don't have enough employees to do it?
No. We are going after contractors who are unlicensed or unpermitted to go in the city. As soon as we find out, we still depend on residents to notify us. We are working as part of the pothole crew to be able to then start notifying or be more proactive as we're looking at things where they're happening. Our goal is to try to catch them actively doing the work without a permit and at that point, then we'll know who it exactly is. We've gotten a couple calls. And when you talk to the residents like, well, her nephew is a plumber and came and did the job. Unfortunately, nobody's giving me the name of the nephew or the company. And, therefore, I don't have an individual to go after.
Okay. Well, then that just gave me an idea. Maybe I need to then amend the bill to include the resident doing the right thing too, right, maybe?
Okay. Thank you. I appreciate if you have an idea on how we can make it work, because the whole idea is to stop this. Because a lot of times the resident, like in some cases like you said, the resident's, it's his brother or whatever. But a lot of the cases where I talk to the people, they actually paid for a permit on their bill, the contractor just didn't go get it. So it's actually not a pothole bill. It's a bad actor contractor's bill.
It is the contractor trying to make an additional $700 to $900. And so, they tell the resident that this is the cost the city is charging you for a permit. The resident pays it. But now, however, the contractor does not get the permit.
My man, thank you so much. Appreciate you guys. Thank you.
Thank you. Can we talk about the issue that we have with our crossing guards? I know crossing guards are under the Streets Department now. Can you tell us what are some of the impediments that your department is seeing to hiring crossing guards and the placement of crossing guards at some of our high-need locations of high-need schools? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: So with our school crossing guard program, we see a lot of turnover with retirement, because actually in some cases retired folks come out and get a second job as a school crossing guard. So we see a lot of turnover with that as well as it's an opportunity when you come into the city as a crossing guard, it opens you up to other opportunities throughout the city. So we see people vacate positions for that as well. But we are actively working with communities and schools to try to get these vacant locations staffed. Our next session is April 20th to bring in a new round of crossing guards and then we'll have one more May 4th. And hopefully, we can get additional crews in. But we are working in those areas that are lacking the most, which is the 24th and 25th Police Districts.
Thank you. And one more question. I know we've been beating this to death, but it's because our constituents are hitting us with the potholes again. And so, when we are filling potholes, we have our crews go out there. I believe that they're doing the cold patch potholes for the most part refilling the potholes. I do know that when PennDOT has their crews out, they're refilling potholes. They get a call from I guess whatever their command center is, and their crews go hit the streets right away to refill those potholes and there's a separate number to call. I want to say that 311 is very helpful, but sometimes in other places can get in the way. And I think that potholes is one thing that 311 can get in the way of efficiency for our residents. And so, is there a way where we could have a separate line that goes directly to the Streets Department that goes directly to those in operations to fill some of these emergency potholes because there are potholes that if you don't see it, you are literally destroying your car. So what is the process for getting these type of emergencies potholes filled? Like I said, PennDOT, they call, if a pothole causes an accident, within a couple hours that pothole is filled if it's on a PennDOT road. Can you describe to us what that process is for Philadelphia? And is there a separate line again that we could call, that constituents could call, to have these emergency potholes addressed other than calling 311?
Okay. So I'm going to take on the part of the question about whether we could do something besides 311. I think that's not something the Streets Department can answer for. I think the way 311 is designed, it does address a lot of issues that the caller, maybe we don't see, in terms of flagging things, for example, that look like potholes or maybe think is a pothole but it's actually something else. So you heard the conversation about ditches, plumbers' ditches, for example. There's issues that we talked about earlier about cave-ins, so it's important that there's one point of contact that can sort out what type of thing we're looking at. And 311 has proven to be the most efficient way to get that information to the right people. Sometimes what we see in the street is not going to be the Streets Department's responsibility, either because it's the Water Department's responsibility or PGW's responsibility. And it takes a burden off the Streets Department to have a dedicated entity that has folks who kind of can read through a script, process the information and then reach out. And when we know it's the Streets Department and then Streets Department gets the information from 311, they can just go deal with what they're good at dealing with as opposed to something that's actually PGW that may involve a potential gas emergency. We wouldn't want Streets Department getting those calls. We want that to get flagged separately for PGW. So it's probably worth incorporating some feedback. We can work with the folks in the Managing Director's Office who run 311, to think about ways it could be a little bit more efficient given some of the feedback that you're getting. But I just want to make that clear that's not something that the Streets Department should volunteer to take out of a 311 system. But it's probably worth some more conversation. As far as the process, there's probably some things that the Commissioner or the Deputies can add. The Streets Department actually does often step in and take care of issues which are properly PennDOT's jurisdiction because we see, we have an ability to react more quickly. I think in general between the Streets Department and PennDOT, because those are the arterial streets where people are traveling faster, collectively we just want to partner up and get that stuff done as quickly as possible. So some of the avenues, some of the major streets are going to get that attention just because of the fact that the traffic travels faster and there's much more traffic out there. Not to say that we don't take the issues seriously on the local streets and some of the neighborhood streets. But in terms of the risks involved and the consequences of having more time to sort things out, that tends to get a little bit more attention. And we certainly are thankful for PennDOT's responsiveness. But I think the Streets Department does get some credit for some of what you see out there as well. But I'll pass it off to the Commissioner to talk about process.
Chair recognizes Councilman Phillips for a point of information.
Just a real quick point information. On Councilmember Young's point, I don't see anything reflected in his budget regarding communication and just the idea of helping residents understand processes of when and how things are going to happen. As Councilwoman Bass just mentioned, you just provided valuable information, but I'm not sure if every resident knows these things. I don't know if this is specifically her case, but just in general like communication standards are flawed in the Streets Department, which is why even our department, we don't hear from our legislative person as much, right, about all the things that happen in the Streets Department. So I just feel as though communication has to get better and it has to be someone leading that a little better.
I'm not sure it's a budgetary item as much as just us coordinating with you guys and understanding, getting your feedback and figuring out how to implement it in the regular operation. We do have quite a bit of focus in the Parker Administration on communications. You know there's a very strong team in the Mayor's Office of communications. MDO has some staff and we're trying to build that staff up. So I think independent of the budget, we should just get down to the ground with you and get around the table and figure out some of these ideas.
I even think during the snow emergency you can communicate, we came by with this street, have a car come by, put a little tag on a utility pole. Because I know people say direct people to the online website. But sometimes just having that visual can be really helpful. Just everything that y'all do, you just have to tell us at that time to communicate, communicate. Thank you, Councilmember Young.
Thank you. And just on the same note, can you tell us what is I guess the timeline from when a complaint goes to 311, it is verified that it is a Streets Department issue to correct and then that pothole gets fixed? Because I've been complaining about a particular pothole in front of 16th and Cecil B. Moore for about, I don't know how long now, months where the residents stuck a cone in the middle of the street because that has happened. Can you just describe to us what that timeline should be when the complaint is in, it's verified that it's the Streets Department's issue to fix and then the Streets Department goes out to fix that issue? COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Once confirmed it's a pothole, our turnaround time is three business days. If the inspection is conducted and it is identified as another roadway condition, depending on what it is, if we have to call in another utility like Water or Gas or another agency that needs to come in and conduct repairs or inspection before we can do the final restoration, that takes a lot longer because it's coordination. But if it's a confirmed pothole, it's three business days.
And if it is not a Streets Department issue, what we've been getting is that the 311 complaint gets marked complete, right. And so, then because it's not a Streets Department issue, how can we address that issue when it's marked complete? It may be complete for Streets, but the total job itself is not complete. So the resident is saying, I got this thing saying it's complete but the hole is still here. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: That was brought to our attention. We meet with 311 regularly, so we will make sure there's different codes when it is referred to another department and then the message goes back to 311 which is associated with that code. So we will work with 311 to make sure the right message goes back.
Thank you, Councilman. Chair recognizes Councilmember Gauthier.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In the last year's submitted Streets Department budget testimony, it said that "Streets is on track to spend $567 million in bipartisan infrastructure law funding and has already committed 327 million for projects supported by BIL funds. Streets will work with OTIS to identify, prioritize and plan the remaining BIL-funded projects." Can you speak to how and where the $327 million has been committed? And then next, in last year's submitted Streets Department budget testimony under paving and roadway maintenance and repair, the department stated that a strategic goal is to "continue its resurfacing program through FY26." Are Complete Streets projects given priority for resurfacing?
Out of the sort of paving and roadway maintenance and repair budget, are Complete Streets projects given priority for resurfacing?
I mean, so Complete Streets project would be potentially any project where we try and incorporate some of the multimodal infrastructure or some of the Vision Zero infrastructure. So the simple answer is yes. I mean, when we're out there doing projects which do more than just resurface, so if there's changes in line striping or incorporating other safety measures, then we would consider those to be Complete Streets projects. I felt like you had a couple other questions worked into that about the spending. And so, I want to try and address some of that. I've asked my colleague Chris Puchalsky to help with that as well. Just --
The other question was about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds?
Yes. So the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law covered a very broad range of things. And in general, I would break that into a category of what we would say is federal discretionary grants that we brought in. So there were some pretty high profile ones we brought in and we're looking to move forward. Some of those grants were canceled unfortunately and some of them have been hung up with the Trump Administration under additional review. It's probably where it's kind of sitting down and going through case by case. But one of the big ones that we were very regretful that we did not see move forward was the Chinatown Stitch Project, which was about $150, $170 million, so a big chunk of that money would have been tied up in that. Other projects though, like the paving funds we get from the federal government, have moved forward, and that's mostly arterial, higher traffic streets and what we call the National Highway System. And so, that funding, even though it's let's say just paving is considered BIL funding, we count that in that number as well.
Thank you. Can you speak a little bit more to the 327 million that you all state was committed? I know that we might have lost some of it, but can you speak in a fuller sense to what kind of projects were in that mix?
So we'll include what we call formula funding. So the paving is in that, but I'm going to ask Chris Puchalsky to talk about some of the projects that are moving forward.
Yeah. Some of the projects are moving forward. Although it's unfortunate we lost $150 million of funding for the Chinatown Stitch Project, we did retain $12 million of funding for that project, so we are continuing to move that project forward. And the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission did just award $10 million of additional funding to allow the design of that project to move through the final design process so that it will be 100% shovel ready. In terms of working with our colleagues at the Streets Department, there are a number of projects that either we were able to get under grant agreement or we're finding other ways to move forward. So one is replacing bridges in the Wissahickon Valley -- not replacing, but rehabilitating old bridges in the Wissahickon Valley. Another is the Great Streets PHL project where we're doing safety improvements on a number of facilities throughout the city in districts. I believe -- is it Springfield in your district? I can't remember exactly, but we could get you a list, and those projects are continuing to move forward. There's a bridge grant to try to replace or figure out how to efficiently replace bridges over railways that is moving forward. And then we've been working hard with colleagues in the Streets Department, the Federal Highway Administration to get the Safe Streets for all 2022 grant under contract. So trying to find a way not only to get that under contract, but a way to efficiently deliver it once it is under contract.
Thank you. If you could follow up with that detail, we'd be grateful. And any additional information about how you prioritize Complete Streets as it relates to your resurfacing schedule, we'd be grateful to see that.
Okay. And I'll just add there was a TASA round. That's the Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside. That's federal formula dollars that goes through the state and gets awarded both at the region and at the state level. And the city got a number of different awards under the TASA, including for the Woodland Avenue project in the latest round.
Any other questions from members of the committee? Councilman Curtis Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. I was down the hall partially listening to the hearings today. I was dealing with some of Member Gauthier's constituents that represent like 900 homes that are in jeopardy. And come to find out that you're way ahead of the game on the briefing. So you're going to have to do a brain-dump to help me catch up to represent those that are in my district. But thank you for your work. Real quick question, thank you, and I'm going to be brief. I have four bridges in my district that are about to undergo major repairs. And of them, can you give me a sense of the East Falls, the 59th Street Bridge and when they are going to close because that impacts traffic patterns from Chestnut Hill all the way down to Center City, Parkside, Wynnefield and Wynnefield Heights included? So East Falls, Roxborough, Manayunk. COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: Okay. So for 59th Street, we're having a final decision. There's going to be a public meeting on 4/8 to make a determination of the closure. And once it is, we'll do a full closure. The project will take two years. If we leave partial lanes open, it could take up to four years.
So I know you guys don't make bridge repairs based on politics, but do you have to do it right in my re-election to make people have to go minutes out their way each 14 way? You know who they're going to 15 be mad at? Not you. They're going 16 to be mad at me. So is there any 17 way we can -- 18 COMMISSIONER DEL ROSSI: 19 Are we talking about Falls or 59th? 20
All of them. In 2028, I'm going to be for it. In 2027, I'm going to be leading the protest.
Falls Bridge has to be worked on. I think everyone on this side of the chamber is concerned about the state of repair there. And I think you will have many --
-- constituents who will be happy to see it under construction. So we'll rally them for your cause, if that helps you. But my main thing there is the state of repair there. I mean, anyone who's on the river who looks up and looks at the condition of that bridge has nightmares for what they're looking at. And it's safe for pedestrians. We feel like that weight restriction is something that keeps it safe for vehicles, but we don't have a lot of time to fix that bridge. And like many things, the cost and the time and effort accelerates the more you let it go. We do, I think, have a little bit of leeway on 59th Street. And so, we can certainly coordinate around other priorities there. And I think like the Commissioner's saying there's issues that we need to engage around the method we take. There's a possibility that by extending the project, we can maintain traffic on the bridge. In general, even if we're looking at a period of full closure, we want to get something open quickly so people can use the bridge and we can work with you to figure out when that can take place mid-project when we can open it up for vehicles so that maybe half of the bridge is open. It could be a direction that --
Whatever the least amount -- I know the difference between a full closure for work versus half closure twice the time.
Yeah. And that's a conversation that your office should be included in, because that's a difference in priorities, and people being willing to see the project last longer makes it easier for us to make the closure less significant. So it's worth sitting down and talking about.
A good example is the bridge that connected the West River Drive to the Art Museum area. What was the estimated time it was going to take and what was the actual time?
So I think we ended up being about a year longer than we had thought.
So what I will say, to your credit it is gorgeous. I don't mind walking across that bridge, the pedestrian lighting. That bridge is going to last 100-plus years, but it's worth walking. It connects to the Schuylkill River Trail that you have and it is befitting of -- it's beautiful. So it was well worth waiting for except if you were stuck in traffic trying to get downtown. It has cut like 15 minutes off my commute time. And so, do what you can but be considerate of the fact you guys, you know, y'all think in 10-year things. We kind of think in 4-year.
Thank you very much. As there are no more questions from members of the committee, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Cindy Bass for a motion that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the committee stand in recess until Wednesday, April 8, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 400, City Hall.
It has been moved and properly seconded that the public hearing and meeting on the bills and resolutions before the committee stand in recess until Wednesday, April 8, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. All those in favor signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. This committee will stand in recess until Wednesday, April 8th at 10:00 a.m. Thank you all very much, members. (Committee of the Whole concluded at 3:15 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. ________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL