City of Peoria Construction Lingo
Consult this list to help understand some of the language you may find in various city construction documents.
Bonds
A method for financing city construction projects. When “selling” bonds,
the city is actually borrowing money to finance construction projects – an
action that can only happen with approval from the city’s voters. The bonds
are paid off (the loans are repaid) through a dedicated funding source such
as the secondary property tax rate, water rate, or wastewater rate.
Box Culvert
Structures built beneath roadways as conduits for buried storm water or
sanitary sewers.
Capital Improvement Program
The city’s 10-year plan for construction and financing of facilities and
infrastructure.
Catch Basin
A curbside opening that collects rainwater from streets and serves as an
entry point to the storm drain system.
City Transportation Sales Tax
A 1/3-cent sales tax collected in Peoria and used exclusively to fund
transportation projects and programs. Approved by the city’s voters in
September, 2005.
Congestion
Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ)
In 1991, Congress adopted the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency
Act (ISTEA). This law authorized the CMAQ program, which provides federal
funding for surface transportation and other related projects that
contribute to air quality improvements and reduce congestion.
County Half-Cent
Transportation Sales Tax
A ˝-cent countywide sales tax used to fund regional transportation
projects such as freeways, bus routes, and major arterial streets.
Design-Build
A construction method through which a single contractor is responsible
for both design and construction of a project. Considered an alternative
delivery method to the traditional design-bid-build process, design-build
reduces project schedules and improves efficiency because all elements of
the process are in regular contact with one another (such as architects,
engineers, contractors).
Design Concept Report (DCR)
Through the Design Concept Report process, project parameters are
defined and different construction alternatives are compared & contrasted.
Once a Design Concept Report is finalized, the project moves into the Final
Design phase.
Development Impact Fees
Fees paid by developers to reflect the incremental cost of expanding
city infrastructure to support new development.
Final Design
The final design of a project from which construction documents will be
created.
General Obligation Bonds
A method of financing city construction projects (see “Bonds”), General
Obligation Bonds are used to finance construction of general city
infrastructure and facilities and are repaid through the city’s secondary
property tax rate.
Half Street
New streets are often constructed one-half at a time. For example, a
developer building a large shopping center may be required to build the
roadway adjacent to the development – the half street. This half street will
be configured to allow traffic to move in both directions until the second
half of the street is completed and the roadway completed to full
configuration.
Highways Users Revenue Fund
(HURF)
The State of Arizona taxes motor fuels and collects a variety of fees and
charges relating to the registration and operation of motor vehicles on the
public highways of the state. These collections include gasoline and use
fuel taxes, motor carrier taxes, vehicle license taxes, motor vehicle
registration fees, and other miscellaneous fees. These revenues are
deposited in the Arizona Highway User Revenue Fund (HURF) and are then
distributed to the cities, towns and counties and to the State Highway Fund.
These taxes represent the primary source of revenues available to the state
for highway construction and improvements and other related expenses.
Lateral
A drainage pipe that transfers flow into a main drainage line.
Notice to Proceed (NTP)
Authorization given to a contractor prior to the start of construction.
Regional Transportation Plan
(RTP)
Maricopa County’s Regional Transportation Plan provides a broad vision
for the regional transportation system for the next two decades, addressing
freeways and other highways, streets, transit, airports, bicycle and
pedestrian facilities, freight, demand management, system management
including intelligent transportation systems (ITS), and safety. More at
http://www.mag.maricopa.gov/project.cms?item=411
Retention Basin
An area built to collect and retain storm water runoff.
Revenue Bonds
A method of financing city construction projects (see “Bonds”), revenue
bonds used to finance construction of water or wastewater infrastructure and
are repaid through water or wastewater rates.
Right of Way
Publicly-owned land within which roads or underground infrastructure
such as water or wastewater lines are built.
Traffic Signal Warrants
Traffic signal warrants are a set of criteria used to determine whether
a traffic signal can be safely installed at a particular intersection.
Utility Relocation
When building a road or other city project, underground or overhead
utilities such as fiber optic cable and electric power lines often must be
relocated. This is a potentially time-consuming element of city construction
projects.
Value Engineering
A process through which the conceptual design of a project is carefully
compared to the ultimate project goals in order to ensure the project will
deliver maximum value for minimum cost.