Officials say they will wrap up major construction and open
Monterey
Gilroy – It’s not a deadline that inspires confidence, but city officials say they will wrap up major construction on downtown Monterey Street – now two months behind schedule – and open the road to motorists by the second week in October, on Friday the 13th.
Sidewalk installation along the same two-block stretch of road, between Fourth and Sixth streets, will finish about five weeks later on Nov. 22, according to a new construction schedule city leaders released Wednesday. For weeks, downtown merchants have clamored for new end dates as they received news of repeated delays.
“I’m not too superstitious myself, but I think that it’s funny that they came up with that date,” antique store owner Linda Graham said of the Oct. 13 date. Graham, who owns Collective Past at 7495 Monterey St., said business has dropped 50 percent since construction started in April.
“It gets worse and worse each week, because more and more people are deciding not to come down here,” she said. “I just hope we can hold on until this is all over.”
Michael Brownfield, owner of the Vacuum Store a few doors south on Monterey Street, had mixed feelings about the announcement. He has supported efforts to revitalize Gilroy’s historic commercial district, but has grown increasingly frustrated with the city’s handling of the project.
“It would have been nice if it had gotten done a little sooner, but we’re happy we have an end date now,” Brownfield said. “Let’s hope we can stick to that schedule and get it done.”
For weeks, city officials rebuffed calls by struggling downtown merchants to pin down new end dates, even as officials admitted that rain delays, additional rounds of utility work by PG&E and other technical snags would prevent work from wrapping up on schedule. The city had hoped to finish road work by early July and sidewalk widening by October.
City officials said Wednesday they had nearly finalized a new deal with contractor Golden Bay Construction, of Hayward, to speed up the pace of the project. Under the terms of the deal, the city has agreed to pay the contractor over-time to work on Saturdays, and Golden Bay has agreed to cover the cost of adding work crews to the project. The city has also offered incentives for completing the project phases by the new end dates.
“But I have to add a caveat,” Community Development Director Wendie Rooney told business owners gathered at the Gilroy of Chamber of Commerce, in the heart of downtown construction. “There could be more delays, but we’re going to do everything we can to keep the project moving.”
While grateful for the new timeline, business owners expressed frustration that city staff had not anticipated many of the delays and worried about long-term problems with drainage. Steve Ashford, owner of a downtown antique store and a construction project manager, said numerous areas of the new sidewalks would not angle down toward the streets, Instead, the grading of the soil in some spots would cause the future sidewalks to collect rainwater or even flood certain stores, he said.
City officials acknowledged the concern but said that legally they must stop sidewalk work a foot shy of the walls on downtown buildings, the standard property line in the area. Negotiating with each building owner for permission to rip out the one foot of cement and properly angle the sidewalks in front of every store would have caused the seven-month project to drag on for 18 months, said City Engineering Director Rick Smelser. Ashford and other merchants responded that they had raised the issue months ago during the design phase of the project.
Similar to city officials under pressure to fast-track the project, Ashford and other downtown business owners are eager to complete construction in time for the holiday shopping season.
“We’d like to see it done by Christmas too,” he said. “We just don’t want to see construction crews out there again next summer.”
To ensure the project meets its new deadlines, Golden Bay will install portions of the sidewalks over the course of the next few months. Originally, plans called for sidewalk construction to proceed in phases after the re-opening of Monterey Street. Officials expect most of the sidewalk construction to wrap up before Nov. 22, with landscaping, cleaning and other minor work finishing Jan. 13.
Once complete, the downtown will feature sidewalks wide enough for outdoor cafes, a freshly paved road with angled parking, and new tree and decorative lamps.
