Business owners frustrated as project, which was supposed to
finish up last month, continues
Gilroy – For months, downtown business owners facing out onto a wasteland of construction have recognized an ugly truth: The transformation of the street and sidewalks in front of their stores will not wrap up as early as promised.
At the beginning of the year, city officials said that a redesigned road along two blocks of Monterey Street would open in July, with sidewalk upgrades finishing by September.
More than a week into August, not an inch of asphalt has been laid on Monterey Street, and PG&E crews are preparing to perform gas-main work that could delay the project by a month or more, according to the contractor.
The growing frustration of business owners spilled over Wednesday morning, during the city’s weekly construction briefing at the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce.
“You’re in the same camp as us, but you’re still getting a paycheck,” downtown business owner Michael Brownfield reminded city project managers. “A lot of us are suffering. … This is the fourth week in a row we’ve heard the same song and dance.”
The comments came after City Transportation Engineer Don Dey announced that officials could not provide a new construction end-date. Dey explained that officials are nearly finished hammering out a new schedule with contractor Golden Bay Construction, of Hayward. Under the terms of the proposed contract, the city will pay overtime costs so that work can continue on Saturdays. The deal, which officials hope to finalize by next week, also could include incentives if certain phases finish on more aggressive timelines.
“It would be unfair of me to release a date at this point,” Dey said, “and we don’t know what dates would be reasonable.”
Community Development Director Wendie Rooney said the project is about two months behind schedule. She said the city hopes to have the majority of roadwork and sidewalks complete by Thanksgiving, to make good on the promise of having construction finished in time for the holiday shopping season.
“If everything goes perfect, with a lot of extra effort, that date could be met,” said Golden Bay project manager Brian Cortese. But that’s not how things have gone so far, he said: “Everything that could happen has happened.”
A late season of rain forced Golden Bay to begin construction nearly two weeks behind schedule, and the discovery of unexpected water mains and a century-old cistern have caused additional delays, according to city officials. Meanwhile, a PG&E crews who first tore up Monterey Street in January will return for a second round of utility work Monday. That work, which Cortese said should have been taken care of at the beginning of the year, could last three weeks or more.
“I can’t do sidewalks if they’re not done,” he said. “Plus I may not be able to do the road if they have trucks and equipment in the way.”
City officials are now waiting for Golden Bay to provide a “realistic” project timeline based on the city’s proposed end-dates, Rooney said. Cortese responded that he did not “want to pin down realistic dates because there are still unknown factors to the jobs that could shift those dates by weeks.”
The project has not yet exceeded its $4.1-million budget, though contingency funds set aside for delays and other cost over-runs have been exhausted, Dey said.
While the city and Golden Bay retool the contract, officials plan to continue holding their weekly construction briefings for business owners. The city’s Economic Development Corporation and the Gilroy Downtown Business Association also have scheduled an Aug. 11 meeting to update business owners on the progress of construction.
Business owners seem to agree that the city has done a good job of managing the day-to-day headaches of construction such as the removal of debris.
“I don’t deny that the city is being responsive,” said Dave Peoples, owner of Nimble Thimble on Sixth Street, the southern edge of downtown construction. “They are taking our comments seriously. They’re listening to us. It’s just that the frustration comes from not getting an immediate answer. All of the people that are in business are used to identifying a problem and then taking care of it. Well, bureaucracy doesn’t run that way.”
The city’s weekly meetings on construction take place Wednesday at 9:30am at the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce, 7471 Monterey St.
The Aug. 11 meeting will take place 3pm at the Gilroy One Stop Center, 7800 Arroyo Circle.
