Problem with concrete could delay project a year or more as city
battles with Granite Construction
Gilroy – Santa Teresa Boulevard could remain an obstacle course of road signs and traffic cones for six months, two years or possibly longer, according to city officials bracing for a legal battle over what they call faulty roadwork.
The project to widen the city’s western traffic artery from two to four lanes was originally scheduled for completion by the end of 2005. But city officials have now set a new deadline for the end of summer. They say the end date could be pushed back indefinitely if Granite Construction Company, the contractor hired to perform the work on Santa Teresa Boulevard, refuses to accept responsibility for the road problems.
“If this goes worst case scenario, you could have a year or two of mediation, arbitration or court actions,” City Administrator Jay Baksa warned.
Though barely noticeable to motorists, city officials and a Granite Construction representative say that tire ruts are forming in the asphalt along a 1.7 mile stretch of the western, southbound lane of Santa Teresa Boulevard.
“In early November, we tested the west side,” Community Services Director Wendie Rooney said. “The final results aren’t in, but it appears there’s major water intrusion eroding the asphalt. … In our opinion, the road is failing.”
City officials would not speculate about the possibility of having to tear up one or both sides of the road to resurface, saying they expect final test results on the west side in coming days and results for the east side within several weeks.
But Rooney and Baksa say that Granite Construction is responsible for the “product failure.”
They believe that water intrusion occurred on the western side of the road because Granite chose to pave during rainy winter months. She said the company paved the eastern lanes – which have not shown obvious signs of deterioration – in the summer.
Officials believe road problems also might stem from the use of lime instead of a more traditional rock for a base layer beneath the asphalt. Rooney said the switch, which came at the request of the contractor, saved the city roughly $75,000. She could not determine by press time how much Granite saved as a result of the change.
Baksa said the city hopes to work with the contractor to fix the road by the end of summer. But he said that officials, who alerted city lawyers about the matter in December, would withhold $750,000 in project reserves as well as a $7.5-million bond if the contractor refuses to repair the road at its own expense. While the city does not actually hold the $7.5-million in cash, the bond provides officials with a legal claim on the contractor’s assets, according to Baksa.
“We are not going to accept the project (as complete), which could trigger some legal action,” he said.
Chris Sveum, construction manager for Granite, said the company is awaiting word on the city’s road tests, but said the company does not believe it is responsible for the road problems.
“We’ve done our own testing in house and we believe that the (specifications) for the product were met,” he said. “Visually you can see some rutting, but how it happened is the issue at hand.”
The company has ceased roadwork for the moment but will continue with electrical work and landscaping. Granite Construction is a national construction company with branches in 25 states. The company is among the city’s top contractors, earning more than $8.1-million since 1999, according to a database of city purchase orders. Officials could not immediately provide an exact figure, but they believe they have already paid out more than 90 percent of the current $7.5-million contract.
The road widening project began in the summer of 2004, shortly after Granite emerged as the lowest bidder on the project. Since then, motorists have faced two seasons of potholes, lane changes and other daily headaches.
Baksa compared the current situation to the early ’90s, when progress on a new wastewater treatment facility got bogged down in mediation for two years.
“I want to be up front with the public,” Baksa said. “If this goes south, Santa Teresa could be like this for a while.”
