Council members decry Pier delays
City Council members drilled construction contractors Tuesday night over delays on an ambitious project to remake upper Pier Avenue, the town’s iconic main drag.
Council members, and two avenue merchants, complained that customers were being driven away from the stretch of avenue where the work is being done, and said construction vehicles are being parked in spaces customers would otherwise use.
“I am more than concerned about what’s going on up there,” said Councilman Pete Tucker, a member of the ad hoc Upper Pier Avenue Committee that conceived the makeover project, which will include wider sidewalks, more landscaping and an innovative storm-water filtration system.
“I didn’t hire anyone to be on a learning curve in this city. I expected you guys to come in and produce in a workmanlike way,” he told the contractors.
Tucker complained that the project was 16 days behind schedule, and that workers had not moved past a stretch of avenue from Monterey Boulevard to Hermosa Avenue in three months.
“I’ll come down here and grab a shovel if I have to,” he said.
Contractors, and the city’s public works director, said the work was behind schedule primarily because workers had to trench down 14 feet – six feet deeper than anticipated – to lay a length of storm drain down the avenue’s median from Monterey Boulevard to Hermosa Avenue.
A representative of Pima Construction told the council that trenching in sandy soil is “very dangerous work,” and the deeper trenching had to go slower for the workers’ safety.
The storm drain had to be laid deeper after contractors discovered underground utility vaults they had to work around.
Contractors said rain added to the delays as well.
The contractors pledged to work their crews nights and Saturdays to make up for the delays.
Public Works Director Rick Morgan said large construction projects are complex and tend to hit some unexpected hurdles.
Mayor Michael DiVirgilio strongly disagreed.
“That falls on deaf ears with me,” he said. “I think that’s a part of the culture of construction and I just don’t buy it. I don’t believe it’s that complex.”
DiVirgilio asked Jim Guerrero, a senior civil engineer for Harris & Associates, whether the level of “liquidated damages” – money the contractor will owe the city for any unjustified delays, was sufficient to deter delays.
Guerrero said the $2,500-a-day damage cost could have been set at $5,000, but added that the amount set in the city contract was “not inappropriate.”
Contractors also said they are motivated to work as quickly as possible so they can get paid for the project and begin another one.
Rick Hankus, owner of Java Man coffeehouse, said he is “100 percent” behind the project, but objects to the “snail-like progress of these contractors.”
He said his business is “way down” and wondered, “How many businesses are still going to be there in October?”
“You can’t even drive down Pier Avenue. It’s like a war zone,” he said.
Lori Ford, co-owner of Gum Tree shop and café, said “We love Hermosa and we think this project going to be amazing when it’s done,” but said avenue businesses need help during the construction.
She suggested the possibilities of validation for customer parking in a nearby city lot, valet parking service on weekends, and more promotion of the avenue businesses by a public relations firm hired by the city.
She said the chewed-up section of street, with intersections closed to turning traffic, means that customers “are just turning right on Manhattan Avenue and going to Manhattan Beach.”
Carla Merriman, executive director of the Hermosa Chamber of Commerce & Visitors Bureau, said the chamber is offering free booths at the Fiesta Hermosa street fairs for affected businesses, and offers subsidized advertising for businesses as well.
Tucker said the heaviest construction work should be completed by July 19, which would mostly free up parking in front of the businesses. ER