Project more than a year behind schedule
Stand on Healdsburg Avenue near Matheson at almost anytime of the day or night over the past year, look south and all you see is orange. Cones, barricades, heavy equipment and workers’ vests — it’s all orange, the color of caution.
The massive public works project that has taken over downtown Healdsburg for more than two years includes water, sewer, electric and other utilities, but most people know the project for what will be placed on top when it’s complete — a roundabout that will eventually move traffic efficiently through a confusing five-way intersection.
The project has not gone well. After a slow start in 2015, the project was slowed further by record rains in the winter of 2016 and a series of mishaps, slowdowns and surprises. During 2017: “They hit another pipe” was a constant refrain as the project lumbered forward.
Indeed, excavators under the direction of Bay Cities Paving & Grading, the contractor running the project, damaged gas lines, water lines, electric lines and sewer lines, at one point spilling raw sewage into nearby Foss Creek.
Healdsburg merchants, expecting to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony last August, are now filing claims for lost revenue against the city, after learning that this coming August is the latest projected completion date.
“As business people we’re very independent by nature, we’re used to adversity,” said Manuel Azevedo, the chef and co-owner of Café Lucia, a Portuguese restaurant half a block from the project. “We don’t want to come off as victims, we do what we need to do.”
Azevedo and his business partner and sister, Lucia Fincher, filed a claim for $153,260.80 against the city of Healdsburg for lost income during the duration of the project, which they contend has been mismanaged.
“This has been going on for 18 months and we’ve been patient,” said Fincher. “We’ve been patient and quiet, but we’ve got to start speaking up. I’m going to do what I have to do to save my business.”
Richard Peacock, owner of Spoke Folk Cyclery, said he has also filed a claim for lost revenue, in the amount of $24,747. “Filing this claim is part of responsibly managing our businesses,” Peacock said. “It’s not to be vindictive or to prove a point. We have employees to pay.”
Peacock has a ringside seat to the construction site. From the back door of his bicycle shop at the end of Center Street, he can see the work every day and is especially concerned about a series of lengthy closures of Mill Street that make it difficult for customers to get to his business.
“Even so, we have people who support us,” said Peacock. “I had a customer who came up from Petaluma and probably drove past a dozen bike shops on the way here, but he knew we were open and wanted to support us.”
While citing other examples of customer loyalty, Peacock and Azevedo also said some customers don’t realize their businesses are open at all. “We calculated that we lost an average of two tables of four every day,” said Azevedo, who added that when he filed his claim against the city, he adjusted his loss estimate down to account for the October fires.
Azevedo, Fincher and Peacock are also concerned about not feeling heard by the city or the chamber of commerce. “The city seems reluctant to give us information,” Peacock said. “I don’t think the city has been that forthcoming.”
Since the project began, the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce has hosted meetings for merchants to air concerns and hear project updates from the city, but information about the project is often confusing or scarce. “It feels like they’re just pacifying us,” said Fincher.
Carla Howell, executive director of the chamber, is frustrated as well. From a chamber office and visitor center immediately adjacent to the project, Howell is directly impacted by the work and says she is doing her best to help downtown merchants with her limited resources and information.
“We’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars on signs, banners and advertising,” Howell said, in an effort to get visitors and locals to patronize local businesses. “And I’ve been given no extra funds to do this.”
‘It’s painful to hear” that merchants are complaining about the chamber, said Howell. “There are a lot of things I can’t do; I can’t help people make payroll or pay their rent, all I can do is try to get people to come downtown. I’m doing my best.”
The merchants understand that the project has not run a smooth course and are hoping that improvements to communication can still take place. “The conversation I want to have with the city is to acknowledge that it’s a s—t deal, so what are we gong to do to make it better?” Peacock said.
“The city has a black eye in the community over this project,” said Fincher. “Locals are angry about the project and are avoiding downtown.”
The project budget, originally $11.3 million (which includes a 10 percent contingency) is growing as the clock is ticking. In December, the city council approved an extension to a contract with GHD, the company hired to manage the project and work with Bay Cities, the contractor. The additional contract with GHD is for $1.3 million.
There is an additional opportunity cost to the project being behind schedule. When the GHD contract ran out and was extended, the city began assigning its own staff to assist with inspections on the project, taking those inspectors away from other tasks.
Is the end in sight? It depends on who you ask. Howell points out that the Replay proposal to develop the former lumber mill just south of the roundabout could start this year, if approved by the city, and that an empty lot on Healdsburg Avenue just south of Matheson is rumored to be a candidate for a hotel proposal. “I don’t know when these merchants are going to get a break,” she said.
Howell also notes that the roundabout project, as maligned as it is, is not the only construction work clogging that block. A new hotel is under construction, as well as a tasting room and two retail remodels. “There have been a lot of white trucks in this block,” Howell said.
Larry Zimmer says the end is in sight, at least for the roundabout project. Zimmer has only been on the job for three weeks as the city’s new Public Works Director and admits that he has a lot of catch-up to do on the project, but he points out that the deepest and most complex work is complete. New water and sewer lines have been installed and tested.
One of Zimmer’s tasks is to bring fresh eyes to the project and look at the end game. “Obviously there have been problems,” he said, but added that blame is often shared among multiple parties.
City leaders have said that some of the infrastructure that Bay Cities was digging up was unmarked and not on any plans. Zimmer has no firsthand knowledge of that occurring here (being new on the job) but he says it is a common occurrence in projects with older infrastructure, like Healdsburg’s.
“Until you get underground you don’t know where everything is,” Zimmer said, noting that some underground pipes were not in use, but when an unidentified pipe is located, work has to stop while it is determined whether it’s on the original plans, in use or just taking up space.
“My priority is to keep the project going and getting it done,” Zimmer said. “We have a relatively positive working relationship with the contractor and everybody’s working hard to get this done.”
Is the latest estimate of a late-August completion date realistic? Zimmer points out that wet weather and other unforeseen delays are still possible. “October would be a better guess, based on my so-far limited knowledge of the project,” he said.
