City staff and the contractor who built the Third Street Promenade project in 2009 are in discussions to determine the cause of numerous damages to the project since its completion. Staff will also come up with options to make repairs, and maybe improvements that will prevent the need for future repairs.
The city recently submitted a list of the damages along with suggested repairs to Joseph J. Albanese, Inc., the contractor who built the $3.6 million street, according to City Engineer Karl Bjarke.
The damages include a number of individual pavers throughout the one-tenth-of-a-mile street that are cracked, broken or sinking into the roadway, Bjarke said.
The biggest headache among the damages is where Third Street intersects Monterey Road. That area has seen numerous small repairs since 2009, with pavers regularly popping loose from the adhesive that was supposed to hold them in place.
City staff think that entire section of the project should be repaired for good, perhaps with a new surface to replace the problematic pavers, Bjarke said.
“We likely would not put in the same types of pavers that we had in there originally,” Bjarke said. “There would be some modification to that so it lasts much longer than we have seen so far. We want to avoid having to go out and frequently repair individual pavers as they come up. The goal is to repair it, once and for all.”
The discussion between the City and contractor about the repairs will include whose fault the damages are.
Bjarke said “for now” the City still considers the project under warranty, but the City might have to contribute funds to repairs that alter the surface or design of the street.
Kevin Albanese, the vice president and COO for the contractor, said it’s too soon to say who is to blame for the damages.
“We’re just trying to evaluate the entirety of the situation, and come to a solution that works for everybody,” Albanese said.
The Third Street Promenade was designed as a multi-purpose roadway that can serve as a part-time community event center and attract visitors to the downtown. The street has been the site of summer concert series and events such as the Mushroom Mardi Gras since it was built.
The project was funded mostly by the former Morgan Hill redevelopment agency.
The street, which connects Monterey Road to Depot Street, is an atypical design. Both the driving surface and sidewalks are composed entirely of paving stones and tiles that range in size from about 1- to 3-square-feet. The stones were secured to the surface below with an adhesive which has already failed at the Monterey Road intersection and other areas, City staff said.
