• By Rose Meily – Staff Writer The City of Morgan Hill has
agreed to have BKF Engineers prepare engineering and design
services for the city’s Depot Street Reconstruction Project at a
cost of $308,945.
• By Rose Meily – Staff Writer
The City of Morgan Hill has agreed to have BKF Engineers prepare engineering and design services for the city’s Depot Street Reconstruction Project at a cost of $308,945.
Ten engineering firms submitted proposals for design work to improve the unfinished five-block long eastern portion of Morgan Hill’s downtown. Public Works and Business Assistance and Housing Services (BAHS) staff chose BKF Engineers after completing interviews with the top four engineering firms that submitted proposals for the project. The project will give Depot Street a facelift from Main Avenue to Fifth Street.
Depot Street serves as the eastern “gateway” to Morgan Hill’s downtown. Reconstruction plans include wide, tree-lined sidewalks on the eastern portion of the street, a planting strip and sidewalks on the west side, bicycle lanes on both sides of the street, and pedestrian scaled street lighting. New curbs and gutters will be installed in areas where they are absent and special paving at street intersections will tie into the pedestrian walkways. There will also be narrow traffic lanes, median islands approaching Second and Third streets, public art and street furniture, street lighting, landscape and signs.
The selection committee believed BKF Engineers stood out as the most qualified and recommended the contract be awarded to them.
“We were pleased that the proposals from the four finalists were highly competitive in terms of work quality, and all were top-notch companies from the greater Bay Area with significant urban design experience,” Project Manager Yat Cho.
The Depot Street Reconstruction Project is funded by a $2.6 million Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) Capital Grant the city received through the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. Cho anticipates actual construction work to begin July 2006. The project is expected to be completed before the end of that year.
