Dear Red Phone,
What’s all the roadwork going on in the shoulder and on the sidewalks of Monterey Road just south of Dunne Avenue?
Red Phone response:
That work is related to the long-awaited Monterey Road utility undergrounding project, funded by the City of Morgan Hill and PG&E. The city council approved a contract with Northern Underground Construction in July 2014 at a cost of about $1.3 million. In June 2016, the council amended the contract with a change order that reduced the size of the project and brought the cost down to about $1.13 million, according to city staff.
The city is footing about $417,000 of that cost, with utility provider PG&E funding the remaining $709,000 cost of the Northern Underground contract. Specifically, the city is responsible for relocating water and sewer lines in the way of the project, and installing new streetlights, reads a June 1 city staff report.
PG&E will fund additional work and costs related to the replacement of overhead electrical wires and transformers underground within the right-of-way for Monterey Road, the staff report added.
The purpose of the project is to place all overhead utility service facilities—including electrical, Verizon and Charter wires—into underground conduits and vaults on Monterey Road from Dunne to about 500 feet south of Spring Avenue, Morgan Hill Public Works Director Karl Bjarke explained.
“Since much of the contractor’s work is in the shoulder and sidewalk areas, (the city is) rebuilding the curb, gutter, sidewalk and asphalt portions of the roadway south of Dunne (Avenue),” Bjarke said. “Once the old PG&E poles are removed, there will be new LED streetlights placed along the roadway.”
The project has been in the early planning stages for several years, delayed by complicated negotiations among the city, PG&E and other utility service providers involved.
“Due to significant contract disagreements between PG&E and the other utility companies with wires on the poles (Verizon & Charter) and due to continually rising PG&E costs to perform necessary work, the city has struggled to get the project completed,” reads the June 1 staff report. “However, city staff and PG&E representatives have now agreed on a plan for completing the work in 2016.”
The project is mostly funded through PG&E’s “Project 20A” program, which sets aside a portion of proceeds from local rate payers in an account designated for capital improvements in Morgan Hill, the staff report added. The city’s Project 20A account currently collects about $78,000 per year, and had about $2.3 million at the end of April 2015.
PG&E’s “inflexibility” in approving 20A projects has resulted in further delays, according to city staff.
The original proposed scope of the work would have placed the utilities underground all the way south to Cosmo Avenue. However, PG&E proclaimed an urgency to spend the Project 20A funds before the end of 2016 because their availability after that is uncertain. That forced the city and utilities to begin the work this summer, without enough funds for the original size of the project.
