Rehab work OKd on Edinger and Warner avenues in Huntington Beach
Huntington Beach can move forward with a plan to rehabilitate two major streets after the City Council decided Tuesday on the company to head the project.
The council voted unanimously — Mayor Barbara Delgleize was absent — to contract with R.J. Noble Co. to head the Edinger and Warner avenues rehabilitation project. R.J. Noble is an engineering business that primarily serves Orange and Riverside counties.
City Manager Fred Wilson had recommended the company after it headed a reconstruction project on Talbert Avenue that wrapped up in December.
The Edinger-Warner rehabilitation project will include replacing old asphalt and dilapidated sidewalks, as well as adjusting sewer manholes and water meter boxes. For the work, the city will be using a special rubberized asphalt created from more than 290,000 used tires, keeping them out of landfills.
The two streets have not been renovated since 1999.
R.J. Noble had submitted a low bid of $1,416,298. The cost of the project is estimated at $1.65 million, according to a city manager’s report.
It is being funded by Measure M funds and a $500,000 Orange County Transportation Authority grant. Funds from Measure M — first passed by county voters in 1990 and then renewed in 2006 — are specifically slated for transportation improvements.
The city will absorb additional expenses related to project management, the testing of soil and pavement materials and engineering support, said public works director Travis Hopkins.
If any money is left over following the completion of the project, it would return to the Measure M fund balance or the OCTA, Hopkins said.
Also on Tuesday, the council was set to consider the possibility of opening the Central Library on Sundays but voted to move the item to the next study session, on Feb. 6, after Councilman Erik Peterson had expressed concerns.
He said that because the issue involves sustained expenses like city employee pensions, the council should give the public a platform to speak on the matter.
“If we are discussing employees or the thought of hiring more employees, those are very big, lifelong expenses, and they should be more accessible to the public,” Peterson said.
The library had been open on Sundays from 1997 to 2010. The reduction to six days a week came during the Great Recession.
A city manager’s report estimated that the cost of adding Sunday hours could vary from $70,000 to $260,000 annually, depending on the added staffing and maintenance demands.
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