Fourth Street improvements expected to take months
By Daily Press staff
(Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city’s expenditures which appear on the upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agenda. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the city council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past).
COUNCIL CHAMBERS — More than $2 million is expected to be spent tonight by the Santa Monica City Council on items relating to construction projects, which are viewed by many residents as necessary evils.
The most significant expenditure — $1.77 million — will be used to improve Fourth Street and replace the water main underneath it. The work will be done simultaneously.
The City Council in 2000 approved a traffic improvement plan for the Fourth Street neighborhood, which includes constructing a traffic circle at Strand and Fourth streets; extending the curbs at what are described as “uncontrolled intersections;” as well as the addition of crosswalks and improvements to existing ones.
Also part of the project is two landscaped median islands between Pico Boulevard and Bay Street, as well as lengthened islands that already are there. From the east side of Fourth Street, just south of Marine Street, a new curb extension and a “Welcome to Santa Monica” sign will be installed.
The plan was developed at the request of residents in the neighborhood, city staff said. The project, which was originally scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, will take several months to complete. After the combined project is complete, all of Fourth Street will be resurfaced.
City Hall will pay Majich Bros. Inc. $1.5 million, with a contingency of $150,355 for the construction. Another $110,000 will be paid to DMR Team Inc. with a contingency of $11,000 to manage the job. The project is 62 percent funded from City Hall’s water fund and the remaining 38 percent will come from the general fund.
The second expenditure expected to be approved tonight is $328,350 for two compressed natural gas powered dump trucks for the water division, and environmental and public works department. The trucks, which carry earth, hot asphalt and pavement debris, will replace a 1983 vehicle and a 1990 model. Both trucks, which run on diesel fuel, were scheduled to be replaced in 1998.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 25, 2003. Read the original PDF.