Last night the Seal Beach City Council voted to forgo a $500,000 transportation enhancement grant and cancelled a project for Lampson Avenue. The vote was in lieu of approving a staff recommendation to award a $1.1 million project contract.
The proposed project, known as the Lampson Avenue Median Improvement project, would have consisted of new medians with landscaping, irrigation and stamped concrete along Lampson to the eastern city boarder.
“College Park East is tired of construction,” said Councilman Gary Miller during the meeting. “The residents would like to forgo the opportunity for the medians.”
The West County Connectors project currently is disrupting traffic on Valley View and the approaching dismantling of the Seal Beach bridge over the 405 freeway is expected to make local traffic problems even worse. But it doesn’t end there. College Park East residents must also cope with the Seal Beach Boulevard Realignment project, Lampson Avenue Well Projects, and Elder Avenue Sewer Rehabilitation projects, all under construction at this time, according to the staff report.
There was the possibility of delaying the Lampson project, but the City will lose the $500,000 grant if a contract is not awarded by Friday. City staff recommended awarding a contract for $1,131,131 to All American Asphalt.
But even if the residents could stomach more construction related road closures and all the other hassles which come with a municipal construction project, the project would be substantially over budget.
“The total project cost with construction, inspection, testing, contingency and construction management is anticipated to be $1,357,000, thereby creating a [budget] shortfall of approximately $500,000, states the staff report. “In the approved FY 2011 -12 Budget, the Council approved $857,000 for this project, including $500,000 in grant funding and $357,000 of matching general funds.”
While Miller expressed concern about the extent to which the project would be over budget, he repeatedly emphasized the construction concerns.
“There’s just too much construction going on,” Miller said. “All the stuff Caltrans is doing right now, it’s a nightmare. Valley View’s the nightmare right now and the Valley View nightmare will soon be the Seal Beach Boulevard nightmare.”
Referring to the local residents, Miller continued “They really hate to spend money, and they don’t want a construction project.”
After some debate, the Council decided to cancel the project. But, that would create a budget surplus for the $357,000 which had been set aside for the project. Miller asked the council to consider using a portion of those funds for some basic landscaping and dead tree removal on Lampson. After a somewhat testy exchange between Councilman Gordon Shanks and Miller, the Council agreed to give future consideration to Miller’s request.
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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