Contractors are racing against time to complete the so-called Avenida de la Playa Infrastructure Replacement and Sewer & Water Group projects at La Jolla Shores before Memorial Day, ahead of the city\u2019s summer construction moratorium.
\n“Everyone involved is doing their absolute best to complete the project, making every effort to finish up as quickly as possible,” said Department of Public Works spokeswoman M\u00f3nica Mu\u00f1oz. “But as you know, we can never assume that everything will go smoothly and without a hitch.”
\nThe projects are designed to improve stormwater, sewer and water services by creating more reliable systems and replacing undersize storm drains, which have contributed to frequent flooding and resultant pollution to the adjacent Shores beach and its state-designated Area of Special Biological Significance. They involve installing new sewer and water mains within portions of the public rights-of-way of Avenida de la Playa, Paseo del Ocaso, E1 Paseo Grande, Vallecitos, Calle Frescota, Camino del Sol, Camino del Oro, Paseo Dorado and Avenida de la Ribera.
\nIn a prepared statement, the city said both projects \u2014 which have been combined into one and are being done concurrently to save time and cost \u2014 is “not on schedule\u00a0due to\u00a0delays caused by utilities conflict\/relocation, the SDG&E under grounding of power lines\u00a0and the redesign of box culverts to provide proper street drainage.”
\nThe city said unforeseen construction delays occurred in late February because of a quality-control issue with material from a supplier and\u00a0in early\u00a0March, when there were several days of rain.
\n“The schedule, as often happens with construction, currently is in flux. The recovery schedule may be provided in the next two weeks or so. Due to these delays, an acceleration change has been submitted to\u00a0the city engineering department\u00a0for approval,” according to the city\u2019s statement.\u00a0
\n“Everyone is tolerating it (construction) knowing it\u2019s for improvement and has to happen,” said Izzy Tihanyi, of Surf\u00a0Diva on Avenida de la Playa. He added some work changes have been disconcerting.
\n“We were told they weren\u2019t going to cut up the avenue and now they are, so we\u2019re (merchants) a little confused,” she said.
\nTihanyi said the community and city have been collaborating for thepast couple years to pave the way for project construction, noting the city\u2019s original plan “was to cut up the street for eight months,” after which, she said, “not a single business would have been left in La Jolla Shores.”
\nTihanyi stressed that the Memorial Day completion date is a hard target.
\n“Work has to be done. There\u2019s no leeway. They must be finished,” she said.
\nThe summer season is by far the busiest for most Shores businesses, like kayak operators, who do the lion\u2019s share of their trade between Memorial and Labor days.
\nAnd there are a surprising number of Shores\u2019 businesses.
\n“There are a lot more than you think, more than 120 counting offices,” said Tihanyi, who is a member of the Shores micro-Business Improvement District.
\nIn a community letter, Tim Lucas, chairman of the La Jolla Shores Association community advisory group, answered concerns about the large crane being used at the intersection of Camino del Oro and Avenida de la Playa.\u00a0
\n“This was brought in to facilitate the removal and resetting of the 39 sections of culvert that had previously been installed,” he said.\u00a0“After the initial installation, it was found that there were potentially serious drainage issues in the event of a really large storm that could affect the adjacent hotel, nearby residents and the Shores business district.”
\nLucas said city engineers “made a tough \u2014 but the right \u2014 decision for our community in opting to redo the installation.”
\nThe good news, said Lucas, is contractors “were able to remove, adjust the trench level and reinstall the culvert in record time using the crane and a lot of focused effort.”\u00a0
\nThe bad news, Lucas said, is that\u00a0“there are a lot of steps that still need to be completed, and in order to finish the project in time for the summer moratorium they will continue to work longer hours, until 7 p.m. and also on Saturdays.”
\nThe city said everyone is keeping their fingers crossed as infrastructure work continues along Avenida de la Playa.
\n“The unexpected is to be expected\u00a0with a construction project,” said Mu\u00f1oz, adding parking problems in the area relating to ongoing construction have been largely resolved.
\n“HPS Mechanical, the city’s contractor, worked with the manager of a property on Avenida de la Playa and\u00a0the owner of\u00a0La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club to secure parking spaces at LJBTC through May 23 for the five residences of Avenida De La Playa who are currently without the use of their garages,” she said.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Contractors are racing against time to complete the so-called Avenida de la Playa Infrastructure Replacement and Sewer & Water Group projects at La Jolla Shores before Memorial Day, ahead of the city\u2019s summer construction moratorium. “Everyone involved is doing their absolute best to complete the project, making every effort to finish up as quickly as […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":268282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Contractors fighting clock to complete construction along Avenida de la Playa","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}