By Tammye McDuff
Hawaiian Gardens City Council received a maintenance agreement that was submitted to the county of Los Angeles to perform preliminary engineering and construction management on the three bridges in the city.
The total project cost is estimated at $106,000 with the City’s share to be an estimated $13,000. The balance of $93,000.00 will be provided by federal funding reimbursement.
In 2013, the county of Los Angeles completed the biennial inspection of bridges owned by the City of Hawaiian Gardens and identified the three bridges, Civic Center, 223rd street, and 226th street were in need of preventative maintenance. The county applied for and received grant funds under the National Highway Performance Program. The majority of the work will involve repairing and restoring concrete and resealing the bridge deck, which will extend the life of each bridge.
The preliminary engineering will consist of environmental findings and approvals of permits, design survey, soil report, traffic index and geometric investigations, preparation of plans, specifications and cost estimates, right of way engineering and certification, utility engineering, and all other various work deemed necessary for project construction bids.
Councilman Reynaldo Rodriguez asked if the 214th Street Bridge was included in this, stating it also needed repair. It was not included in the preliminary estimate.
Mayor Barry Bruce commented on several occasions that the estimate of $106,000 seemed “amazingly high” referring to the fact that he had placed a slurry seal on his offices buildings for a fraction of this cost. Bruce stated he thought it to be a poor testament to the inappropriate use of taxpayer’s dollars.
City Engineer Ismile Noorbaksh reiterated that a vast amount of the rebar under the bridge is also exposed and that this was not a job that could be done by the City alone. Noorbaksh told council, “Preventative maintenance secures the fact that a complete demolishing and reconstruction would not be necessary. The cost of the project is the cost of construction contract and costs of preliminary engineering, construction administration, right of way certification, utility engineering according to approved plans and specifications. It also includes total salaries, wages and equipment costs to cover overhead, administration and depreciation,” further stating it was a special type of slurry seal and the crew will have to go on top and underneath the bridge, “this is quite a large undertaking and why we cannot do it in-house.”
Staff also noted that the bid included design work engineers and estimate bidding work. There will be a final accounting after the bid has been accepted. The motion was made to approve and seconded and passed.
Three proposed cooperative agreements for the Bridge Preventive Maintenance Program were enclosed in a letter dated February 2015, from Gail Farber, Alhambra’s Director of Public Works, to Hawaiian Gardens City Manager Ernesto Marquez.