John’s Soapbox:

The 2015 Bridge Award and Public Officials Night

This year’s Public Officials Night will have a special presentation to (arguably) one of the top one or two influential projects in Sonoma County history ever build with public/private collaboration.

If you were one of the over seven hundred construction workers, or one of the many engineers or consultants that had a role or interest in the design or construction of this monumental undertaking, you will want to attend the ECA Public Officials Night on April 7 (please review the attached flyer). At that event, the ECA has commissioned a production firm to produce a short, 15-20 minute documentary video depicting the need, the vision, the design, and the construction of this enormous project that takes treated wastewater and pumps it up into the hills between Sonoma and Lake Counties to re-inject the effluent into the steam fields for power generation. It is a one of a kind solution to a common pollution problem that is uniquely ours. I hope you read the following and it helps you remember how unique this project is and how impactful it has become to our local communities, businesses, and agencies.

After an unsuccessful 13-year search for a weather-independent solution to the area’s wastewater disposal challenges, the environmental process for the Geysers Recharge Project began in 1993. It took another seven years of project planning and design, environmental studies, legal wrangling, and contracting with construction companies before the first piece of pipe was laid into the ground in the summer of 2000.

The pipeline project runs along public roadways as much as possible to minimize impacts to the environment and private properties. Nevertheless, once construction began, it continued to encounter political and legal challenges mostly from businesses, residents, property owners and farmers affected by construction activities.

Undaunted, city and project leaders stood by their convictions and the pipeline continued along its 41-mile course through Santa Rosa, the neighboring communities of Windsor and Healdsburg and up to its terminal tank overlooking the Geysers steamfields high in the Mayacamas Mountains.

On its way to completion, the pipeline burrowed beneath the Russian River in two locations – requiring tunnels up to 90 feet deep and 600 feet long; climbed over 3,000 vertical feet up the steep, narrow and winding Pine Flat Road; and tip-toed (as much as a large construction project can) through the environmentally sensitive Mayacamas Mountain Audubon Sanctuary. Pump stations along the route were designed to visually blend into the surroundings and operate almost noiselessly.

Nine construction companies and over 700 people were involved in building the Geysers Recharge Project, which took three years to complete.

That’s all folks-

John

Presidents Message 3-21-16

ECA Public Officials Night

This year we will be honoring over 700 workers who helped build the Geysers Pipeline Project completed in 2003.

This year’s Public Officials Night will start a new tradition and I want to make certain all that see the benefit in fostering and honoring relationships between the public and private sectors have ample chance to attend, invite those public officials you work with, and perhaps even reach out to some clients to have them attend and let them see for themselves a little about this great organization, our own Engineering Contractors Association.

If you remember back in the 1990’s, our wastewater had spilled into the Russian River, and the “Moratorium” word was prevalent. A solution was needed to final disposal of our treated wastewater from Cotati, Rohnert Park, Sebastopol, Santa Rosa, and Windsor. Possible solutions included a giant reservoir our on Lakeville Highway, and a unique concept of deep root watering of redwood trees with effluent, as well as an ocean outfall near Salmon Creek into the Pacific. There was tremendous environmental pressure exerted on the City of Santa Rosa to come up with a solution. Around the same time, the geysers geothermal steam fields were suffering from a reduction in steam used to generate power. Bechtel was commissioned to write a report on recharging the steam fields with Clearlake water, and the “lightbulb went off” in some of our more influential minds around here. Why not combine lake water with effluent disposal and pump it back into the steam fields? Lake County was the first to do it, and once the City of Santa Rosa saw the solution was able to work, the other side of the mountain got busy and the geysers pipeline project was designed and built.

Please come out in force to honor this project and to invite and eat with public officials from all over. This night will be the first time we have held the Public Officials Night at Rohnert Park Community Center (it was always held in Petaluma at the Fairgrounds). Help us support the ECA and sponsor seats or the event itself. Please contact Mary for further information!

President Lacey

1. Pavement temperatures of “plug” lifts vs pavement temps of surface lifts before traffic is allowed on to the freshly paved surface.
2. Why the City of Santa Rosa has specific sand equivalent requirements in their import spec that other jurisdictions do not adhere to.
3. How the City of Santa Rosa is dealing with their new “Potholing” Bid Item and how Contractors are being considered when utilities are encountered that were either not shown on the drawings, or were not shown accurately on the drawings.
4. Guest speakers from the City Fire Marshall’s office discussed new and existing fire line regulations associated with corrosion control for contractors and engineers tasked with compliance in designing and installing fire line buried pipe and appurtenances from the street connection to the fire riser.
5. Low Impact Development manual changes for the Russian River watershed were discussed at the last meeting and included information on everything from landscape features to runoff requirements for parcels over 1 acre being developed. Erosion control and frequency of inspection has changes associated and that also was discussed as to how to comply.

Liquidated Damage clauses-changes to how the City of SR will be enforcing their liquidated damage clauses.

The problems associated with outside consultant firms inspecting the City work and how regs and rules can be applied without consistency depending on which consultant is inspecting

Changes in Marin and other jurisdictions as to specific work allowed to be performed by specialty licensed contractors. In the past, certain specialty licenses were allowed to perform work and now they are not. How wide is this change, and how does this effect our ECA contractor firms?

Partnering and Value Engineering-the ECA intends to discuss ways to incentivize Agencies, Contractors, and Engineers to consider formal Partnering on larger projects as a rule. We will be discussing the role of Partnering in Value Engineering concepts and how to share risk and reward for Partnering efforts.

Discussion on specific pavement techniques for deep lift paving that is being regulated outside of, and in more stringent conditions than the widely accepted Caltrans Spec requirements.

2-23-16

John’s Soapbox:

Are You Mad As Hell Yet? Or Have You Given Up?

For many months (years!), the ECA and its strategic allies have been espousing that when Bond Measure 1a expires (which it did ), our infrastructure will need some serious dollars to slow down the deterioration of our public works projects built mostly in the 1950’s following WW2. Instead of allocating more money, the State took away hundreds of millions of dollars in the early 2000’s from infrastructure funding and gave it to many things, not the least of which was to bolster the pension funding the State is committed to. Teachers, prison guards, government workers, etc. etc. Meanwhile, local Counties and Cities saw the writing on the wall and became ‘self-help” districts and taxed themselves so they could drive within their jurisdictions without bouncing their heads off the ceiling of the vehicle when the hit a pothole.

So yesterday’s headline in the Press Democrat, which discusses the potential loss of funding for Highway 101 and other road projects due to the falling revenue from our antiquated fuel excise tax, further illustrates the need for urgency. This is not new news nor just local news-it is old news and it is all over California news. Look at the proposed cuts in funding State wide in the attached link–

Not new news, yet, last week, I sat in on a conference call from Fix Our Roads and lobbyists discussing the funding problem status of proposed “fixes” and what our electeds are proposing, and the conversation went something like this: “I have spoken to the top elected leaders in the state and they are absolutely at a standstill in pushing any new bill through because this is an election year”.

Huh?

If it is an election year, one would think that those of us that are pissed off are writing to these electeds and telling them if they want our vote so they can stay in office, or attain office, they better push for new funding for roads and bridges NOW!

There are three decent bills sitting in committee at the State level. One by Beall. One by Frazier. One by Governor Brown. I have written about these before. Each one is worthy and different at the same time. They all promote some restructuring of the fuel excise tax, they all promote some fees from registering motorized vehicles (this to even out the new hybrids and electric vehicle usage of our infrastructure who otherwise would not contribute to the infrastructure funding needs because they do not buy petroleum fuels), and some other funding sources. But none of the bills are moving forward.

Our electeds are not doing their jobs. We have to exert some effort to shine a light on their reluctance to deal with a problem that is decades old. We are heading for a fiscal cliff due to a lack of funding for transportation and all of us in the industry know if you put off maintenance, the outcome is to have to rebuild and the cost of rebuilding is way more than maintenance. I urge you, I implore you, I yell at you, and I ask you, please consider writing an email to your elected leaders to tell them to get off their butts and pass a bill immediately!

The best source I have found is “Fix Our Roads”. website

All the information you need to get involved is on their site. If you need me to write something for you, and send it to you personally, I will do so. But we need all of our ECA members to step up and write to our State legislators to get them moving!

Help be a part of the solution!

That’s all folks-

John

President’s Message

Two or so weeks ago, the Sonoma County Economic Development Board hosted a big meeting about the State of the County Economics and had their key speaker from UCLA’s Anderson group come in to tell everyone how wonderful everything is. Not to “rain on anyone’s parade”, but I wonder if the real story is being told about the state of businesses in Marin and Sonoma Counties?

With this in mind, I have asked John to try and organize a “State of Businesses” meeting for Sonoma and maybe contiguous Counties to attend. The idea is to hear about what the key issues of the day are actually doing for and to our local business owners. Let’s hear about the projects that are not moving forward due to regulatory issues. How about businesses trying to hire additional workforce staff and what are they encountering? Is it so expensive here that qualified young people are going elsewhere? So expensive that qualified incoming workers are not coming here? Or is it so competitive that companies just refuse to pay the higher salaries and “do without” for the time being?

John is already working with his counterparts at other Associations and hopefully this will develop into an annual event that we might see around April of this year.

Thanks-let me know what you think!

Lacey

Mega Projects or Mega Failures?

Many of us have followed the two huge mega projects that Governor Brown has backed with interest, and for myself, gloom. The water tunnels project to bring more Northern California water to Southern California and the high speed bullet train project. Grand ideas. Big ideas. Big mistakes.

Why is it a big mistake? Let’s talk about the high speed bullet train which would be neither should it ever get built. The concept is to build a train that would get from SF to LA in less than 2.25 hours. Impossible. Cannot happen. Voters actually approved a $9 billion bond issue to get the train project rolling (how did voters ever say yes to this?) and subsequently, interest for the train has been reduced significantly. Why has the enthusiasm waned? Several reasons: 1. Cheaper fuel. People are able to put $2.30/gallon fuel in their car or truck and drive to LA for less than $60. 2. Time-drive time from SF to LA in 6 ½ to 7 ½ hours. By the time you drove to the train station, parked, shuttled in to the terminal, waited for the train, boarded, and then stopped at all the stops along the way, the train would get you to LA in about 5 – 7 hours. You still have to rent a car, take public transportation, or walk to your destination. 3. Now that the engineering obstacles of the southern stretch are coming into focus, voters are realizing that the $68 billion estimate is off by about a factor of 3 or 4. The tunnels will cost about $50 billion alone. 5. The bullet train has no support from the probable future Governor, Gavin Newsome. So whatever Brown puts in place for funding is likely to see reversed once he is out of office. For all those reasons and the lawsuits that are pending-most of us say Forget it!

As to bringing more Northern California water to Southern California, the cost to the environment is such that multiple lawsuits are being filed or have been filed. Also, Southern California is getting by without more water by simply initiating some long needed conservation practices that we are very familiar with in Northern California.

There are bigger problems to solve for us. We cannot get a transportation bill out of committee due to a standoff because Republicans believe there are plenty of taxes already collected but we should stop spending those taxes on the tunnel for water and the high speed train. If those mega projects were off the table, there would be plenty of money to fix our roads and our bridges. For once, I kind of side with the minority Republicans who are saying no to any new taxes or fees to fund infrastructure unless and until we quit spending foolish money on Brown’s legacy mega failures!

Dan Walters wrote a column on this recently in the Sac Bee. If you want to read his much more eloquent opinion piece on this subject, click here
That’s All Folks!

John

President’s Message

I want to introduce myself to you and introduce this new addition to the ECA Weekly Newsletter. I am Lacey Torkelson Smith, incoming 2016 ECA President. I work for Wells Fargo Insurance Services and am honored and excited to serve as President for this group this year. I am going to have this “President’s Message” each week in the newsletter and I want you to feel free to call me with questions or comments for the ECA in general, and my messages in particular. Let’s move together and make 2016 our best year yet!

Owner’s Meeting: at the ECA strategic Planning retreat held a couple of weeks ago, a common issue was brought up-“how do we stay connected with our membership?”. Although we are very influential and are working on our membership’s behalf on several levels, not many members are aware of what we are doing unless they serve directly on the Board of Directors. It is easy to feel disconnected. I want to change that without intruding on everyone’s busy schedule. To that end, I am doing the following: A) with John, I am calling each and every member firm to connect with them and you should hear from us in the coming weeks, and B) working with staff to initiate an annual “owner’s meeting” that will have invitations extended to owners of our member firms. The intent of the owner’s meeting is to get owners connected to what we do, and to listen to the owners’ concerns and issues that we should focus on. This is exciting and unprecedented and I am happy to spearhead this effort! More to come shortly as the next week will see invitations go out, a date set, and a location reserved for our very first owner’s meeting.

Thanks!
Lacey

John’s Soapbox

Greetings!

This morning, I had the pleasure of hearing Supervisor James Gore speak at the Alliance breakfast about “getting things done”. Gore spoke to the business leaders in the audience and recognized them for “caring enough to be involved” in making Sonoma County a better place. He correctly noticed that some business leaders and owners get involved, while others just keep working, and the collective power of both is what is needed. Those businesses that want to just keep working and allow others to attend the meetings and shape the rules and regulations are just as vital and necessary as those firms that show up at every event and take a lot of time to engage in local issues. Both are necessary. The ECA exists and thrives based on both company descriptions.

Who has the time to write a position paper on how to fund our county road repairs? The ECA does and is doing that.

What firm has the resources to send someone to the Groundwater Management Committee meetings for 4 hours to forge the rules and regulations of managing our underground water aquifers? The ECA does and is doing that.

What company had the ability and passion to attend a 4-County collaboration on finding a solution to the Highway 37 traffic mess? The ECA does and did do this.

Involvement. Ever had this thought? Whenever I stick our heads up and make a comment, we somehow involve myself and I don’t have enough time to do one more thing half assed.

If that thought sounds familiar to you, then involve yourself on this level-support the ECA so I can keep you involved at the levels that will affect progress in our communities. Become a sustaining sponsor (click on this link to sign up for this!). Call Mary and sponsor the Installation Dinner event (or click here). Talk to some of your subcontractors that depend on you for work, and explain to them that the ECA is the one “at the table” promoting and supporting their firms on a local level so there is more work for them to bid on so they should join the ECA click here for sign up information). Finally-the ECA has political clout-who has the time to research each City election candidate and find out where they stand on issues that are important to your firm? The ECA does and needs a “war-chest” so that candidates can get support that need support. The ECA can and does wield more influence than individual firms. Please-Write a check to our PAC in order that the ECA has the ability to be a player on the local electoral scene.

So if you are “too damn busy to do damn good work”, support the ECA so we can free up some of your time. “Progress = Better”. Help us promote and effect progress on all issues of local importance to your business and community! And remember – BUY LOCAL!

That’s All Folks!

John

Too Damn Busy To Do Damn Good Work-

Happiness is often the result of being too busy to be miserable.
– Anonymous

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up.
The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.
– Thomas A. Edison

Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire
. – Dale Carnegie

There’s never enough time to do it right, but there’s always enough time to do it over.”

– Jack Bergman

Infrastructure News:

*Does all this rain allow us to stop conserving? click here

*I have been asked to track down where all of the road impact fees go at the County level. The ECA will be tracking this down and reporting it in the future

*I have been working on writing a position paper on “Pavement Preservation Bond” ways to help finance Sonoma County roads for the future. Gore alluded to that in his speech this morning at Alliance breakfast. If you have ideas on this, please contact me.

*City of Santa Rosa is going to propose water fees that will allow issuing of permits for new construction during drought times. This is smart, and the ECA supports this as it heads off the “moratorium” argument by some people that say “why build any new housing when we do not have enough water for we existing users?”

*The ECA is working on providing you some information on whether storm drainage issues are putting a damper on planned construction of housing in Rohnert Park. More to come—

*Is Petaluma going to propose a sales tax measure to fund road repair? I will connect with Petaluma Council members and have this discussion by next newsletter issuance.

PRMD News:

*BoDean study group at Santa Rosa City Council shows how confused City Staff and rules and regulations have become. click here

*I will be meeting with Tennis Wick to discuss changes and progress taking place at Sonoma County PRMD and how it is likely to affect your businesses.

*I will be speaking with and meeting with Brian Crawford at Marin Community Development to discuss how the ECA can better collaborate with Marin permit and planning and construction compliance issues that will enable your business to operate more efficiently in Marin projects you might be involved with.

Transportation California Legislative Update Board of Directors Meeting Mark Watts

See the PowerPoint here.

1-8-16

John’s Soapbox:

Highway 37 Getting Renewed Focus on Fixing That Mess!

I hope you all had a nice Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year celebration.

Arguably, the worst stretch of State Highway in our area is Highway 37. I have written about this stretch of road several times in my “Soapbox”, and I am writing about it again today.

When I started with the ECA, one of the first important meetings I attended were hosted by U.C. Davis and funded by EPA Grants to discuss and consider the problems with Highway 37 and the future sea level rise caused by global warming. Back in the beginning of those meetings, there was considerable “traction” for the concept of letting Highway 37 revert back to nature and have commuters simply drive around the low lying area to get from Solano County to Marin and Sonoma Counties. Economy be damned! Save the environment! Well-I have some good news for you-Caltrans does not think doing away with Highway 37 is a viable concept anymore. Now the discussion is more focused on how to fix the problem, and how feasible it might be to fund the fix.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about a totally private concept being considered to make Highway 37 back into a toll road and to add two lanes that would make it 4 lanes all the way from Lakeville Highway to Mare Island. The private company that is “floating that idea” got a little dose of reality from the Transportation Authority of Marin that day, when Dianne explained that the State would need to pass legislation to allow that State Highway stretch to go private. What a downer!

There is a four County committee closely linked to MTC that has been meeting and working on the process for identifying solutions to the Highway 37 mess. That group includes the Sonoma County Transportation Authority, the Napa County Transportation Planning Agency, the Solano Transportation Authority, and the Transportation Authority of Marin. This Committee is a high powered group including:

1. From Solano County-Osby Davis Mayor of Vallejo, Jim Spering MTC Commissioner, Erin Hannigan Supervisor from Solano County,
2. From Napa County-Mark Luce MTC Commissioner, Keith Caldwell Supervisor from Napa County, and Leon Garcia Mayor of American Canyon, and
3. From Marin County-Steve Kinsey MTC Commissioner, Judy Arnold Marin County Supervisor, and Stephanie Moulton-Peters from City of Mill Valley Town Council, and
4. From Sonoma County-Vice-Chair David Rabbitt, Susan Gorin Sonoma County Supervisor, and Jake Mackenzie MTC Commissioner.

The meeting held today, 1-7-16, in Schellville, included a presentation by the Deputy Chief of Caltrans, Kome Ajise. I have included a link to Kome’s bio here as anytime you meet someone in charge of 19,000 employees, it is impressive. And he is impressive.

Kome was at the meeting to present to the committee information on the process of Public-Private-Partnerships (also known as “P3”). Joining Kome was Bijan Sartipi from Caltrans. Kome and Bijan talked about the benefits and complexities of P3 projects and used the $1 Billion Doyle Drive/Presidio project as an example of P3 projects. Caltrans learned a lot from the Doyle Drive/Presidio project, and doing a P3 project for fixing Highway 37 may be the right approach. The process is not ready to get focused on a P3 only approach yet.

The process discussed was interesting, and the action taken by the Committee was to do parallel feasibility of looking at P3 process, 100% private process, and a hybrid approach. The good news is that Caltrans shares my viewpoint that Highway 37 is a “lifeline” stretch of Highway that must be fixed, rather than abandoned. More to come as I track this process—–

That’s All Folks!

John

ECA Advocacy Can Be Immediate!

I got a call from one of our members this morning at 9am. This member wanted to know how a request to take out a few hundred yards of an HOV Bypass lane might be made and to whom. The concern was the backup on Highway 12 where it crosses over Highway 101. As you drive West on Highway 12, you have one lane exiting to go North on Highway 101, one lane merging in a loop to take drivers from Northbound Highway 101 to Westbound Highway 12, and another land exiting from Westbound Highway 12 to a loop that contains the HOV Bypass lane with another lane that takes drivers to Southbound Highway 101.

I got the request for information and proceeded to my meeting with Caltrans and SCTA. After the meeting I asked the right person how to fix the huge delay that is dangerous on this stretch of road. The answer is that SCTA is reviewing that situation right now, and they may recommend a fix that would include turning the metering lights off in that area as well as eliminating the HOV Bypass lane. This detailed information got back to the ECA member within one hour of his asking. ECA rocks it!

Greetings!

12-30-15

John’s Soapbox:

End Of Year Bits and Pieces:

As we end another year, I decided to acknowledge a few key items for you and we will start the new year off with our newsletter in January with some special surprises for you! Here are a few significant “happenings” for 2015. Happy New Year!

2015 CONSTRUCTION FUNDING NEWS:

As I reported to you several weeks ago, the local representatives we have on MTC have done a great job thinking outside of the box and discovering that a possibility of an earmarked $20million for another County might be available for our Sonoma-Marin stretch of Highway 101 due to “shovel ready” problems in the other County. The preliminary vote went as expected on December 9, 2015, and the subsequent vote on December 17, 2015 got approval from the full board! Great work by Kathy Miller, David Rabbitt, Jake McKenzie, and SCTA’s Suzanne Smith. Click here for a nice article on this issue-
At the Federal level, a long awaited Transportation funding bill was passed by Congress on December 5, 20155 and subsequently signed by President Obama a few days later. In the article, it is interesting to note which electeds voted in opposition to the bill. You might want to follow up and contact them (as I am doing) to find out their reasons for opposing this $305 Billion bill that was much needed to fund Highways and Bridges in the USA.   I know some of the “NO” votes were because of how the funding for the $305 Billion was set up. Rather than coming up with a firm budget solution, the Bill proposes to raid THE “RAINY DAY” fund and use “paper profits” from selling reserve oil sales to “smoke and mirror” the $70 Billion shortfall in the budgeted expenses. Article here–
California State Transportation Funding Bill continues to be mired in “partisan” squabbling after attempts to broker a deal by Governor Brown failed to win approval. One of the points of contention is the Republicans’ effort to eliminate 3500 Caltrans jobs that are redundant that would save California taxpayers $500 million a year. Doesn’t seem like that should be controversial does it? Here is an article on current status-

2015 AWARDS AND RECOGNITION:

Congratulations go to Ghilotti Construction Company for winning the Caltrans Award for 2015 Top Infrastructure Project of the Year. The corresponding article is included here for your reading pleasure!
ENR California award for its top Highway Bridge project goes to Ghilotti Brothers for the installation of the Golden Gate Bridge Median Barrier! Congratulations GBI! Article here–

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

That’s All Folks!

John

Greetings!

12-14-15

John’s Soapbox:

Bridge Award

For those ECA veterans, you know that the Bridge Award has been an award “Occasionally given to a person or entity in the public sector that helps us bridge the adversarial gap between our industry and the public sector.”

This “occasional” award has traditionally been given out at the ECA Annual Public Officials Night that has been held in Petaluma for many years. Starting in 2016, the ECA is not only re-defining the Bridge Award, we are also moving our Public Officials Night to the Rohnert Park Community Center in Rohnert Park (April 7, 2016).

I am proposing to the Board of Directors that we change the language of the Bridge Award to state: “An annual award given to a Project that has demonstrated collaboration between the Public and Private sectors to create a project that has had major impact on the Community”.

The concept the ECA is trying to convey, is that there are “everyday” projects, and then there are those projects that have improved or impacted our lives in a manner that is extraordinary. Some of the first list of projects considered for this award were: SMART, the Highway 101 Widening Projects from Windsor to San Rafael, Warm Springs Dam, and the one the Board of Directors chose in 2015-The Geysers Pipeline Project.

This first year of “re defining” the Bridge Award, will be a special treat for all of us that will be attending Public Officials Night on April 7, 2016. We are started on a project that will create a short video of the Geysers Pipeline Project that will encompass some of the unique aspects of this remarkable effort. I have long stated that our area is unique to the entire world because we process our waste effluent and transport it up to the geothermal area called the Geysers, where it is reinjected underground to combine with the hot magma to form steam. That steam then is harvested by huge turbines to create some of the cleanest electrical power ever generated.

For those that recall the turbulent era when the City of Santa Rosa was under a moratorium due to “spilling” effluent that got into the Russian River, we can recall all of the justifiable outrage of the environmental community that gained a huge influence as a result of the wastewater dilemma caused by how the City of Santa Rosa was disposing of the wastewater. You might recall at one time an ocean outfall near Salmon Creek was the preferred disposal option. Or the giant facultative wetlands and pond concept near Lakeville Highway. How about the injection into the roots of redwood trees that was once considered a viable alternative? At any rate, the Geysers option became viable as a result of their geothermal fields depleting the steam reservoirs back in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

The first community to act was Lake County. You might recall a group of projects including a major pipeline by Argonaut that took wastewater from Lakeport all the way to Clearlake Oaks was installed. At the same time, Wastewater treatment projects were being built all around Clearlake. And the rest of the project involved installing intakes into Clearlake to draw off lake water, mix it with the effluent, and pump it all the way from Clearlake Oaks through Middletown and up to the Calpine Geysers steam-fields. Once that system proved worthy, the City of Santa Rosa worked at selling bonds and designing their own system to bring wastewater from Llano Road treatment plant, under the Russian River (two deep bores) and up Pine Flat Road at 600psi to the Geysers steam-fields.

The Geysers Pipeline Project was, and is a remarkable achievement and is truly worthy of honoring this project as the first and perhaps the most impactful Public-Private collaboration in our local history. The ECA is proud to honor this Project and all of the design consultants, contractors, suppliers, and public officials that were able to work through the environmental constraints and physical challenges to create a long range disposal solution for wastewater that was innovative, cost effective, and brilliant.

I hope you will “save the date” of April 7 and join us in honoring this great achievement as our ECA 2016 Bridge Award. There were a lot of local contractors, suppliers, engineers, and public officials that will be invited to enjoy this tribute in the Spring. Thank you to Sound Ideas for working with Dan Carlson (retired from the City of Santa Rosa) and the ECA to make this “documentary” video that will only be available at the April 7 meeting.

That’s All Folks!

John

Santa Rosa Community Development Changes

The City of Santa Rosa has made some major changes in their “old” Community Development Department.  I have included a link to the latest update from David Guhin.  Although the attachment is long, many of you will be most interested in the status list of proposed projects towards the end of the attachment.

link

Greetings!

12-4-15

John’s Soapbox:

Easier Said Than Done!

I spent my “formative years” bidding and trying to build Public Works projects and make a profit. Yes-I tried to do it safely, but my primary goal was to get it done, get it done in accordance with our schedule, and hit our budget or beat it. These rather simple goals put me at odds sometimes with the Engineers who always had “designed it perfectly” and the Owners who refused to ever admit that something was being demanded of the Contractor that he was not required to do at the time of submission of his bid. I always thought if the Owner had not paid for the work at the time of bid, and it was reasonable to assume the Contractor could not have known the work was required at the time of the bid, the Contractor got to be paid for that “extra work”. Funny-the Owners and Engineers did not see black and white issues like I saw black and white issues.

I now get a chance to listen to “war stories” that are quite similar to what I experienced from 1979 through 2007 (roughly the year I stopped listening and experiencing!). I am thinking there is a problem, and a solution to the problem that I faced, and that many of you face in making money on Public Works projects today.

The problems to making money in Public Works Projects is as follows:

1. Contractors and Engineers never have just the right amount of time and information to “nail down” all of the “moving parts” that need to be analyzed for a truly accurate design and cost estimate for building what is represented by the plans and specifications supplied to us to bid on.
2. Contractor goals are hardly ever aligned with the designer’s goals or the owner’s goals. Therefore, there are three (or more) very competent groups of people all striving to reach their own goals in descending order of importance to their respective firms. It can get complicated quickly.
3. Contractors are required to perform the work but someone else has to decide if the work is acceptable or not. This creates differences of opinion in progress scheduling, and progress payments and final completion ‘triggers”.
4. Even if a Project has a very qualified and experienced Contractor, a great set of Project Plans and Specifications, and an owner with “deep enough pockets” to pay for the work, the world is so complicated that sharing of information is not synced up and delays are hard to absorb with the thin margins (or no margins) that it takes for the Contractor to be the low bidder in the first place. Keep in mind the Engineer generally has a fixed budget to some extent as well.

So how can this very “dynamic” situation be quantified, measured, and have time and cost considerations assigned to it in a reasonable way? Lots of consultants make a living on all of this right?

How about considering formal or informal partnering on more projects? My experience is that partnering provides a means to align the various goals and priorities of each entity, and provides a methodology to share in the risk/reward of putting the three disparate groups together to come up with a better solution than any of the three could have on their own. The Owner, the Engineer, and the Contractor HAVE TO GET ALONG. None of them are perfect and we all realize how competitive the elusive Public Works profit dollar is, so how about helping each other out? Instead of putting all of the “means and methods” of performance of the work on the Contractor, and trying to influence and regulate the Contractor’s means and methods throughout the project, the Engineer and Owner can have an opportunity to avoid claims and delays by partnering with the Contractor to get the job built to the goals that overlap and do not conflict.

Easier said than done?

More to come on this issue—–

That’s All Folks!

John

Recycled Road Materials

The Transportation and Public Works Department is always seeking opportunities to re-purpose, reuse or recycle materials used in our Field Operations.  Each year we recycle about 2000 tons of the asphalt removed from City streets that have failed.  We take most of this material to an asphalt plant, where it is crushed and processed into an asphalt mix that can be used as a new roadway surface.

Before the old material can be added to a new roadway asphalt mix, it must first be crushed and screened to the appropriate size. This material is then used as part of an asphalt mix we call RAP or Recycled Asphalt Pavement. The RAP mix used to rebuild Santa Rosa’s streets contains 20% recycled asphalt.  RAP is quite durable and has a similar life expectancy to that of asphalt mixes made with all new materials.

Asphalt recycling reduces the consumption of scarce natural resources (aggregate and asphalt) and fossil fuels.  Recycling asphalt also dramatically reduces the consumption of resources such as fuel, machinery, transportation and labor when compared with producing virgin asphalt materials.

Did you know that asphalt is the most recycled material in the USA?

According to the Federal Highway Administration, 75 million tons of reclaimed asphalt pavement is reused every year.  This is nearly twice as much as paper, glass, aluminum and plastics combined.
video

video

FUNDING: Senate passes FAST Act, sends it to President Obama

For more information, click here!

Coming up!

The ECA Spec Committee has started meeting again. The committee is partnering with the City of Santa Rosa and discussing Bioswale issues, asphalt temperature requirements, and Santa Rosa sand equivalent specs for Class 2 baserock. With these discussions, the city will look into their requirements to see if any changes can be made.
Also discussed is partnering with the City in notifying ECA when they receive changes from DOHS and other public agencies.  We will notify our members first! Another reason to be an ECA member!

The first notification is from Colleen Ferguson, Deputy Director- Engineering in Capitol Projects Engineering:

“Effective immediately, the paint color for raised medians/nose islands is yellow (instead of white).  This change applies to projects currently under construction for which paint has not yet been applied.

Please also use this new standard for projects in design”.

These notifications will be included in our newsletter and will be located on our website under News – Announcements. Here is the link

Members in the News

Tom Jackson, General Manager of Veale Outdoor Advertising:
Northbay Biz – Outreach and Marketing: Get Their Attention  link

Business Journal Profile:  Marv Soiland link

North Bay Business Journal –
Spotlight: Leaders in Contracting, Richard Ghilotti, Ghilotti Construction Co.; Mike Ghilotti, Ghilotti Bros.; Glen Ghilotti, Team Ghilotti – Link

North Bay Business Journal – Guest commentary, Steve Page, General Manager of Sonoma Raceway, A private-sector solution for Hwy. 37 gridlock link