The Goleta City Council awarded a construction contract of more than $62 million Tuesday evening to Security Paving Co. for Project Connect, the city’s largest capital improvement project that includes the Eckwill Street and Fowler Road extension project and the Hollister Avenue bridge replacement and roundabouts project.
“Project Connect is the largest capital improvement project undertaken by the city to date and is 25 years in the making,” Public Works Assistant Director Nina Buelna said. “This is an impressive undertaking that staff has performed and something I’m proud to be a part of.”
Assistant engineer Melissa Angeles said the two projects included in Project Connect are “considered two of the highest priority transportation projects in the city.”
The Eckwill Street extension project will extend the street across Old Town Goleta from Kellogg Avenue to Fairview Avenue, as well as extend the existing South Street — which will be renamed to Fowler Road — to Technology Drive.
City staff said the street extensions will have one travel lane in each direction, along with left-turn pockets, Class II bike lanes, sidewalks, and landscaped parkways extending along both roadways.
“The existing roadway system within Old Town Goleta has inadequate east-west circulation both north and south of Hollister Avenue and lacks direct access into the southern portions of Old Town Goleta and the Santa Barbara Airport,” the city’s website states. “This project will relieve regional congestion, enhance bicycle and pedestrian circulation, and improve access to the airport.”
A roundabout at the Pine Avenue and Eckwill Street intersection also will be constructed.
Meanwhile, the Hollister Avenue bridge and roundabouts project will replace the Hollister Avenue bridge over San Jose Creek to “achieve 100-year storm flow capacity,” construct two new roundabouts at the Hollister Avenue and Highway 217 ramp intersections, and build a fish passage in San Jose Creek.
Granite Construction Co., which submitted a bid of more than $77 million for the project, submitted a bid protest, alleging that Security Paving “submitted a non-responsive bid by failing to meet the 21% Disadvantaged Business Enterprise participation goal and failed to perform good faith efforts to meet the goal,” city staff said.
Angeles said Public Works staff and the city’s legal counsel team spent a significant amount of time reviewing Security Paving’s good faith efforts and found that Security Paving did demonstrate good faith efforts to meet the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise contract goal.
If the council decided to reject all bids, the city would likely have to pay back millions of dollars in state and federal grants, and risk not receiving future grants from many agencies.
The City Council ultimately decided to reject Granite’s bid protest.
The council voted unanimously to award the construction contract to Security Paving in the amount of $62,746,460.70, as well as about $8.9 million for potential change orders.
“This has been a long time coming,” Councilman James Kyriaco said. “The county had identified before we identified the need for transportation improvements through this area for circulation, for throughput for cars, but also for pedestrians and bike improvements. So much of that is actually now going to happen here. It’s a momentous evening for Goleta.”
The total project costs for Project Connect is estimated to be $100,629,182. According to the staff report, funding is coming from approximately $46.9 million in grants, with the remaining $57.3 million to be covered by local funds.
Construction for Project Connect is anticipated to begin in the spring.