The Goleta City Council delayed deciding Tuesday how to move forward with the Old Town Interim Striping Project after construction bids came in more than $2 million over budget.

Because construction bids for the project came in at over twice the engineer’s estimate of $1.8 million — with Granite Construction submitting a bid of about $4 million and Toro Enterprises submitted a bid of about $4.4 million — the council is now faced with the decision to further delay the project by rejecting both bids and rebidding next year, or award the project to Granite with the lowest bid. Paying that amount would mean having about $3.6 million less available for other capital improvement projects.

“The reason why we believe the bids came in higher than the city engineer’s estimate was due to market conditions. There’s a high demand for contractors due to a small pool of contractors in our area, also the cost of goods and labor increase,” city assistant engineer Daniel Virgen said. “We reached out to contractors for feedback on their bid amounts. The two main reasons were material cost and night work hours, which resulted in increased costs for electrical labor.”

Instead of choosing one of the options Tuesday, the City Council decided to wait and make a decision during a special meeting on Oct. 30, which will focus on capital projects and financing.

The Hollister Avenue Old Town Interim Striping Project is set to restripe Hollister Avenue between Fairview and Kinman avenues to reduce travel lanes from two lanes to one lane in each direction, add back-in angled parking, and install bike lanes in each direction.

The city also plans to implement 90-minute parking limits and upgrade traffic signals in Old Town.

Contract Traffic Engineer Derek Rapp said the project aims to increase parking supply and improve traffic safety in Old Town Goleta.

While the City Council delayed making a decision so they could get more information from staff, most of the councilmembers seemed to lean more towards moving the project forward sooner than later.

“For me, this is also a safety project,” Councilmember James Kyriaco said. “We know that there are real human effects caused by delay … I don’t want to delay; Old Town has been waiting way too long for something as basic as a bike lane.”

Rapp said that in the past five years, the Hollister Avenue Old Town corridor has experienced a collision rate that is two to three times higher than the statewide average, and it also has a higher incidence of serious-injury accidents.

“Certainly, we need to prioritize safety,” Councilmember Kyle Richards said.

“The safety of our Old Town residents, the safety of anyone driving or riding a bike or walking through Old Town. If we think about the families that live there, the families with children, the seniors, we know that Old Town is a disadvantaged community. I think we owe it to our residents and to the city and to the people that live there and the people that visit there to make it a safe environment.”

The Goleta City Council will come back to this item and make a decision during its special meeting on Oct. 30. No other details have been provided about the meeting, but more information will be available to the public closer to that date.