Street rehab bids are on Huntington City Council’s agenda Tuesday
The Huntington Beach City Council on Tuesday is expected to consider which company should take the lead on a project to rehabilitate two major city streets.
Also on the agenda is whether the Central Library should start opening on Sundays, but City Manager Fred Wilson is recommending that the council vote to move that item to the Jan. 26 meeting to coincide with a discussion of the city budget.
The Edinger and Warner avenues rehabilitation project will include replacing old asphalt and dilapidated sidewalks, as well as adjusting sewer manholes and water meter boxes.
In a report, Wilson recommends that the city contract with the R.J. Noble Co., an engineering business that primarily serves Orange and Riverside counties.
R.J. Noble’s bid of $1,416,298 is the lowest among those submitted by the five companies that responded after bidding opened Dec. 29, Wilson said.
Wilson said he also favors the company because it provided “acceptable” work while heading a reconstruction project on Talbert Avenue that wrapped up in December.
For the work, the city will be using a special rubberized asphalt created from over 290,000 used tires, keeping them out of landfills, the report says.
The two streets have not been renovated since 1999. The cost of the project is estimated at $1.65 million, the report says. It is being funded by Measure M funds and a $500,000 Orange County Transportation Authority grant. Measure M funds are specifically slated for transportation improvements. It was first passed by county voters in 1990 and then renewed in 2006.
The city has also been grappling with the possibility of opening the Huntington Beach Central Library on Sundays.
Former council member Dave Sullivan, who retired from his post in 2016, proposed the item on Nov. 21.
The library had been open on Sundays from 1997 to 2010, the reduction to six days a week coming during the national recession.
“The decision to end Sunday hours was difficult, but was necessary to address the budget reductions at that time,” the city manager’s report says.
The report estimates that the cost of adding Sunday hours could vary from $70,000 to $260,000 annually, depending on the added staffing and maintenance demands.
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