IRVINE : Widening of Jamboree Road Is Further Delayed by Strike

The 10-month-old Jamboree Road widening project is three months behind schedule, in part because of a strike by heavy-equipment operators, city officials said this week.

Installation of curbs and gutters for the $7-million project was delayed by heavy winter rains. That part of the job was completed two weeks ago, city engineers said, but the end of the project is still at least another month away.

“Our first blow was all the rain during the winter, which shut the project down for months,” said Russ Thiele, city project manager.

“As much as we want to complete this project, here we are with another problem.”

The strike began when the heavy-equipment operators’ contract expired on July 1, said Jim Keown, vice president of Sully-Miller Contracting Co. in Anaheim.

Keown’s company was hired to widen both sides of Jamboree Road from three to four lanes from Main Street to Barranca Parkway.

“It’s not a big deal, it’s just the standard contract that expired,” Keown said of the company’s agreement with the Operating Engineers Union Local 12, based in Pasadena.

Thiele said that a strike affecting the contractor’s suppliers of concrete and asphalt also must be resolved.

The only good news for commuters on clogged Jamboree Road, which had been narrowed to two lanes in each direction during the construction, is that a third lane has been reopened until the strike is over, Thiele said.

The city’s ongoing Culver Drive underpass project, which includes construction of a railroad bridge and a pedestrian and bicycle overpass, has not been affected by the strike, Thiele said, and is scheduled for completion in December.