Bridge Repair Costs Climb by $1 Million

Repairing the buckled Main Street bridge is now expected to cost more than $2.4 million--about $1 million more than initially estimated.

Yet city engineers recommend that the City Council approve the project anyway, or risk delaying the repairs for another year. The council will consider the restoration project Monday. Just half a mile from where the Ventura River empties into the Pacific Ocean, the old concrete overpass drooped about 6 feet on one lane as a result of last year’s floods. Engineers now believe it is also seismically unsound.

A consultant hired by the city estimated that it would cost $1.4 million to repair the bridge. But the lowest bid from a contractor came in at $1.8 million--about 30% more than city officials had expected for the repairs.

The total cost of the project is now expected to reach $2.4 million by adding in fees for design work, inspections and other add-ons. City officials hope to recover the bulk of the cost through federal disaster assistance funds.

City Engineer Rick Raives attributed the higher-than-expected bids to the difficulty presented by compressing the repairs into a three-month construction schedule.

Because of environmental restrictions, the repairs must occur between August, at the end of the mating season of the least Bell’s vireo, an endangered bird that nests in the Ventura River, and before the November spawning of the tidewater goby, an endangered fish.

Bridge repairs were postponed last summer after a least Bell’s vireo was sighted in the river bottom.

The restrictive timeline would require construction crews to work around the clock to complete the project. The bridge would remain open to vehicular and bicycle traffic for most of the restoration. But there would be some days when the bridge will have to be closed, officials said.