Cal Poly May Study Road Regrading Cost

Searching for an unbiased estimate of how much it will cost to regrade Borchard Road, the City Council this week decided to approach Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to do the work.

Councilman Dennis Gillette proposed that students at the state university gauge the price of adjusting the controversial thoroughfare from a 12% grade to the city standard of 5%.

“I suspect if they agreed to do it, the cost would be relatively minor and there would be some good academic value to . . . the students,” he said.

The university regularly takes on such projects, but it would depend on whether the timing is right or if a professor is interested, said Amy Hewes, spokeswoman for the school’s college of engineering.

Director of Public Works Don Nelson will look into the situation and see if the university--or another regional school with a strong civil engineering program--is interested.

Because the extension of Borchard has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits, trying to find a private engineering firm to provide a regrading estimate would be difficult, Gillette said.

Mayor Linda Parks originally recommended a new study of the road extension, which is expected to be completed next month, because of safety concerns. The council had earlier approved the 12% grade but has since questioned that decision.

According to Charles Cohen, an attorney for one of the project’s developers, the whole idea is preposterous. Regrading the road at this point will have “significant environmental effects, legal consequences and many unforeseeable costs above and beyond simply engineering and actual grading costs,” Cohen said in a letter given to the council at Tuesday’s meeting.

But Parks sees no other solution.

“The alternative would be to keep the road in a dangerous condition,” Parks said. “To move dirt has some environmental impacts, but certainly it’s preferable to a dangerous road.”