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The San Marcos City Council asked a burning question during a discussion of work along C.M. Allen Parkway: “When is it going to be done?”
At its meeting Tuesday night, council voted to approve a change order for work being done as part of the roadway reconstruction project. The new work involves replacing or relocating sanitary sewer and water lines, installing conduit for the city’s Information Technology Department and working on the Hutchison Biofiltration Pond. But the overall concern is when the roadway will be open again.
Greg Schwarz, senior project engineer, told council that the anticipated date for substantial completion —meaning the roadway will be open — is mid-October. The anticipated date for final completion is in mid-November.
Part of the delay in the work, Schwarz said, is the number of rainy days and the amount of rain the city has received recently. There have been 48 days of rain since the project started, he said, and in the past five months the city has received more than 20 inches of rain.
Council member Ed Mihalkanin asked Schwarz how confident staff is that the timeline will be achieved. Schwarz said confidence is good as long as there aren’t another 48 days of rain.
“If we get another 20 inches, it can slow things down,” he said.
As for access to events in the parks near CM Allen this summer, Schwarz said discussions have been held with event coordinators about helping people find their way to the parks. He said engineers are looking into providing a crosswalk at Hopkins Street to help pedestrians get to summer concerts and other events.
“I”m glad that you’re going to do a crosswalk at Hopkins, but it can’t come too soon,” Mayor Jane Hughson Said.
The extra work council approved Tuesday night includes replacing an old sewer line made of clay and providing an alternate to a current sewer line that will be in conflict with the city’s upcoming Purgatory Creek project.
“We learned that this sewer line that starts at University and runs along the river and goes along to Cheatham Street … it’s an older line,” he said. “We’ve had indications in February that it was going to be in conflict with the Purgatory Creek project. … We looked at ways to see if we could just abandon this line.”
Additionally, the city’s IT Department decided that it would like to install some conduit as part of the direct communication lines to downtown. The new conduit will connect to the existing IT conduit that runs along Hutchison Street, Schwarz said.
Improvements to the Hutchison Biofiltration Pond are set to include erosion protection, filtration media and landscaping.
“We’re going to do some work to get it back to its functioning condition,” Schwarz said of the pond.
The cost for the change order is $365,840, though a state grant and the Habitat Conservation Plan will provide part of the funding.
