Amador Circle, Placer Court, and Ore Court Update:

As the residents of those streets know, the project has been delayed. The delay is caused by an issue that arose when replacing all of the sidewalk panels.

When the engineers did the original design work for the project, the scope of work would only replace sidewalk panels that were in poor condition. As we neared the completion of the plans and were preparing to put the project out to bid, the District General Manager (GM), the Project Engineer, and one of the Trustees from the Board of Trustees walked the entire project to review which sidewalk panels would not be replaced. As we reviewed the panels, none of the sidewalk panels were in great condition. The GM asked the Engineer to please update the price of what it would cost to replace all of the panels. His reasoning for that was multi-faceted. None of the panels were in great condition. After $4 million dollars of work, leaving a smattering of old sidewalk panels intermixed through the project would have degraded the final product. The Engineer did the cost estimate, and the GM directed the Engineer to replace all of the panels. 

The project received a handful of bids, one of which came in $500, 000 under the Engineer's estimate. We knew that there were going to be some problems in the project as this was a very old street, with very old water and sewer infrastructure. The plans from the 1970s and 1980s (when that area was developed) were not precise, so a contingency fund was established in the project to address any unexpected issues. 

As we expected, there were a number of unforeseen issues. Some water lines were a distance off of the locations shown on the old. Electrical infrastructure was encased in a slurry, interfering with the water line placement. A number of properties had large trees, fences, and other items that were blocking access to water lines and encroaching onto the sidewalk. We addressed these issues as we came upon them. Each of those required permission from the owners (homeowners, NV Energy, etc) for us to take the necessary steps to address those problems. 

The largest problem that we ran into is what has delayed the project to this point. If we had left the handful of old sidewalk panels in place, the contractors would have poured the new sidewalk panels to match up to the driveways, curbs, and old sidewalk panels. Since we decided to replace all of the sidewalk panels, an issue arose as they started to mark out the new sidewalk. 82 of the driveways on the street were either high above the level of the sidewalk, or low below the level of the sidewalk. As this area was developed, they just poured the sidewalk in to match the driveways, which meant the sidewalk was not within Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) specificiation. If we had left the older sidewalk panels in, they would have been grandfathered in, and we could have poured the sidewalk back in the way it was. Since we pulled all of the panels, we must put the sidewalk back in place within the limits of the ADA. This is also the right thing to do! We are not going to take shortcuts, and we will complete this project in a way that is correct. 

Had we simply poured the sidewalks back in, 82 homes would have a large lip at the end of their driveway, either up to the sidewalk, or down to the sidewalk. So we changed the project to cut into those driveways and replace that section to match the sidewalk. Again, it this was the right thing to do. In order to disturb those driveways, we needed to coordinate and get permission from those property owners to cut their driveways and match them to the sidewalk.

At that point, the time it took to get the permission from the 82 property owners delayed the project to the point that our asphalt contractors and the cement contractors were past their scheduled times. They cannot simply come out at another time as those contractors are working on other projects, so we had to reschedule those contractors.

Also, a part of this project was to abandon an old water line that was put in place back in the late 1970s. That water line ran from Princeton Drive  over to Amador Circle. We could not abandon that line due to the old valves that were no longer reliable. Replacing those valves would have required demolition of a large part of Amador Circle, which is why we also included that into this project. The contractors have not only been working on Amador Circle, Ore Court, and Placer Court. They have also been on Princeton Drive and Impala Avenue in order to abandon that old water line. 

Abandoning that water line is not just turning off a valve. It requires cutting, blocking and capping the old line, which requires shutting down the water on those streets, and installing a new hydrant on Princeton Avenue so we can flush that line and not leave a dead end on the line. The contractors have been working on this part of the project as well, so when residents of Amador, Ore, and Placer have not seen the contractors, it's because they were in the Princeton Drive and Impala Avenue area working on the water line abandonment. 

At this point, we have the coordination from all of the property owners to modify their driveways, and we are getting the asphalt and concrete subcontractors scheduled. 

One rumor that has been reported to us is that we ran out of money on the project. Rest assured that the District is in better financial health than it has ever been. We budgeted $4.1 million for this project. We are still $300,000 below budget. 

We understand that this is an inconvenience for the residents of those streets, and if it were humanly possible we would have finished by now. Unfortunately, some processes take time, and there is no way to avoid it. When a an unexpected process interepts a project to this magnitude, it causes schedule pushes that can lead to month long delays. We have put notifications and flyers out to the homes on those streets that if they need accomodation for their driveways or  vehicles, to reach out to us and we will make it work. Almost every driveway has a plate or subgrade fill in the sidewalk area, allowing those homeowners to access their properties. A few homeowners have contacted us needing access to their side drives, and we have responded immediately to get them access to those drives. If one of those residents needs access to a part of their property that is hindered by the construction, please contact us and we can have the contractor give access.

We have also made the parking lot at James Lee Park available for those residents to park vehicles that are displaced by the construction. We have coordinated with the Sheriff's Office to let them know that overnight parking is allowed in that parking lot now, and asked for additional patrols through that parking lot.

The GM, Engineer, and Contractor are coordinating daily on this project to keep it moving forward.

We will keep pushing and hope to have this project done soon.

If you have any questions, please call the office at (775) 267-2805, or email the GM directly at cjohnson@ihgid.com. We will answer any questions we can.