DeLuz Road guardrail replacement contract to be re-bid

The County of San Diego will re-bid a construction contract which will likely include replacing a guardrail along DeLuz Road.

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Nov. 6 to authorize the advertisement for bid and subsequent award of a construction contract to install new guardrail segments and replace existing guardrail end sections throughout the unincorporated portion of the county and to appropriate an additional $250,000 for the work.

Each year the county’s Department of Public Works repairs, installs, and replaces guardrails and end sections along roads where guardrails have been damaged or where DPW has determined the greatest need to upgrade existing guardrails to current design standards. The county supervisors had initially authorized a construction contract on May 8, when $313,000 was budgeted for the work.

Bids for the contract were opened July 9. Only one bid was submitted, and that was for $401,216. The bid was reviewed and then rejected primarily because it exceeded the engineer’s estimate and was deemed unreasonable.

DPW identified a fund balance from Proposition 1B revenue (Proposition 1B was approved by the state’s voters in November 2006 and authorized $2 billion of funding for local streets and roads) and recommended the addition of $250,000 of Proposition 1B money to the previously-budgeted $250,000 of Highway User Tax Account revenue obtained from sales tax on gasoline and $63,000 from a settlement involving a Valley Center project which will cover 1,200 feet of guardrail along Mirar de Valle Road.

The bid package is structured with a base bid consisting of the minimum number of locations and a group of additive alternatives, or locations which can be added to the contract should funding permit. “That’s always the wild card,” DPW capital improvements program manager Terry Rayback said of funding for the additive alternatives.

The DeLuz Road guardrail 100 feet north of Mile Post 5.0 will be replaced with one whose endpoints meet current standards. In the original bid package the DeLuz Road guardrail was on the base bid list. The revised bid package has only the four Mirar de Valle Road guardrails as base bid items. Eight single-project additive alternatives total 4,250 feet. The 400 feet along South Grade Road leading to Palomar Mountain is the first additive alternative. The 100 feet along DeLuz Road is the second additive alternative.

“Hopefully we get good bids. Then we can afford all the items,” Rayback said.

The repackaging of the locations into separate additive alternatives is expected to increase the number of interested bidders.

The design for the guardrail replacements was completed prior to the May 8 approval of the original bids, and since all work will be performed within existing county right-of-way no right-of-way acquisition will be needed. The construction is now scheduled to begin in early 2014 and be complete in summer 2014.