By Christin Evans, HANC Vice-President

Alex Murillo from the Department of Public Works let us know that although no contractor has been secured for the bulk of the planned Muni Forward / Public Realm Haight Street project, the city may start tearing up Haight street as early as June for sewer work.

Upon the news, the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association made a request for the city to delay.  The concern being that the city was about to abandon its “Dig Once” policy in favor of a piecemeal approach to the project which was already planned to take a lengthy two years.  The fear being that once the sewer work is completed, temporary asphalt would be put in until a contractor to complete the remainder of the work is secured adding to the overall time Haight street construction lasts.

The city has a contact for as-needed sewer work with a contractor Murillo described as “one of the best.” The department’s desire was to start work as early as June 2018 in order for that phase of work to complete before the holiday moratorium which takes place across the city’s commercial corridors from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day each year.

Initially when the city put out a request for bids for Muni Forward / Public Realm work earlier this year, no contractors submitted a bid.  The city reports that projects which previously would receive multiple bids now receive only a few.  And, there are occasional situations now like this one when no bids are received at all.  This reflects the regional construction market demand where the city now competes with other municipalities, developers and even tech companies who are also funding large scale construction projects.

We now have to wait and see what the city decides.  Keep a look out for construction machinery arrival soon.