Contractor expects smoother school commutes through construction area
The San Vicente Road Improvement Project continues to move along on schedule, and construction work will not be impacted by the school traffic that began this week, said the project manager.
“Having performed construction through most of last school year, the contractor already has a good sense of the construction challenges with school traffic in the mix,” project manager Michael Long said last Thursday. “Many of the summertime construction operations, such as the traffic shift and video detection at the signals, have prepared us for a smoother commute with the upcoming addition of school traffic.”
On Sunday, a break in the existing water main on San Vicente Road, just north of Deviney Lane, kept crews from Flatiron West, the county’s contractor, and from Ramona Municipal Water District (RMWD) working to repair the leak.
Tim Clement, RMWD human resources director, said the district got a call of a water main break at approximately 1:45 p.m. Sunday.
“They responded as soon as they received the call,” he said, adding that the pipeline was fairly deep underground.
According to Clement, the leak only impacted one customer and crews worked through the night to have the water main back in service by 5 a.m. Clement said he did not know how much water was lost.
Long said no construction work was being done in that area.
“We’re still working with the water district and contractor to determine why and how,” he said Monday of the pipeline break.
To date, construction crews have installed approximately 50 percent of RMWD’s new water main, said Long.
The current focus is in the section from Warnock Drive to Bunnie King Lane.
The water main is the primary source of water in San Diego Country Estates. RMWD’s pipeline was installed in the county right-of-way in 1973. State law allowed this with the caveat that the district would have to pay to relocate the pipeline when the county made road improvements.
Because of the pipeline’s age, the water district is paying about $5 million for installation of a new line and aligning the work with the county to save money.
Long said roadwork that is underway and expected to continue in September includes maintaining traffic on the second stage detour road, and continuing cut and fill earthwork operations in the stage 1 traffic areas. In July, traffic was shifted from the existing road in stage 1 to new areas of road as crews headed into stage 2 of the 18-month project.
Other work includes utility joint trench construction from Warnock Drive to Deviney Lane, storm drain system construction from Warnock to Wildcat Canyon Road, and construction of a retaining wall south of Deviney Lane.
The $22 million road improvement project is expected to be completed in spring 2016. Long said he will be posting an update on the road project’s website, www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/dpw/engineering/topprojects/san-vicente-road-improvement.html, by the end of August.