Lindsay City Council moving ahead with roundabout

Camarena anticipates construction to begin in June 2018

The Lindsay City Council authorized Tuesday the release of notice of bid documents for the proposed roundabout at Hermosa Street and Westwood Avenue.

City Services Director Michael Camarena said project consultant, Omni Means, A GHD Company, is preparing the construction documents for the referenced project.

As funding provided for the project by Selfhelp Enterprises (SHE) has timeline milestones to be met, Camarena said staff is requesting the authorization to bid the project once the construction documents (plans and specifications) are completed. Camarena said city staff as well as the city engineer have already submitted their comments back and expects the documents by the end of March.

“It is anticipated that bidding process will occur in April 2018 with bid award recommendation to be presented to council in May 2018 and construction to begin in June 2018,” Camarena said.

Lindsay resident Trudy Wischemann questioned how the council is putting out a bid for a project that “hasn’t been approved yet.”

“I am just curious how you managed that,” Wischemann said. “When we were going through the approval of the environmental documents, it was said over and over that you still had to approve the project.”

Nevertheless, City Manager Bill Zigler said staff has been continuing its outreach efforts related to the project.

“I think we have done now five offsite meetings away from these council chambers with different stakeholders, and Mike [Camarena] has had meetings with property owners in the area,” Zigler said, adding that staff has been responding to comments received during outreach such as updating signage around the city’s existing roundabout.

“That is why you see the signs on the roundabout touting its safety benefits,” Zigler said. In addition to bringing the project plans to council at its next meeting, Camarena said staff is also planning to bring forward a concept of landscaping where council will have the ability to choose a direction on the center island landscaping and some of the entry and exist areas that are going to be available with the landscaping.

“So that will be brought before council and we can include the entire set of construction documents at that time as well,” Camarena said.