Infrastructure Committee Meeting – June 29, 2017
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Infrastructure Committee Meeting – June 29, 2017
The Infrastructure Committee of the San Diego City Council met on June 29, 2017, with a full quorum including Chair, Vice Chair Ward, and Councilmembers Zapf and Gomez. The committee approved the consent agenda, heard public comment on potholes, and discussed three major infrastructure projects. All three discussion items were unanimously approved for forwarding to the full City Council.
Consent Calendar
- Items 1 through 8 were approved unanimously on a motion by Vice Chair Ward, seconded by Councilmember Gomez.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Martha Welch (member of the public) spoke about potholes across the city, citing specific locations including Qualcomm Way, Westfall Mall, Genesis Avenue, Loha Drive, 15th to 32nd Street, Beach and Second, and Vermont and University. She criticized the city's repair quality, stating that improper patching creates new hazards, and expressed frustration with the lack of visible road maintenance.
Discussion Items
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Item 9: Montezuma Mid‑City Pipeline Phase 2 – Amendment to Design Contract
- Staff Presentation: Elif Chetin (Assistant Deputy Director, Public Works) and Brian Wutell (Senior Civil Engineer) presented. The project adds a parallel water pipeline to the existing 54‑inch Trojan pipeline (built in the 1940s) to improve reliability for mid‑city communities. Phase 2 runs from Alvarado Treatment Plant to Alvarado Boulevard; Phase 2A will connect the 69th & Mohawk pump station to Phase 1. The consultant contract with SOMAS is being amended by $277,000 (from $1,653,000 to $1,931,000) due to extensive engineering needed to split the project into two components. Total project cost is $33.04 million. Phase 2 construction ($22 million) starts summer 2018, ends spring 2020. Phase 2A ($3 million) starts winter 2017/18, ends fall 2018. The amendment extends the contract duration to October 2021.
- Councilmember Gomez expressed full support for the project but raised concerns about traffic impacts near Freeway 8 and requested a traffic control plan that avoids peak hours, with community notification. Staff confirmed a 24/7 traffic control plan will be prepared and shared with his office.
- Vote: Motion to approve the staff recommendation and forward to full council by Councilmember Gomez, seconded by Vice Chair Ward. Passed unanimously.
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Item 10: Multiple Award Design‑Build (MAC) Contracts for Intelligent City Outdoor Lighting
- Staff Presentation: Darren Greenhalgh (Environmental Services), Lori Cosio‑Hazel (Project Manager), and Jack Clark (Deputy Director) presented. The MAC contracts (up to $100 million over five years) will streamline procurement for outdoor lighting retrofits. The first project is a $30 million retrofit of 14,000 city‑owned street lights and 3,200 sensors to LED with adaptive controls. Benefits include: remote monitoring, energy savings of 2.8 million kWh annually ($2.8 million/year), reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and data collection for parking, traffic, and environmental analytics. Funding for the $30 million comes from a GE Capital loan (13‑year term) approved in February 2017; savings exceed loan payments. Five contractors were shortlisted: Barn Hart Reese, HMS, Select Electric, Siemens, and Southern Contracting.
- Councilmember Zapf asked about funding (clarified that $30 million is already identified) and expressed enthusiasm for the technology, noting that remote fault detection will reduce citizen complaints about broken lights. Councilmember Gomez requested the expected GHG reduction (staff promised to provide it) and urged aggressive pursuit of grants. Vice Chair Ward asked about coordination with Streets Division (confirmed) and whether the work plan will be shared with council districts (yes).
- Vote: Motion to approve by Councilmember Zapf, seconded by Councilmember Gomez. Passed unanimously.
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Item 11: Pump Station 2 Power Reliability and Surge Protection – Construction and CM Contracts
- Staff Presentation: Mark Nassar (Deputy Director), Debbie Van Martin, and Alex Garcia presented. Pump Station 2 is the city’s largest sewer pump station (at the airport, 300 feet from San Diego Bay), handling all regional wastewater flows to Point Loma treatment plant. The project adds redundant emergency backup power: two new diesel generators, two new natural‑gas generators, surge protection, heat exchange upgrades, control system upgrades, variable‑frequency drives on two pumps, replacement of 30‑year‑old staff trailers, and ADA upgrades. Construction contract awarded to Steve P. Rados, Inc. (lowest bidder) for $56,228,000. Construction management contract awarded to Black & Veatch (highest qualified) for $3,749,869. Total project cost is $72.2 million (hard costs $56.2M, soft costs $16.0M including design, permitting, etc.). The project spans four years; backup generators will be operational in year three. The pump station must remain fully operational throughout construction.
- Councilmember Zapf asked about the state revolving fund loan (applied for, reasonable assurance of approval; contingency from wastewater fund). She moved approval. Councilmember Gomez asked about energy usage and suggested exploring solar on the large roof area; staff agreed to look into it. He also made broader comments urging the city to update its purchasing/contracting policies to better reflect the city’s minority‑majority population (current 2% goal for minority‑owned businesses). Vice Chair Ward asked about vulnerability during the 2011 countywide power outage (staff explained that the facility relied on pipeline storage and temporary backup generators brought in for El Niño; the project provides permanent redundancy). He also inquired about coordination with the Pure Water project (confirmed) and expressed concern about cost growth from $51M to $72M, asking that scope be appropriately sized. Staff stated that condition assessments for other pump stations do not require similar magnitude upgrades.
- Vote: Motion by Councilmember Zapf, seconded by Councilmember Gomez. Passed unanimously.
Key Outcomes
- Consent agenda (items 1–8) approved unanimously.
- Item 9: Amendment to SOMAS contract for Montezuma Mid‑City Pipeline Phase 2 design approved; forwarded to full council.
- Item 10: Five MAC contractors and $30 million CIP for Intelligent City Outdoor Lighting approved; forwarded to full council.
- Item 11: Construction contract award ($56,228,000) to Steve P. Rados, Inc. and construction management contract ($3,749,869) to Black & Veatch for Pump Station 2 approved; forwarded to full council.
- The next Infrastructure Committee meeting is scheduled for July 12, 2017.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us for uh the June meeting of the infrastructure committee. Today is June 29th. Let the record reflect that we are joined by a full compliment of our committee, including Vice Chair Ward and Council Members Zaf and Gomez. We also have our city attorney representative. It is not Mark Mercer. It is Ray Palmucci today. We have our IBA representative, Jillian Cassie, our mayor representative Alejandra Gov I always butcher your name, Alejandro. It's so terrible. Gavaldon. And uh our infrastructure committee consultant, of course, Lee Friedman. We have one member of the public wishing to speak on non-agenda, that is Martha Welch. Come forward. You have two minutes. Potholes in the city beat. New one is on um Qualcomm way uh the ramp for um callcom the uh fryers ramp to eight. Qual what way? It says half it's just it's trucking and killed me someday, he said stupid hole but it formed of some road conjecting underway on the power. It was compared with rope pairs. The other one last week. The pothole was uh Westfall uh mall. It's broken asphalt like a swimming pool. It's a section of Genesis and Avenue and Loha Drive. It could be it's a it's a it's like a pool. Now also the other other ones that have uh like one street and um 15 to 32nd. It's a pot uh it's patched and then the asphalt is um when you patch it, it goes down like this, so you have a big bump. We have another one at Beach and and um second has the same sort of problem. When you fix the road, if you with asphalt, it goes down like this, so it's not even so you you you you guys are making potholes because I don't know what you're doing who fixes these roads. I don't think it's you, I think you have uh people who do this, but if you doing it's the cheapest people coming down, or they don't do a job or something like that, but you're creating these potholes yourself. Not always not always around going down, like Turco said he has one road that's all torn up and with wires cupping all that stuff. You know, you're creating these potholes yourself. Because you don't do a good job. If you come over later and put asphalt and it's lower than that, it's like that. On university, on one side, the bus has a big patch, which is really nice. On the other side has got a big dent and it's all broken up. Vermont and university is all broken up too. Everywhere you go in the city, it's all broken up. And because you haven't where's where are you fixing these roads? I don't know. Market maybe it's only when you did. Thank you. That concludes not agenda public comment. We will turn to committee comment. Any comment from members of the committee? Seeing none, we'll turn to City Attorney IBA may oral staff comment. Any of that? No? All right, moving right along. We have our adoption agenda, our meeting minutes from our May 24th meeting will stand approved as distributed, unless there are any objections or corrections. Hearing and seeing none, those are approved.
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