The Town Council has decided work on the reconstruction of Saguaro Boulevard will begin immediately after the design and bids are in, probably in December 2014.

Council members felt that delays could impact the project’s ultimate cost, resulting in potential overruns.

Staff had proposed an option that would allow construction to work around many downtown seasonal events including the two Chamber of Commerce arts fairs.

That schedule would begin around March 2015, causing a delay of up to three months in starting work. Staff expressed concern that such a delay could impact interest rates on the bonds and materials costs, and the council agreed, voting unanimously to move forward without delays.

Councilman Dennis Brown made the motion to move ahead saying, “I think we have been pregnant long enough, it is time to have the baby.”

According to staff, the winter/spring schedule would have the project completed faster, but it would impact more events as well as the busy visitor season.

The spring/summer schedule would have impacted fewer special events, but it could potentially cause the project to be more expensive due to higher engineering fees for starting and stopping. Also, there could be unknown fluctuations in the bond market and construction material prices.

Ongoing traffic

There was some discussion regarding how traffic on Saguaro would be handled during construction.

Development Services Director Paul Mood said he would not dictate how the contractor chooses to do that, however, the town will specify in the contract that traffic be maintained on Saguaro and business and residential access be available.

There are two options for handling Saguaro traffic during construction. There also will be allowance for road closures for short periods of time.

The two alternatives the contractor may use for maintaining traffic include moving all traffic in both directions to one side or the other as construction is done.

The second option is to maintain traffic in one lane on either side.

The schedule outlined by Mood has the contract for engineering design coming to the Town Council the first meeting in March.

The process for selecting the design engineer has already begun.

The schedule for the project design provides six months for completion, bringing the project to late August.

Mood said a wildcard in the design process is the requirement that utilities must review the plans, which he said could take longer than anticipated, although the standard allowance for such a review is 30 days.

When design is complete the bid process can begin, which would start in September with a contract proposal back to the council in November.

It appears that even on the schedule with no delay the work would not impact the Fountain Festival of Arts in November 2014.

The Great Fair in February 2015 would fall within the construction schedule. Vice Mayor Cassie Hansen suggested Verde River Drive and Paul Nordin Parkway could be used for vendors currently set up on Saguaro.

Several events that are staged using Fountain Park would be impacted including the spring concert series, two disc golf tournaments and St. Patrick’s Day. A couple of running events such as the Mountain to Fountain Run and the Athleta Iron Girl may need to modify race routes due to construction.