The work at the Union Pacific Railroad tracks at all four Lathrop crossings has been completed.
But there’s one stipulation – there was no time before the work started to allow the City of Lathrop to solicit bids from companies that would be able to make the necessary road repairs in time for the new overcrossings.
That changed on Monday when the Lathrop City Council ratified an emergency $100,000 transfer from both the TDA fund ($70,000) and the street maintenance fund ($30,000) cover the expenses associated with the repairs.
The work was performed by Teichert Construction.
According to the staff report, Lathrop had just over two weeks to prepare for the notification from Union Pacific that they would be closing down the railroad crossings at all four of the city’s major intersections with the line – receiving the notification on Jan. 22 for work that was to begin on Feb. 8. That work has since been completed, but in accordance with the city’s bid policy, it wasn’t enough time to solicit bids from local construction companies and award the lowest bid for the work that had to be completed in accordance with the rail crossing upgrades.
So City Manager Steve Salvatore used his authority to institute emergency procedures that will dole the money out into the respective funds to make the repair work possible, and tap Teichert – who says that they complete it all for under $100,000 – to perform the task.
The blessing of the City Council only further solidifies the position.
In all four Union Pacific Railroad crossings – at McKinley Avenue, Yosemite Avenue, Louise Avenue and Lathrop Road – were closed for up to a week each while crews overhauled the railroad tracks that are exposed to, in some cases, heavy vehicle traffic over the course of a normal day.
A total of $30,000 was included in the last budget for emergency street repair, and that money will be exhausted along with the other $70,000 that is being shuffled to the same account before payment will be made to the firm handling the construction.
According to the preliminary schedule, the last crossing closed was reopened on March 4.
Because Salvatore already authorized the expenditure, the move on Monday was simply to ratify his use of the official power since there wasn’t enough time to approve the work before renovations began.