The driving experience in recent weeks along Union Road between Louise Avenue and Lathrop Road has been almost akin to a lunar surface expedition.
I take this route practically every day, so I wrote about my gripe in a column written a few days ago. I was frustrated that another perfectly smooth road had been torn apart by a contracted crew working on an underground project without putting the road back to its original condition. The repair was such that the uneven pavement made driving not only unpleasant but, in fact, quite dangerous.
One reader promptly pointed out to me that instead of putting the blame on a contractor, I should have called the City of Manteca because it is the city that is doing the road work to “upgrade the water system.” The reader went on to say that “it was also the city that dug up Lathrop Road (between Airport and Union) and ...Airport between Louise and Yosemite.”
First of all, the reader got it right that I should have called City Hall first. For that, I say mea culpa.
But the reader got it partly right and partly wrong on the rest of her observation.
Yes, this project is part of the city’s ongoing effort to improve the quality of our drinking water. But it’s not city employees who are doing the work. The job is being done by a company contracted by the city to install the 12-inch blue water main pipes underground. For this particular project funded by the government’s stimulus money, the contractor is DA Woods.
I got that information from the project’s supervisor, Dave Livingston, whose patient responses to my questions as a concerned citizen made me think of the time when government employees were called civil service workers.
Here’s the skinny on this ongoing road work on Union Road and elsewhere, and how the contractor is going to put the torn-up road back to its original integrity, as gathered from Livingston.
The work that has been going on at Union Road from Louise Avenue to Lathrop Road is to facilitate the delivery of drinking water from the South San Joaquin Surface Water project to the city water tank located on Lathrop Road just east of the Woodbridge shopping center on the northeast corner of Union and Lathrop.
Another leg of the Union Road project takes the work east on Northgate Drive down to the Northgate Park where another city well that needs to be blended with this surface water is located.
The purpose of blending the SSJID surface water with city well water is to lower the city wells’ arsenic content to the government’s mandated levels. Diluting well water with SSJID’s treated water is a much cheaper way of meeting that mandate than building a multimillion-dollar arsenic treatment facility as some cities are doing including the City of Lathrop. However, I understand, from Livingston’s explanation, that a trio of city wells around the Moffat Boulevard area can’t get SSJID water so a filter station will be needed to treat the water at these locations.
A little over two miles of water main pipes are being installed in the ongoing project along Union Road. The project should be done in another couple of months, Livingston said.
As for the complaints “about the bumping and stuff” on the road where the crews are working, that’s because the asphalt that has been used to cover the trenched areas were what the industry calls “temporary asphalt” or “throw-away asphalt” which did not hold too well. Because of the recent storms, there have been some rough spots on the temporary asphalt, Livingston said.
Apparently, this is the same situation that happened on Lathrop Road between Union and Airport, and Airport Way between Louise and Yosemite Avenue.
When all the pipes are installed, the contractor will go back and make all the necessary road repairs using slurry seal or asphalt, Livingston said.
“When the whole (Union) road is done, that road is going to be slurry sealed and it will be nice and black,” he added.
As the project inspector, he will make sure that that will happen, he said.
It appears not just a few concerned residents made known their displeasure about the road conditions in the areas affected but especially the section around East Union High School and the Raley’s shopping center. Many of the callers were residents at Del Webb, Livingston said. Last week alone, the city received 45 calls from these concerned residents, he said.
“Unfortunately, people’s lives are going to be disrupted for a while, but life will be back to normal and the benefit will be great,” assured Livingston.
I take this route practically every day, so I wrote about my gripe in a column written a few days ago. I was frustrated that another perfectly smooth road had been torn apart by a contracted crew working on an underground project without putting the road back to its original condition. The repair was such that the uneven pavement made driving not only unpleasant but, in fact, quite dangerous.
One reader promptly pointed out to me that instead of putting the blame on a contractor, I should have called the City of Manteca because it is the city that is doing the road work to “upgrade the water system.” The reader went on to say that “it was also the city that dug up Lathrop Road (between Airport and Union) and ...Airport between Louise and Yosemite.”
First of all, the reader got it right that I should have called City Hall first. For that, I say mea culpa.
But the reader got it partly right and partly wrong on the rest of her observation.
Yes, this project is part of the city’s ongoing effort to improve the quality of our drinking water. But it’s not city employees who are doing the work. The job is being done by a company contracted by the city to install the 12-inch blue water main pipes underground. For this particular project funded by the government’s stimulus money, the contractor is DA Woods.
I got that information from the project’s supervisor, Dave Livingston, whose patient responses to my questions as a concerned citizen made me think of the time when government employees were called civil service workers.
Here’s the skinny on this ongoing road work on Union Road and elsewhere, and how the contractor is going to put the torn-up road back to its original integrity, as gathered from Livingston.
The work that has been going on at Union Road from Louise Avenue to Lathrop Road is to facilitate the delivery of drinking water from the South San Joaquin Surface Water project to the city water tank located on Lathrop Road just east of the Woodbridge shopping center on the northeast corner of Union and Lathrop.
Another leg of the Union Road project takes the work east on Northgate Drive down to the Northgate Park where another city well that needs to be blended with this surface water is located.
The purpose of blending the SSJID surface water with city well water is to lower the city wells’ arsenic content to the government’s mandated levels. Diluting well water with SSJID’s treated water is a much cheaper way of meeting that mandate than building a multimillion-dollar arsenic treatment facility as some cities are doing including the City of Lathrop. However, I understand, from Livingston’s explanation, that a trio of city wells around the Moffat Boulevard area can’t get SSJID water so a filter station will be needed to treat the water at these locations.
A little over two miles of water main pipes are being installed in the ongoing project along Union Road. The project should be done in another couple of months, Livingston said.
As for the complaints “about the bumping and stuff” on the road where the crews are working, that’s because the asphalt that has been used to cover the trenched areas were what the industry calls “temporary asphalt” or “throw-away asphalt” which did not hold too well. Because of the recent storms, there have been some rough spots on the temporary asphalt, Livingston said.
Apparently, this is the same situation that happened on Lathrop Road between Union and Airport, and Airport Way between Louise and Yosemite Avenue.
When all the pipes are installed, the contractor will go back and make all the necessary road repairs using slurry seal or asphalt, Livingston said.
“When the whole (Union) road is done, that road is going to be slurry sealed and it will be nice and black,” he added.
As the project inspector, he will make sure that that will happen, he said.
It appears not just a few concerned residents made known their displeasure about the road conditions in the areas affected but especially the section around East Union High School and the Raley’s shopping center. Many of the callers were residents at Del Webb, Livingston said. Last week alone, the city received 45 calls from these concerned residents, he said.
“Unfortunately, people’s lives are going to be disrupted for a while, but life will be back to normal and the benefit will be great,” assured Livingston.
