CHICO — A project decades in the making is finally coming to fruition in the eastern part of Chico.
The Bruce Road Reconstruction Project, which the city says is its largest infrastructure project in the city’s history, broke ground Thursday morning as city staffers and councilors came together to celebrate its kickoff.
“It’s been on the city books for over 30 years,” said Chico Public Works Director of Engineering Brendan Ottoboni. “It was the early ’90s when it first came up as a concept and when the general plan started identifying this as a growth area for the city.”
The contract with Knife River Construction comes out to about $29 million for the project and of that, $22 million was secured through the Infill Infrastructure Grant with help from Assemblyman James Gallagher’s office.
As far as changes to the road go, the project includes a new two-lane bridge, replacing the old one over Little Chico Creek, changing the two-lane road into a four-lane thoroughfare, expanding sidewalks and adding new bike lanes.
Over three decades, the project has seen its share of hurdles such as environmental impact risks and even a lawsuit.
“The biggest challenge from a conceptual standpoint was the known environmental impacts with the wetlands and the Butte County meadowfoam,” Ottoboni said. “I remember conversations when I first came to work with the city about how Bruce Road will never happen because it’s too impactful from an environmental standpoint. So we started in earnest in 2016 and went through all the biological surveys and studies and analysis and we had mitigation credits. And so we really navigated that process very well.”
The groundbreaking event had guests from the city and the Chico City Council including Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds, Councilor Tom van Overbeek, City Manager Mark Sorensen, private developer Dan Gonzalez and Juleah Cordi, a representative from Gallagher’s office.
“We’re looking forward to the future of this area, looking forward to the growth,” Reynolds said. “As we know, in our general plan this is where the city of Chico is slated to grow and so we look forward to hopefully having a beautifully planned community out here that will mirror the amazing work that Dan (Gonzalez) has done.”
Traffic impacts
A sign on Bruce Road near Skyway has been set up for some time now warning of a road closure starting Monday, April 22. A project of this scale is bound to create delays and traffic impacts.
Ottoboni said the estimated construction time comes out to about 18 months.
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“That will take it until the end of summer next year probably,” Ottoboni said. “The first phase, which is going to be the most significant impact in terms of closures, is going to probably be about eight months through the end of the year. That’s going to be closing the bridge area so we can demolish and rebuild a brand new bridge and it’s going to get raised about three feet.”
There will also be a temporary closure at the end of East 20th Street to allow for the crews to get more done at once.
“That allows the contractor to get in, demo it and build it all at one time so it’s built to a higher standard and higher quality,” Ottoboni said. “And it’s safer, you’re not working around live traffic for both the traveling public but also the workers and the construction crews. So it’s kind of a win-win. We saved probably about $2-3 million by allowing that level of closure versus more traditional traffic control.”
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