Editor's note: This story is part of an ongoing series that tracks the city's expenditures appearing on upcoming Santa Monica City Council consent agendas. Consent agenda items are routinely passed by the City Council with little or no discussion from elected officials or the public. However, many of the items have been part of public discussion in the past.
CITY HALL — City Council will consider spending $3,264,000 at Tuesday's meeting with most of the cash going toward the California Incline project.
As covered in-depth in the Daily Press last week, demolition and reconstruction of the California Incline, which takes drivers from up on Ocean Avenue down the bluffs to the Pacific Coast Highway below, is scheduled to start in February.
The incline could close in March, for more than a year, and council will consider paying CALTROP $2,665,000 for construction management and communication services during the project. This isn't the construction contract — that will be brought to council early next year.
"Construction management services would include inspecting the contractor's work during construction and ensuring adherence to approved plans and specifications, verifying and documenting field changes and unforeseen conditions, monitoring and mitigating impacts as a result of the construction activities, attending contractor's safety meetings, attending progress meetings, and maintaining all necessary inspection documentation relevant to the work conducted during construction," city officials said in a report.
More Downtown Specific Plan work
Council will consider adding $120,000 to an existing contract with AMEC to study a broader one-way street network in the Downtown Specific Plan. The plan, which is currently in the works, regulates land-uses Downtown. Much of the study is already complete but the additional cash would go toward the one-way street study.
"The study would evaluate system performance from a number of perspectives, provide information on potential benefits, explore strategies that could improve the pedestrian experience and ensure access to parking structures, and include information that addresses navigability challenges for visitors unfamiliar with the Downtown that are typically associated with a one-way street network," city officials said.
City Yards parking study
Back in the 1940s, City Hall started using City Yards, located at Michigan Avenue and 24th Street, as its headquarters for municipal fieldwork. Today, according to city officials, City Yards has twice the operational functions and number of employees as it was designed to house. Naturally, parking needs have increased as well.
City Hall is planning an overhaul and reorganization of the yards. City officials will unveil the plan, which contains 16 phases, next month. Among other things, this plan identifies the need for a parking structure to be built.
Council will consider paying $95,000 to International Parking Design for a parking study, to evaluate the needs of the area.
Some residents say that the area — which is home to a station of the incoming Expo Light Rail and the soon-to-be developed Bergamot Station Art Center — needs more parking. The parking study would take that into account.
BBB security
Council will consider adding $384,000 to an existing contract with ABM Security for Big Blue Bus security services.
BBB will use the money to update and rehabilitate its security gate system, adding automatic vehicular gates, monitoring and key card systems and security camera system throughout the BBB campus.
The upgrades will mean an 80-hour reduction in security guard coverage each week.
"Currently there are no in-house personnel within the department with the training or expertise to provide security services as these functions are outside of the scope of standard transit operations," city officials said in a report to council. "In the past Santa Monica Police officers were utilized for on-route security issues but the program was ended due to budgetary reasons and the redeployment of the officers from the detail."
dave@www.smdp.com
