Road workers repair a stretch of Harbor Street in 2015, during the City of Morro Bay’s annual street paving repair job. Photo by Neil Farrell
The City of Morro Bay is out for bids now on the 2026 Annual Street paving job, and the City has put together an impressive amount of money to do the work.
The notice for bidders went out Sept. 1 and the deadline to put in a bid is 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29. The City Clerk is slated to open the sealed bids at that time and read them aloud in what is supposed to be a public meeting in the conference room at City Hall. If too many folks turn out for the big reveal, they will do it outsides in front of City Hall, according to an announcement from City Engineer Nate Stong.
Under “Scope of Work,” Stong wrote: “The work shall include, but is not limited to, providing all tools, materials, labor, equipment, and incidentals necessary for the rehabilitation of asphalt concrete roadways utilizing a combination of treatments including slurry seal, grinding and localized dig outs, full rehabilitation, and construction of concrete facilities including curb, gutter, sidewalk, curb ramps, valley gutters and spandrels. All utilities not called out to be replaced will be protected in place.
“Manholes and other utility access frames and covers will be protected in place or adjusted to grade. The work will also include any required traffic control, signage, public notifications, storm water control, vegetation removal, formwork, and all other work necessary to render the infrastructure/facility complete and operational, as shown on the Project Plans and Specifications, as specified herein, and in accordance with City of Morro Bay Standard Specifications and Drawings, and Caltrans Standard Specifications.”
Potential bidders have to get the bid package, including the list of proposed street repairs, through ASAP Reprographics on Quintana Road for a $25 fee.
The street repair project is an annual thing for the City, as officials and road engineers comb the streets in town grading their condition and classifying them under the amount of work needed to either extend the life of the current pavement with treatments like slurry seals, to the worst conditioned streets that require being dug up and new base put down along with new pavement.
The amount of work every year has varied depending on the amount of money the City has pulled together from various sources. Among these is the City’s Measure Q half-cent sales tax, which was pledged to be partially used for street and sidewalk repairs. The City also gets money from the State through Prop. 1 and from the normal State and Federal gasoline taxes.
This year the City has what’s believed to be a record amount of money to spend.
Understandably, the City doesn’t want to tout how much money it has or what its engineer’s estimate is. “The City does not wish to publicize the engineer’s estimate of the project cost,” Stong wrote in the Notice to Bidders, “since this information may tend to influence the number and nature of bids received.
“However, for the bidder’s convenience and bonding estimating, the engineer’s estimate falls within a range of $2,750,000 to $3,250,000 for the base bid and approximately $500,000 for each additive alternate.”
Normally a basic bid covers things like set up, materials and the basic list of work to be done.
Additives are additional work the City may decide needs to be done now and bidders include a separate cost for which they are willing to tackle those items too.
Stong added that the allotted time for construction is 90 working days from the time the City awards the contract, expected to be in early October. Awarding a contract is normally taken to the City Council for a look before being approved.
As usual, residents can expect to have a road crew leapfrogging from street to street during construction. The City is expected to publish notices for when any particular street might be closed or have traffic controls in place. And the public will be reminded to drive carefully in construction zones and obey the men and women flagging traffic for everyone’s safety.
