A Morro Bay man’s contracting company has landed another County contract to fix an eroding roadway located east of Cayucos.
David Crye General Engineering Contractor, Inc., was the lowest bidder at $439,000 for the job to repair Cayucos Creek Road at mile marker 1.3, located east of Cayucos on the road out past Hardie Park.
A March 2019 inspection report noted significant embankment erosion from high creek flows, and undermining of Cayucos Creek Road. The undermining has resulted “in narrowing of the travelled way down to single lane traffic. Temporary slope stabilization measures were implemented by the County as an interim measure,” reads a staff report.
That road is the only way in and out of the valley and must remain passable. “It is critical that Cayucos Creek Road remain passable,” the County report said, “given that past the project site, the road provides the only access to more than two dozen residences. This project will repair the roadway and the associated embankment that is damaged and will re-establish the facility to pre-erosion conditions.”
The erosion goes back to the bad winter of 2017. “At the January 23, 2018 Board meeting,” the report said, “the Board of Supervisors approved the 2017 Storm Damage Emergency Road Repair Projects — North Coast and adopted the Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) pursuant to Section 21000 et seq. of the California Public Resources Code (CEQA).
“That MND evaluated a proposal to permanently resolve damage to County roads at seven North Coast Region locations that occurred as a result of severe winter storms. Two sites evaluated in the MND were located on Cayucos Creek Road, at MP 1.2 and 2.8.” The county concluded that since this newest site is just a short distance from the previously studied sites, no new environmental review was needed.
Crye Contracting’s bid was actually well under the engineer’s estimate of $589,000 and was better than four other bidders. The losing bidders were: Hartzell General Engineering Contractor, Inc., at $493,000; S. Chavez Construction, Inc., at $552,000; Souza Engineering Contracting (dba Souza Construction) at $582,000; and, AAAA Engineering Contracting, Inc., at $631,000.
The award of this latest bid continues a hot streak by Crye Contracting winning County roads contracts. As Estero Bay News reported in a feature story about Morro Bay native son, David Crye, he has an advantage over other contractors in SLO County, as Crye also owns several gravel pits, which means he can severely undercut other contractors because he provides his own materials, while others must factor in those costs in their bids.
And if he doesn’t win a bid, chances are very good whoever does get the job, will buy materials from his rock mines.
