An example of rumble strips [the dotted line] running outside the white line of a 2-lane road. SLO County is having rumble strips installed on seven troublesome country roads in North and South County.
San Luis Obispo County is in the midst of doing road maintenance projects, with millions in contracts being awarded.
The projects cover miles of slurry sealing and cutting rumble strips along country roads.
Souza Engineering of SLO was awarded a $4.26 million contract to do slurry sealing on a total of 7.1 miles of County roads in Los Osos, Templeton, Whitley Gardens and rural Paso Robles, according to a report from Public Works Engineer Goldie Morris.
“The project includes upgrades to ADA (handicap) corner ramps “consistent with the ADA Transition Plan for Public Rights of Ways.”
The work in this project was first approved by County Supervisors in Fiscal Year 2020-21, according to the report. The project was submitted to the California Transportation Commission (CalTrans), that March 2021, as the County sought to tap into the Senate Bill 1 (SB-1) monies. They also transferred some $2.7 million out of another capital project budget to boost the funding for this one. Any savings from the project budget will be returned to the original project.
Souza’s bid was the lowest of three the County got for the job. Papich Const., bid a total of $4.51 million; and Cal Portland Const., bid $4.68 million. The engineer’s estimate for the job was $3.8 million, so the winning bid was 12.03% higher than the estimate.
The rumble strips are being installed on centerlines of “seven primary” roads with a high number of head-on collisions. Rumble strips are grooves cut into pavement or concrete roads in a washboard pattern, designed to make a car’s tires “rumble” (causing the whole car to shake) when they cross onto the strips. The idea is to wake up drivers with a passive warning system and avoid bad crashes.
The Chrisp Company of Fremont, Calif., was the low bidder at $446,000. Indeed, Chrisp was the only bidder for the job, but the bid came in 7.38% lower than the County estimate of $481,000. Add in contingencies ($44,000) and overhead, and the overall construction budget for the project tops $490,000. However, Caltrans is funding the project to the tune of $649,000 out of State SB-1 funds.
None of the seven rural country roads slated to get the rumble strips are on the North Coast. Five are in the Atascadero-Templeton-Paso Robles area and two in South County in Grover Beach and at Osos Flaco Lake near Guadalupe.
