By Zach Friend
I wanted to provide an update with the latest information on the Valencia repair — a follow-up to the posting that Jason Hoppin did from the County about a week ago.
Things are continuing to move along! A contractor has been hired and much of this last week efforts were spent coordinating with local utilities (AT&T, Comcast, PG&E, Trout Gulch Mutual Water) on their lines — all which run through that area. Each will need to be temporarily relocated during construction and then permanently located back into place. We have temporary location plans completed now for most of them and a meeting on site this week with the contractor and utilities on these plans.
As you know, the County had been in regular contact with Fish and Wildlife over a larger culvert that would meet their needs. Last week we submitted the larger culvert specs to FHWA for approval. County engineers have been in contact with FHWA about this submission and FHWA agreed to expedite a site visit (expected later this week) for review of the larger culvert.
This larger culvert will meet all of Fish and Wildlife needs and based on all conversations that the County’s had with FHWA (including personal conversations I’ve had with them) there is no reason to believe the larger culvert request will be an issue — they just have a short formal process for this revision.
I know this continues to be a hardship for your neighborhood, the school and many others — and we are getting closer by the day to these temporary (and permanent) repairs being completed. Please do feel free to continue to reach out to me with any questions. Email me or call me directly. As promised, the minute I get a legitimate construction timeline I will share that!
Thank you for your continued understanding — if I can be of any other help just contact me.