Trucks rumble, merchants grumble as PG&E project moves along Broadway

As a major PG&E project to put utility and cable
lines underground moves slowly up Broadway, merchants along the route are worried the construction may bury their businesses.
Ultimately the project will replace all the power poles and wires along the west side of Broadway from Clay to just south of MacArthur Street. The bulk of the work is currently across the street from Adele Harrison School, where traffic is being re-routed to accommodate trucks and equipment tearing up the sidewalk, digging a trench and laying conduits.
Troy Hudson, of the Sonoma public works department, said the job should be complete by September.
Robert Wilson from Sonoma Old School Skate & Surf said that schedule would put the construction mess right in front of his store, obstructing parking places and discouraging business, during a peak selling season. He said he was originally told the job would be completed by June, “and wouldn’t affect my back-to-school business. Instead, it’s my busiest time of the year.”
Wilson wondered, “Why didn’t they do this in the off-season? Help us out, work around it. In this economy, the city should protect its retailers.”
Brad Sahs of Sonoma Cyclery is also concerned about losing business. “It’s right in the middle of our busiest time of year,” he said. With the trench as close as three feet from his door and the area clogged with equipment, customers won’t want to fight through the hassle. “If they can’t get to you real easy, they just keep going.”
Looking south down Broadway, Wilson can see the construction zone slowly advancing to his location at the corner of Malet Street. “They’ve had signs in front of my store for a month,” he said. “I’m already losing business.”
Sonoma R/C Hobbies, at the corner of Newcomb and Broadway, will be the first storefront affected. “ They were supposed to be done by now,” said owner Richard Beck. “We’ll have to deal with it for two more months.” Sonoma Cyclery is next door.
Hudson acknowledged that the project has met with delays along the way. “Digging a trench, you never know what kind of problems you might find,” he said. Workers are also reconfiguring the gas line where necessary, adding time to the job.
Wilson said that the city has failed to keep affected retailers up to date. “Give us a schedule,” he said. “Where’s the action plan? The timeline? Lay it out for me.” He said there was a meeting Monday, the first since the project began, that included Sahs, Hudson and the PG&E job foreman, but “nothing came out of it. No information, no help.”
Sahs complained about the same issue. “There’s no plan, no nothing,” he said. “You’d think (the city) would approach the retail people with a plan and let them know what’s going on.”
Last week, Sahs said, a crew arrived unannounced and began cutting concrete in front of his store. “They just showed up and started hacking away. There was absolutely zero warning. No notice whatsoever.” The crew, part of the new sub-contractor team taking over for PG&E, stopped their work when store employees complained.
Hudson said that was a mix-up, and that he is indeed working with retailers to lessen the impact. “The crews can be in and out of there fairly quickly,” he said. “They’re pretty quick at what they do.” Work will begin earlier each morning, he said, to get as much done as possible before each store opens.
The other idea to substantially mitigate the impact to merchants, working at night, has been ruled out because of the noise, according to Hudson. The sounds of the heavy equipment “would be a bigger impact on the residents,” he said. “It’s something we have to take into account.”
Extending the project into the school year will also have an impact on vehicle traffic. “There will be huge traffic jams,” predicted Wilson. “Everything will be blocked.”
Hudson did not put a price tag on the project, but said the majority of the funding is coming from PG&E, which contributes to a fund for this kind of “beautification. These kinds of projects don’t happen very often,” he said.
In an expensive irony, the new work will tear up sidewalks built just two years ago, between Newcomb and Malet, under the federally-funded “Safe Route to School” program. Hudson said those specific funds had to be used by a certain date or the city would lose them. The Broadway project wasn’t ready to go, Hudson said, so the two jobs could not be combined.
“They’re going to undo what they just did,” Wilson said. “A huge waste of money. That’s what bugs me the most.”
The toll the “Safe Route to School” project took has Wilson fearing the worst. “You couldn’t get to my building,” he said. “It almost put me out of business. That’s why I’m paranoid.”