YOUR AD HERE »

Contract for Harrison Avenue work approved

Tom Lotshaw
tlotshaw@tahoedailytribune.com

The South Lake Tahoe City Council approved a $4.8 million deal with Sparks, Nev.-based Sierra Nevada Construction for the Harrison Avenue project Tuesday.

Passing a string of related resolutions, council members approved the contract plus $240,312 for contingency, as well as borrowing up to $2 million over 15 years to cover part of the cost of the work. Construction is anticipated to start in May.

The city locked in a 3.99 percent interest rate Tuesday morning.



“Before you today are five decisions that if approved will take a project talked about for 20 years and get it underway for construction this summer. It’s an exciting project,” City Manager Nancy Kerry told the City Council.

Rounding out funding for the Harrison Avenue project is $1.5 million in certification of participation bonds, $890,000 in general fund reserves, $510,000 in Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement money, $255,946 in Regional Surface Transportation Program money, $533,169 from the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act and a $67,800 reimbursement from South Tahoe Public Utility District.



Council members also approved a $544,638 agreement plus 10 percent contingency with Cardno ENTRIX for construction inspection services.

Public Works Director Ray Jarvis said his department will come back with a proposal to potentially do more construction inspection work in-house and minimize such contracts in the future.

“We are looking at that and probably will come forward with something in the future,” he said.

Over the next 20 years, property owners along Harrison Avenue will repay the city nearly $1 million for the project through a special improvement district they agreed to form.

Mayor Hal Cole said Harrison Avenue will be “one of the biggest facelifts we’ve seen since we put in Heavenly Village. It’s one more brick in the wall of trying to rebuild our town.”

The project will completely rebuild Harrison and Riverside avenues as well as Modesto, San Francisco, Tallac, Alameda and San Jose avenues between Harrison and Riverside. The roads will get sidewalks, lighting, parking, landscaping and stormwater drainage upgrades. A bike trail will run on Harrison from Los Angeles Avenue to Modesto and then along Modesto, Riverside and San Jose back to Harrison.

As part of the project, Harrison Avenue becomes a southbound one-way while Riverside becomes a northbound one-way. San Francisco and Alameda become eastbound one-ways and San Jose a westbound one-way, while Modesto and Tallac will remain two-way streets.

In other business Tuesday, City Council:

• Approved a $72,877 contract with DML Construction of Verdi, Nev., for a vehicle bay addition at Fire Station No. 2 on Lake Tahoe Boulevard. The addition is needed to house the city’s new 100-foot platform truck.

• Approved a three-year lease for the parking lot at Bijou Municipal Golf Course with Mary Anne Johnson McCall. The lease is for $18,150 or 4 percent of gross sales, whichever is greater, an increase of about 10 percent over the last lease.

• Adopted a master fee schedule of fiscal year 2013-14. It increases some city fees 2.6 percent based on the Consumer Price Index.


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around the Lake Tahoe Basin and beyond make the Tahoe Tribune's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Your donation will help us continue to cover COVID-19 and our other vital local news.