The Tale of 2 Cluster-F*cks: Morena Blvd in Linda Vista and University Ave in City Heights

By Kate Callen and Geoff Page

Here is the playbook for making a city government look cosmically inept:

First, trumpet the news that an exorbitant infrastructure project nobody asked for will be utterly fabulous.

Second, start by closing off a major road that thousands of people use every day.

Third, move construction along until – OMG!! – a huge physical obstruction pops up and stops it cold.

Fourth, keep the road closed for years while project leaders try to figure things out, ignoring complaints from furious residents, local businesses and draining city coffers of more millions.

Now: Do it all a second time at a different site.

The simultaneous closures of West Morena Boulevard in Linda Vista and University Avenue in City Heights have become like a horror movie where zombie twins ravage two enclaves in the same village at the same time.

The Linda Vista chaos is a byproduct of the $1.5 billion Pure Water recycling project, which has choked traffic from Mission Valley through Point Loma for over three years.

The City Heights mess comes courtesy of a $13 million effort to prettify University Avenue that has jammed the artery for over two years.

San Diego sure has bad luck when it comes to construction poltergeists. Like the buried sewer pipe that scuttled Midway Rising, the Linda Vista and City Heights projects have been haunted by underground demons.

In Linda Vista, the Morena pump station was beset by an unexpected groundwater problem that should have been discovered by pre-engineering geotechnical studies.

In City Heights, the project was stalled by an active San Diego Gas & Electric vault that somehow SDG&E didn’t even know about.

City officials expect San Diegans to take it on faith that these disruptions couldn’t have been prevented. Who would have the temerity to question the expertise of highly paid city engineers?

Well, then there’s my OB Rag colleague Geoff Page, who spent a 22-year career in San Diego construction. Geoff started in 1977 as an equipment operator. In 1989, he took on management positions. Most of his work involved underground utilities, both wet and dry.

Here’s what Geoff has to say about the twin fiascos:

The City’s excuses in both cases are ridiculous.

The water problem on Morena was one for the books. Any experienced construction professional can look at an area where work will take place and come up with a reasonable assessment of what can be expected. Mission Bay is less than 1,000 feet from Morena Blvd. Water had to be expected.

In my 20 years as a construction claims consultant, I saw many dumb mistakes on large-scale public works like these. OB’s pier is a prime example.

Studies of tides and waves were done in the summer when the waves are the smallest. The studies should have been done in winter when the surf is at its biggest. This is why the pier dips to its low spot and then begins to rise west of the dip. That was where the engineers realized their mistake and raised the pier elevation to compensate.

Design for projects like Morena begin with geotechnical investigations that mostly consist of soil borings. Sometimes trenches are also dug to study the ground. More sophisticated means of mapping what is below the surface include seismic testing. With such technologies available, how could San Diego engineers and their consultants have missed the water problem?

Building in a wet environment is costly. But it can be done. During the Convention Center construction, there was no question that water would be encountered. The claim about the water table being higher than expected made no sense.

The fix for this “unanticipated” problem was a permanent dewatering system that keeps the center from floating out of the ground. In short, this was design incompetence.

The University Avenue snafu surely did not need to happen. First, SDG&E should have located that vault for the city design effort. Second, waiting for a utility to relocate something like this is a fool’s game. Utilities are notoriously slow and do not respond to pressure from any outsiders, city, county, or state.

The City could have redesigned the storm drain much faster than the 15 months it took to move the vault. Even so, the city and the contractor should have restored the site such that the road could be used while SDG&E dithered.

Time and again, the ratio of design and management for city projects is completely out of whack.

In private industry, those costs are about 25% of the project. The University Avenue project allocated 41% for design and management. The Dog Beach sidewalk cost $1 million; 60% ($600,000) for design and management, 40% ($400,000) for construction. At the Cañon Pocket Park, the ratio was 55% to 45%.

All that money for design and management, and the City still can’t seem to get those right.

At City Hall, time and money mean nothing; incompetence and waste are ingrained habits. Will we ever see a project in San Diego that doesn’t drag on and run way over budget?

A question for Councilmembers Raul Campillo (Linda Vista) and Sean Elo-Rivera (City Heights): You must have known these fiascos were inflicting prolonged misery on your constituents. What action did you take to help alleviate their misery?