 |
|
|
|
|
Trail project unfinished as contractor disappears
Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct path will still be completed
By Sam Scott
With only three-quarters of the work done, construction has stopped on a broad landscaped pathway that follows the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct from the Lawrence Expressway to Fair Oaks Avenue.
Greg Jones, of Public Works, says the contractor, JR Clark, was unable to finish the job.
"[The contractors] just stopped appearing and wouldn't respond to requests for information about when it is going to start again," Jones says. "There was no communication at all. We terminated the contract in early October."
The Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct flows west through the northern half of Sunnyvale, carrying water from the Sierra Nevada near Yosemite to San Francisco. Its subterranean path can be discerned by a corridor of mostly undeveloped land that cuts through the Lake Wood Village neighborhood, north of Highway 101.
To maintain access to the aqueduct, buildings cannot be built atop it.
The swath of open land has been a magnet for undesirable elements, Councilman Fred Fowler says. The idea to landscape it was to turn a liability into an asset.
"No man's land attracts all kind of bad things," Fowler says. "The best way to spruce up an area is to make it really public."
A section east of the Lawrence Expressway had already been converted from barren land to an irrigated pathway with tree and benches, Fowler says.
"You should have seen it before," says Fowler, who lives near the site. "The weeds were three feet high, trash was everywhere--it was place for homeless people to go and hide to spend the night." But now, "it has been turned from a dumpy area where people used to throw their trash to a real jewel."
Fowler says the success of that project prompted its extension to Fair Oaks. That section, however, won't be jewel-like for some time. Construction should have been wrapping up this month; instead, it won't be finished until near next summer, Jones says.
"There's quite a bit of work to be done," he says. He says light poles, wiring, irrigation, and grass need to go in.
The delay bothers Rick Flovin, president of the Lakewood Village Neighbor's Association. He says neighbors often ask him about the construction.
"I'm very, very disappointed that it's taking such a length of time to do," Flovin says. He says his young son often plays in the completed section of the path east of Lawrence.
Fowler maintains his enthusiasm for the project. "I think it will be great," he says. "It's going to be a real showpiece for the city."
Although the defection of JR Clark will considerably lengthen the life of the project, it won't add to the cost, says Jones. The contractor's insurance company is obliged to step in and make sure the $600,000 project is completed, he says.
|
|
|
|
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
