Story by Catherine Stachowiak
Recently the Public Works department at Kern County gave an update on the status of repairs at Sierra Way.
On Wednesday April17, the head of the project for Sierra Way repairs met with a consultant and Granite Construction, the contractor on the project, to discuss the design on the ten year flood project.
Friday April 19 Sal Gomez, public works assistant director, told the Kern Valley Sun where things stood up to that point.
Gomez said there was a possibility that the recent design for the project would be changed, though he did not have the details of the ultimate decision between the county engineer, the consultant, and the contractor for the project Granite Construction. The county is waiting on a design for this temporary fix.
“We want to construct, for a ten year flood,” Gomez said. The consultant would be meeting again with the contractor to finalize their decision about what design to go with on the project.
The engineer Jeff Davis, in charge of Capital Projects Division with Kern County is supposed to give the Kern Valley Sun further updates, in the coming weeks.
Gomez visited the Kernville Chamber of Commerce last winter. He told the chamber, during his visit, that the board was supposed to approve and then award a contract to a contractor.
Gomez updated on events stating that the board awarded the contract in March. The county then conducted a hydrology study on the Sierra Way project, in which the results finally came back. The department is deciding on the design for the ten-year flood, temporary solution, based upon those factors.
Gomez indicated that a hundred year flood project was a more permanent solution that would not be pursued until further down the road. “We’re still working on hopefully doing a permanent solution that will be sized for a hundred year flood,” he said.
Meanwhile the ten-year flood, temporary solution, was the county’s quickest option for getting the thoroughfare opened.
“So Mr. Davis is in charge of the project right now. They just met this past Wednesday to see what can Granite do and construct,” Gomez said.
The Kern Valley Sun plans to continue updates on the status of this project.
