Council awards $6.6 million street maintenance contract covering 5 miles and decorative lighting downtown

The Riverside City Council on Tuesday awarded a roughly $6.59 million construction contract to Onyx Paving Company to perform fiscal-year 2023–24 arterial and minor street maintenance work across multiple neighborhoods.

Public Works staff said bid number 8046 will preserve or resurface about 5 miles of roadway — 2.3 miles on collector streets and 2.7 miles of local streets — and perform partial reconstructions at select intersections. The project also includes concrete repairs, pedestrian ramp upgrades, new signage and striping, and preservation work in multiple city parking lots.

Ed Lara, with the Public Works Department, told council the contract includes downtown decorative string lighting in three parking corridors — Main Street between Fifth and Sixth streets, Fifth Street between Main and Orange streets, and a parking lot behind the Cheech Marin Center — and median landscaping work on Monticello Avenue that will replace chain-link fencing and install water-efficient plantings.

The low bid, $6,593,000 from Onyx Paving Company, was 3.6 percent below the engineer’s estimate, staff said. The project will be funded from state gasoline taxes, county Measure A funds and city Measure Z funds that the city uses for maintenance and preservation projects.

Council members emphasized streets as a top constituent concern during remarks and praised Public Works staff for balancing citywide maintenance needs. The council voted unanimously to award the contract and authorized the city manager to execute the agreement.