Santee awards $931,200 contract to upgrade traffic signals at 10 locations

The Santee City Council on June 25 awarded a $931,200 construction contract to T and M Electric, doing business as Perry Electric, to upgrade traffic signals and communications at 10 isolated city intersections.

Carl (Engineering staff) told the council the project will replace aging controllers and cabinets, add interconnect communications and battery backups, upgrade vehicle detection systems and pedestrian push buttons, and improve pedestrian ramps at selected low-to-moderate volume locations. “These controllers have been for decades. Staff has been replacing them as needed. They are no longer repairable and this is going to create more reliability, more functionality,” the presenter said.

City staff reported nine bids were received; the low, responsive, responsible bid from T and M Electric was 19% below the engineer’s estimate. Staff recommended authorizing the city manager to execute the contract and the director of engineering to approve change orders up to 10% ($99,312) for unforeseen items. Construction is estimated to begin in the fall and to take about three months to complete.

A councilmember asked staff to prioritize work at the David Avenue intersection and the northbound Highway 67 approaches; staff said they would ask the contractor to sequence work to accommodate that request although timing is not guaranteed. The contract award carried unanimously.

The project is intended to improve safety and reliability at older signalized intersections where replacement parts are no longer available and component failures have become more frequent.