Santa Rosa BPU hears progress report on water capital program; projects through 2026 said to be fully funded

Transportation and Public Works Director Dan Hennessy updated the Board of Public Utilities for the City of Santa Rosa on the status of water-related capital improvement projects, saying the city has advanced dozens of projects and that “every project you see on this list for the remainder of this year and through the 2026 is fully funded. There's nothing that we're working on that does not have a delivery plan.”

Hennessy told the board that since spring the capital projects program has issued seven successful bid opportunities and that 15 projects have been awarded so far this year. He said the city expects to award more than 30 projects this year overall and has 16 bid opportunities planned for the remainder of the year, with 17 additional projects scheduled for bid between January and March of next year. For water specifically, he said 11 projects came to the board in 2022, five in 2023 and two in 2024, and that closer coordination with Santa Rosa Water and Transportation & Public Works has combined some efforts so not every water component will return to this board for separate review.

Hennessy highlighted several large projects and schedules: a full rebuild of Calistoga Road starting next spring with a current cost estimate of $15,000,000, about 60% of which he said is water and sewer work; reconstruction of Hopper Avenue later this year; and a Sonoma Avenue project adjacent to Montgomery Village. He said those three projects together will total “more than $25,000,000 worth of construction activity” and will likely be reviewed and approved by City Council because of their size and scope.

On the Llano trunk lining project, Hennessy reported Phase 1 construction is underway, the bypass system is operational, and the lining repair is proceeding in six short stretches with water flowing through cured segments. He said that phase is on schedule and on budget and that staff expect completion of the current phase “sometime by November.”

Hennessy also said the California Transportation Commission recently approved an amendment to the State Transportation Improvement Program, clearing the way for the bicycle and pedestrian overcrossing over Highway 101; he said the project is expected to be advertised for bid this fall with a groundbreaking targeted for early next spring.

Board members asked about recent bid pricing and the effect of project labor agreements. Board Member Wright asked whether non-utility projects were seeing similar bid premiums; Hennessy said, “on the first 7 projects this year, 6 of the 7 came in under the engineers estimate,” and added that other recent bids have come in 20–35% over engineer estimates but that the city has managed those variances by moving funds between projects. On project labor agreements, Hennessy cited the Lower Colgan Creek project: that solicitation initially subject to a project labor agreement would have reduced competition, so staff exempted certain trades and subsequently received 10 bids — “far above our typical” — with seven of the 10 bids coming in under the engineer's estimate.

Hennessy said the capital program currently has about a dozen projects in a project pool that are not yet funded for construction and that a consultant procurement effort to help manage workload remains with Santa Rosa Water for future decisions; he said the city does not currently require outside consultant support to deliver projects already in the teams' portfolios.

There were no public comments on the staff briefing for item 6.1.

The board took no immediate action on the update; Hennessy presented it as an informational briefing and invited further questions.