City staff recommends $1.65 million Toro contract for Oxnard bike, pedestrian project

Miguel Guillen of the Public Works Department Traffic Engineering Division told the City Council on Dec. 10 that staff recommends the council authorize the mayor to execute agreement 32500373 with Toro Enterprises Incorporated in the amount of $1,645,490.25 for bicycle and pedestrian facilities serving Oxnard's Northeast communities and Cloyne Street, with a total project budget not to exceed $1,974,588.25, including contingency and construction management.

The project would add roughly 6.5 miles of improvements in the Northeast neighborhoods and about 1.8 miles along Cloyne Street and Cypress Avenue between Channel Islands Boulevard and Huynamee Road. The design includes a mix of Class 2 and Class 3 bike lanes, curb extensions at selected locations, and an overhead flashing beacon at the intersection of Justin Way and Bard Road to improve crossings.

Why it matters: staff says the locations are intended to connect neighborhoods to the city's bicycle network and implement concepts from Chapter 6 of the city's Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan. The recommended award would allow the project to proceed to construction and preserve grant funding, according to the presentation.

Guillen described the procurement and funding details: Toro was the sole bidder, submitting $1,645,490.25. The city's cost estimate for the construction contract was $1,100,000. To address the higher bid, staff recommended a construction contingency of $164,549 (about 10% of the contract) and a project allocation of $164,549 for engineering, inspection, survey and project management, bringing the total requested appropriation to $1,974,588.25. "The total cost of the project shall not exceed $1,974,588.25," Guillen said during the presentation.

Funding would come from multiple project accounts. Staff requested $627,906.42 from the Circulation System Improvement Fee Fund (Fund 350, Subfund 8040) for the Northeast Communities project (C13O2) and $392,337.89 from the Mobility Fee Fund (Fund 350, Subfund 8055) for the Cloyne Street project (C16O1). The presentation also cited available balances from federal and state transportation grant funds and local traffic safety funds; specific existing balances noted were $865,620.40 from the Federal Transportation Grant Fund for C13O2 and $30,849.07 from the State Transportation Grant Fund for C16O1.

Staff said procurement and compliance checks were completed for the sole bidder, including verification of required licenses, a Department of Industrial Relations registration check, and a review of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration website for safety violations. Guillen told the council staff had contacted six other plan holders to ask why they did not submit bids; responses included subcontractor shortages, conflicts with former employers, and no response to the city's outreach.

The presentation placed the higher-than-estimated bid in a statewide context. Guillen said Caltrans and others have observed construction estimating tools falling short of actual costs and that over the past three fiscal years bids increased about 64% relative to Caltrans estimates. He cited factors affecting pricing including an influx of grant-funded work (Senate Bill 1, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the American Rescue Plan Act), skilled labor and equipment shortages, inflationary pressure and seasonal or site-specific variables.

Staff also compared bid items to similar grant-funded projects awarded in August 2023 and April 2024 and determined that, while comparability is difficult, several items were comparable or lower than prior bids. With a Caltrans-supported cost-effectiveness public interest finding referenced in the presentation, staff recommended awarding the construction contract to Toro Enterprises and approving the requested appropriations to avoid returning grant funds.

The transcript of the presentation does not record a subsequent City Council vote on the recommendation. The item as presented requests council authorization for the mayor to execute the agreement and for budget appropriations; Guillen stated that no other current transportation projects had budget shortfalls that would draw on the same local fee funds. Any formal council action or vote was not included in the provided transcript.

Next steps: council consideration and a recorded vote would be required to finalize contract execution and appropriations before construction can begin.