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Public Works and Utilities outline lessons learned after DP Road and Bathtub Row projects
Summary
Deputy County Manager and project teams reviewed recent infrastructure projects, citing subsurface surprises, bid pricing, communications gaps with businesses and improvements such as subsurface utility engineering, weekly business outreach and advance signage. Staff said they will adopt stronger preconstruction locates and enhanced project communications practices.
Los Alamos County public works and utilities staff on Nov. 18 gave an extended presentation on lessons learned from recent infrastructure projects, including DP Road phases and Bathtub Row, and outlined process changes intended to reduce disruption and improve communication with businesses and residents.
Deputy Public Works Director Keith Wilson reviewed a multi‑year construction timeline and said subsurface unknowns contributed to schedule extensions and costs; the team described using subsurface utility engineering at critical tie‑in points for future projects and adjusting sewer designs (force main vs. deep gravity lines) to control cost. Staff said hand‑delivered flyers, weekly email updates, one‑on‑one business meetings and digital message boards helped but that field continuity when project managers changed was an issue in earlier phases.
Department of Public Utilities staff discussed mitigation of utility outages and the need to coordinate work windows to minimize commercial impacts. Staff said they will require traffic control plans stamped by a licensed engineer and will continue staged scheduling to avoid overlapping work zones. The presentation cited examples of improved practices — capping open roadways before winter, reinstating weekly business update emails, posting neighborhood posters with QR links to project pages and providing sandwich‑board signs listing open businesses during construction.
Councilors asked about contractor responsibilities for traffic control, recordkeeping on safety incidents, and how to better involve businesses earlier in design and field layout. Staff said traffic control is contractually required and project managers have authority to stop unsafe work; they also noted a limited local contractor pool and the tradeoffs between combining utility and pavement projects (reduces repeat disruption but increases single‑season impact). The presentations concluded with staff commitments to better field meetings and earlier one‑on‑one outreach in future projects.
