Skyrocking cost to rebuild 540 foot section of East Second Street in Yachats puts project on hold — again

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

YACHATS – It’s back to the drawing board for a long-awaiting project to rebuild a 540-foot long portion of East Second Street.

The project, which has been advocated by neighbors along the steep narrow city street for years, has been delayed again because construction bids came in 62 percent higher than expected.

The main impetus for the project is to install a new waterline the length of the street to replace an old one made of asbestos and concrete. When it tackles such a major project, the city tries to make other improvements as well.

In addition to a new waterline, the city proposed to repair and replace portions of the sewer and storm drain systems, put curbs on both sides of the street and repave the entire stretch.

The city of Yachats’ engineering company estimated the cost of doing all that to be $381,000 and the budget committee put money in the city’s 2022-23 spending plan to do the work. But the low bid by Ray Wells Excavation of Florence was $619,399 and the city’s Public Works & Streets Commission recommended Yachats reject the bid and re-think the project.

Two residents of East Second Street complained to the city council during its meeting last week that the project has been delayed too long.

Bette Perman and Susan Stoddard argued that the road struggles to handle traffic from two hotels and vacation rentals, that rainwater washes down into houses on the south side, and drinking water from the old pipe could be dangerous.

“Our street really needs to be repaired,” Perman said, advocating that the city develop a more organized plan to maintain roads and find other sources of money – including using proceeds from lodging taxes to fix roads used by tourists.

She complimented Public Works & Streets Commission chair Linn West for walking the road with neighbors to see the issues first-hand. But she said the city can’t simply put off projects because of expenses that may never go down.

“The longer we wait the longer there’s the chance of prices going up,” Perman told YachatsNews.

Stoddard told the council that neighbors also worry about the asbestos in the old water line.

“It’s been put off and put off and we’re still drinking this water and taking baths in it,” she said.

Street supervisor Rick McClung said there are options to re-doing the project to lower its cost.

The city has a $100,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation to help pay for the project, he said. Because ODOT realizes that construction costs are skyrocketing everywhere, it plans to increase local street improvement grants to $250,000. The applications open July 1.

McClung said the city can decide to “reline” the sewer pipe instead of replacing it, pare back storm drain improvements, and eliminate one or both curbs.

McClung said he and engineers will work with the Public Works & Streets Commission to re-examine the project and where savings can be made, apply for the new ODOT grant and hopefully have another plan by the end of August, so it can seek bids again in October.

He estimated by removing parts of the plan the city could save $150,000 – but it would still need the larger state grant to stay within budget.

“We’re not the only community experiencing this,” he said. “Prices are moving so fast that it’s impossible to keep up with them.”