San Bruno pool amid construction

Since August, City Park Way has been closed to vehicle and pedestrian access to install the deep utilities such as water, sewer and storm, creek and road reconstruction, and other construction needs. Residents have voiced traffic related concerns over the road closure.

During a recent City Council meeting, Councilmember Marty Medina acknowledged concerns from residents that the road closure may be inconvenient but is necessary to get the project completed on time.

“Staff is doing the best that they can with the amount of traffic going through the area but you got to remember a lot of parents are dropping off their kids across the street at St. Roberts and Parkside and that traffic still needs to go somewhere and keeping the roads closed allows this work to proceed,” Medina said.

With all the infrastructure required, there is no possible way to keep the road open and continue construction, he added.

City Park Way is scheduled to be closed until December.

Another concern was raised during the public hearing that the budget is now $60 million when it was originally set to be $50 million; however, City Manager Jovan Grogan explained that the original $50 million budget was set a few years before the project went out to bid.

“The total project budget is $60.5 million,” Grogan said. “The next largest sum comes from a community benefit agreement that we were able to negotiate with YouTube for their campus expansion.”

Overall, the bidding for the project went to the market at a really good time during fears about a COVID-19 recession and contractors were offering really good prices to ensure they had work, he added.

“We were able to leverage that time period,” Grogan said.

Thus far, the project is estimated to be 45% complete while only 35% of the budget has been used equaling a little over $27 million on expenses.

For Consor Project Manager, Rodrigo Macaraeg, he believes it’s a good sign with the project’s current timeline.

About $50 million of the project’s budget will be provided by a grant from the San Bruno Community Foundation, which is in charge of the restitution funds from the 2010 PG&E high-pressure natural gas pipeline explosion and fire that killed eight people, injured 66 people, destroyed 38 homes and damaged 70 others.

Another $1 million will come from settlement funds paid by PG&E to the city, $900,000 from residual money from the funds set aside to rebuild the Crestmoor neighborhood and the rest from various city funds.

Based on community input gathered by the San Bruno Community Foundation, it was decided the community center would be the best use of the funding.

“When the gas pipeline explosion happened nearly 11 years ago, we said that something good has to come out of this tragedy,” Jim Ruane, former San Bruno mayor and foundation vice president said during the groundbreaking in 2021.