The City of Fullerton announced April 27 the beginning of their Summer Paving Project, which aims to fix road infrastructure near a number of elementary schools.
The roads being paved include Baker Avenue, which is adjacent to the Woodcrest Elementary; Pacific-Wanda-Louise-Walnut Area, near Pacific Drive Elementary and the Palm Street area in collaboration with the cities of Brea and La Habra.
In the beginning of April, the Fullerton city council approved the multiple rehabilitation plans that make up the Summer Paving Project.
The Palm Street Area Rehabilitation Project is a contract of over $2 million with Onyx Paving. $1,050,000 comes from the Infrastructure Fund, $12,500 from Sewer Enterprise Fund and $1,395,000 from Capital Project Fund, with reimbursement from Brea and La Habra for expenditures within their boundaries.
The city council approved the cooperative project between Fullerton, Brea and La Habra on Sept. 16. Fullerton will be the lead city overseeing the design and construction, while Brea and La Habra will provide reviews, inspections and funds for construction within their cities.
Within Fullerton’s boundaries, the project will reconstruct curbs, gutters, sidewalks, ramps, alley driveways, street lights and more.
The Baker Avenue Rehabilitation Project is funded by $615,000 from the Infrastructure Fund and $14,000 from the Sewer Enterprise Fund. It awarded R.J. Noble Company $533,473.75.
The project aims to reconstruct 0.4 miles of Baker Avenue near the Woodcrest Elementary School, fixing curbs, gutters, sidewalk and constructing ADA-compliant curb ramps. It was also recommended by the city arborist to remove four trees that have liable invasive root systems.
The Walnut area project awarded R.J. Noble Company $548,970.10. It was funded by a $350,000 Community Development Block Grant, $325,000 from capital project funds and $11,000 Sewer Enterprise Fund appropriated from the Annual Sewer Replacement Program.
The majority of the budget provided for these rehabilitation projects were transferred from other pre-existing projects.
According to Shana Charles, Councilmember and public health professor at Cal State Fullerton, any new revenue that the city receives, half of it has to go towards roads and infrastructure.
“We always have a list of projects that we’re working on in the city. So anyone who’s driven around Fullerton knows that that list is not something we complete every year,” Charles said. “We don’t do as much as we would like to do if we had unlimited funds, but we prioritize the ones that are worse than others, we also prioritize streets that had a water main replacement or some other kind of work on them recently.”
These constructions have been scheduled during summer recess to be completed in August. Affected residents and businesses will be notified ahead of time.