Goleta Roadway Costs Go Through the Roof 

To make the streets safer in Goleta’s historic Old Town, the city has built sidewalks and parking over the past few years. The next scheduled phase is to reconfigure Hollister Avenue to one lane for cars and bicycles in each direction, part of the city’s Complete Streets design. 

Facing a budget crunch, the city decided in 2021 to temporarily stripe the lanes and redistribute parking spaces. However, the council was surprised at Tuesday’s meeting to learn that the two recent bids on the project came in at more than $4 million each — far exceeding the city’s original estimated cost of $1.8 million.

This large increase not only reflected the escalating costs of asphalt, manpower, and traffic signal engineering, according to city engineer Autumn Glaeser, but it also was a result of the limited choices prime contractors had for subcontractors, especially among electrical contractors, who were busy bidding on a number of jobs on the South Coast. The council also learned that the contractors, whose bids to the city had to be good for 120 days, were getting quotes for materials or equipment that were only good for seven days. “In a small area, you see those market spikes quite significantly, compared to a larger metropolitan area,” Glaeser said.

While the City Council had options — they could bite the bullet and take the money from other projects, or they could add the striping project to upcoming projects — the cost increases are likely to have significant effects on the budget.

The biggest project on the city’s plate is the replacement of the San Jose Creek bridge over Hollister Avenue, which has defects in the type of concrete used. As well as replacing the bridge, the city plans to add two roundabouts — at South Kellogg and at Ward Avenue — to either side of the State Route 217 overpass. Expected to take three years to complete, the bridge project is being combined with an extension of Fowler Road and Ekwill Street, which has been in the works since at least 2011.

Both Ekwill and Fowler are a couple short blocks between Fairview and Kellogg. By extending them toward each other, with a roundabout at Pine Avenue in the middle, the city hopes to alleviate the traffic through Old Town by providing a road parallel to Hollister. The Fowler Road section will also increase stormwater drainage.

Fairview is a main road that serves the airport and UC Santa Barbara, both of which send visitors and regulars into Old Town. The city attempted to negotiate with UCSB to add a crossing at State Route 217 to no avail, so the through traffic will emerge onto Hollister via Kellogg.

As for striping Hollister in Old Town, several councilmembers felt the community had already waited a long time, while others mulled the cost saving potential of combining the painting with the other nearby work. No decisions were made on Tuesday evening, but on October 30, the city will be holding a workshop to discuss all the projects coming up.

The good news out of all of this, Public Works Director Charlie Ebeling told the council, is that his department has gone from employing one engineer to hiring five. Given the number and complexity of the projects in the coming years, Ebeling felt they were staffed up and ready to go.

[Click to enlarge] Maps of the Ekwill Fowler extension (left) and Hollister Avenue roundabouts at Route 217 interchange | Credit: Courtesy | Credit: Courtesy