Healdsburg roundabout construction delay hurting local businesses

Until a year ago, the Singletree cafe in Healdsburg expected to get 50 to 70 customers daily, lured perhaps by the $4.95 early bird special of eggs and toast, or maybe the lunch of chicken, pork and beef barbecue sandwiches smoked on the premises.

But these days, owner Nancy Van Praag says “I’m lucky if I get 100 (customers) the whole week,” even though the diner is open all seven days.

The difference is the heavy equipment and construction workers usually blocking at least one of her two driveways on weekdays for the past year, making the restaurant she’s run for nearly 18 years look closed or inaccessible.

The $10.3 million construction project, which started almost a year ago, is installing a traffic roundabout and making other improvements at a major downtown intersection.

Although originally projected to wrap up this summer, city officials now say the work is a year behind and not expected to be completed until August 2018.

The winter rains and delays by the contractor in doing some major sewer work are being blamed.

“With a project of this size and scope there are always going to be challenges. It seems this one is more than normal,” City Manager David Mickaelian said Monday.

A dozen businesses up and down Healdsburg Avenue are impacted, according to Carla Howell, Chamber of Commerce executive director, who called it “a combination of all the worst possible things” including noise, dust, access and loss of parking on Healdsburg Avenue.

The roundabout a block south of Healdsburg Plaza is being built where Healdsburg Avenue, and Mill and Vine streets converge with the railroad tracks, in an attempt to more efficiently handle vehicles and pedestrian traffic.

The work also includes major infrastructure improvements, like rebuilding a badly-deteriorated, near century-old culvert that funnels Foss Creek under the road, installing new water and sewer pipes, and placing electrical and other utility lines underground. The railroad tracks and ties will also be upgraded, along with installing signals and safety gates for eventual SMART train service.

Public Works Director Brent Salmi said Monday the contractor was supposed to start work on the deep underground sewer improvements last year at the same time work was done on the box culvert.

“A bigger contractor, better organized would have had multiple crews on the job,” he said.

The City Council last week met in closed session to discuss possible litigation that might arise from the delay in the work being done by the city’s contractor and low bidder Bay Cities Paving and Grading of Concord.

The company also potentially faces fines of $1,000 a day for not meeting its August deadline for completion.

A spokesman for the company could not be reached Monday.

On its website Bay Cities describes itself as the prime contractor to the State of California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), Bay Area Rapid Transit, the Port of Oakland, the San Francisco International Airport and other local agencies including school districts. In the private arena, the company’s work encompasses hotels, business parks, commercial developments, churches, subdivisions and storage facilities.

Bay Cities touts its record of completing projects on time and under budget.

But Monday, a number of business owners expressed dismay about the delay in the project and its impact on their bottom line.

Some said they had braced for the disruption and construction activity that began in June 2016 knowing it was going to lead to improvements like new lighting, landscaping and paving. But the prospect of another year’s delay is beyond disheartening and may have proved the last straw for at least one business.

Saturday was the last day for Flo’s, a tavern near the roundabout that now sports “closed, out of business” signs.

Manager Joe Parsons said the owners were prepared to ride out the construction project if it had finished this summer, but when told it would take another 12 months or more “they couldn’t continue to take the losses.”

“There’s a big impact. They definitely have hampered our business,” he said, explaining the bar was especially difficult to access for anyone walking down from the plaza, trying to cross the street through the traffic and construction zone.

Robb Lippincoat, owner of nearby Parish, a restaurant with New Orleans-inspired cuisine, said his business has not been affected, but said “I do know some of my neighbors are really suffering.”

And he acknowledged there is noise and equipment that “creates a noxious environment” on the restaurant’s outdoor patio.

“It’s just taking so long. It’s awful,” Michelle Dancy, manager of a Healdsburg Dog House located just north of the construction zone.

While grooming appointments haven’t suffered, sales of toys and dog food have.

Business is down by about a half since the street construction started about a year ago, said Janet Browning, who owns Shoffeit’s antiques collective on Healdsburg Avenue.

“We’re hanging in there,” she said. “It’s been tough.”

But Van Praag isn’t sure she’s going to pull through. She is behind on the rent, although so far the property owner has been understanding.

“I’m really worried I may not be here for much longer,” she said. “I have employees and responsibilities to them as well.”

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 707-521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@clarkmas.