Willits bypass project could face another year delay

A Mendocino County judge has delivered another blow to the Willits bypass project, one Caltrans said is likely to delay work on the controversial Highway 101 project for another year and cost millions of dollars in construction contract changes and extensions.

The project already was in danger of being extended another year when Judge Cindee Mayfield granted environmentalists’ request for a temporary restraining order halting an excavation project that is supplying fill for the bypass. The environmentalists contend the excavation project on Mendocino Forest Products land needs additional environmental review.

The restraining order may be lifted in less than two weeks, but by then Caltrans’ window of opportunity to complete its necessary preparatory work for next year’s construction likely will be closed, officials said. Under its permit, Caltrans cannot move soil after Oct. 15 and hundreds of truckloads of soil are needed for the prep work.

“We were down to the wire” before the Aug. 20 ruling, said Caltrans spokesman Phil Frisbie. Caltrans needs an estimated 300,000 cubic yards to build up sufficient soil just to start the three bridges it planned to build next year. Additional soil would later be required. The soil needs to be in place and allowed to settle for about six months before the bridges can be built, officials said.

Even if Judge Mayfield lifts the order at the next hearing on the excavation, scheduled for Sept. 8, the project is likely to be delayed, Frisbie said.

But “we’re not going to say it’s absolutely impossible,” he said. It all depends on the amount of workers and equipment that can be enlisted and the weather, Frisbie said.

If the project is delayed, it will add between $8 million and?$12 million in additional construction costs to the $210 million, 5.9-mile project, Frisbie said. It will be the second significant delay. The project lost a year to slowdowns generated by protesters and problems with regulatory permits, at least one of which was temporarily suspended for lack of compliance.

Environmentalists questioned Caltrans’ estimated costs for the delays, saying they’re unsubstantiated. But they’re happy to take credit for the disruption to the construction schedule.

“We’re hoping there will be a delay so we’ll have time to prevail upon them and everyone else to reconsider this,” said Freddie Long, a Willits environmentalist.

Long and other environmentalists want the project downsized so that it consumes less of the wetlands in its path. While the current project is just two lanes, its base is being constructed to eventually hold four lanes. Long believes some 30 acres of wetlands could be saved if the bypass’ footprint is reduced.

Environmentalists have opposed the scope of the bypass from the beginning. They say it is too big, unnecessary and is unduly destructive to the wetlands in the Little Lake Valley outside of Willits. Efforts to stop or alter the bypass have included multiple protests and lawsuits. The project is about 40 percent completed.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MendoReporter.