Bridge Job Hits Troubled Waters

By Neil Farrell
Building the Morro Creek Bridge is starting out in troubled waters, after work began without first getting an OK from Native American archaeological monitors, The Bay News has learned. CalPortland, the contractor hired to build the $1.7 million Morro Creek Bridge and Harborwalk extension in Morro Bay, came to a halt Wednesday after representatives of the local Chumash pointed out that they’d not been consulted before work began. The job got underway Monday with CalPortland removing a pole-wire fence that ran along the west side of the dirt roadway, fencing put in years ago as part of the first Harborwalk project. Some minor grading was done along that stretch where the walking and bike lanes will go, and orange, plastic fencing was strung along Morro Creek where the bridge will be to protect the creek. A crewman said they’d also discovered some protected plants while removing ice plant from the job area. Those were dug up and replanted further into the dunes, he said. Public Works Director, Rob Livick, said there was a communication breakdown with the Native Americans and the City temporarily stopped the job. The environmental consultant, SWCA Environmental Consultants with an office in SLO, was supposed to prepare an archaeological monitoring plan and circulate it to the Native Americans for review and approval before work started. The consultant gave the go-ahead to start work before that was done, Livick said. After a closed door meeting with the Chumash reps, Livick said they fired SWCA for that portion of the contract and will bring in Rincon Consultants, also with an office in SLO, to handle the archaeological part. Rincon produced the environmental impact report for the project and SWCA will still be the environmental consultants on everything else, he added. A request for comment to the SLO office of SWCA was not returned. At this time, Livick said, there hasn’t been any work done that would require a monitor on site. He wasn’t sure when the archaeological monitoring would be needed. The bridge abutments call for drilling down into the earth, forming circular, rebar cages and filling with concrete. That drilling work will produce tailings that will be monitored, he said. Livick said they don’t expect to find much in the tailings as that area was topped with fill back in the 1940s when the Army Corps of Engineers dug the current creek channel moving it away from its original course through what is now the power plant property dumping into the bay near today’s Coleman Beach. Moving the creek allowed the ACOE to drain the old creek delta and fill it for a short-lived Navy training base. A groundbreaking ceremony will be held at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11 at the north end of the project, 1270 Embarcadero, in the north Pit parking lot adjacent to the creek.