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UNDERGROUNDING NEWS! Along Cypress St. and Mesa Dr. Since 1995 we've been trying to get the electrical poles undgergrounded along Cypress St. and Mesa Drive on the East Side of Santa Ana Hts. Not only are they smack dab in the middle of the horse trails, but the sidewalks as well. This forces pedestrians and riders into the street with traffic. The high frequency wires crackle and buzz and are not only an eyesore, but they could be a fire hazard as well under the right weather circumstances. Bottom line...they have to go. On July 31 2002, the Board of Supervisors voted to move ahead on this project. The original estimated costs for the project was $2,773,497.60 As of July 1,2003 because of annexation, this project was moved to the jurisdiction of the City of Newport Beach. Update April 2, 2008 As per Mike Sinacori City of Newport Beach: In May AT&T should complete their portion of the design. Once that is completed Edison will put the project out to bid. The only poles to be undergrounded will be in the public right of way, none on private property. There will also be some Time Warner work that will need to be done on Cypress. The cost of private hooks up will be each homeowner's responsibility. The cost could be anywhere from 0 for those already undergrounded in new construction, to $3000.00- $10,000.00 depending on the specific property. This has been a point of contention because in years past, the city claimed the RDA could pay for the private hook ups. Mario Mainero stated RDA law and has talked with County Council. The law is quite clear, there can be no gift of public funds for private use and the hookups fall under private use. Homeowners and their contractors will need city permits as they complete the hook ups. The city will assist those homeowners through the process to expedite it. BV will have contractors come to the PAC meeting who have worked on other undergrounding projects with the City of Newport and know the city's process. In the coming months we will have this on the agenda. Ground breaking on the undergrounding is anticipated in 2009 and should be a 2-3 year project. The plans include new fencing along Mesa and Cypress, re paving those streets and completion of the trail on Mesa Dr. The City will work with those folks who have financial burdens as far as the private hook ups go. We will explore those options at future PAC meetings. Update 12/10/07 Dave Kiff reports that costs incurred and billed during this period are now at $88,800.00 from Southern Ca Edison. The project remains in the design phase with Edison. Update 9/27/07 Patrick Arceniega is working on obtaining the easements needed for the underground project. He had to send them back since their exhibit maps are the County assessors’ maps. The agreement for the transmission lines is still at the City Attorney's office and he hasn’t had time to follow up. AT&T will be starting up their design work for the district. Also, the pavement requirements are done. Update 7/23/07 Rodi Almendralo ,Associate Engineer City of Newport Beach /Public Works Dept./Development Services reports “ I've been working with SCE to finalize the design for the district. SCE requires a joint-use agreeement prior to beginning the undergrounding of the transmission main on Mesa Drive and Cypress Street. The City Attorney has been working with SCE to get that agreement finalized. AT&T will be beginning their design work on the underground system in the district.” Update 2/6/07 Reported by Dave Kiff We have incurred about $108,000 in costs (design costs charged by SCE) for this project, which would underground high-voltage lines along Cypress and Mesa in East SAH. SCE has recently presented to us their preliminary cost estimate for SCE's portion of the Project---that's $3,643,930, and it includes about $655,000 allocated towards the conversion of private hookups to the underground network. This was a bone of contention for many when initially discussed by Supervisor Silva and by the City -- usually, private property owners pay the price of their conversions. But PAC and others argued that the undergrounding effort would not be successful if residents had to pay this $5K to $15K cost. With SCE done, the designs go next to AT&T. We have not yet paid AT&T, and AT&T will not start until AT&T gets a check (estimated to be $90K). AT&T will come up with a cost -- likely to be smaller than SCE's -- to align the AT&T lines with the trenches and conduit laid by SCE. Originally, we estimated that this Project would be about $7.5 million total, including a Multi-Use Trail that could be constructed on existing Trail right-of-way along Mesa. The Trail's holdup now is that SCE's poles are in the way. The City will likely not move further forward on this Project (going to AT&T,) until we get some word from the Board that this is still something they want to do. If we get that agreement, AT&T will take about 4-5 months to do their design. Then it may have to go to Time Warner and finally then it could go out to bid. UU Projects typically require us to put the money in the SCE-AT&T-TWC tills "up front," then they do the work and draw down the funds, returning what's left (if anything). Mario Mainero directs the City: The City of Newport Beach is to work with Supervisor Moorlach’s staff to prepare an ASR for the Board to consider approving the project in concept with an estimated price not to exceed $7.5 million. If approval is secured, the City would pay AT & T with the receipt of $90,000 in RDA Funds to design their segment of the undergrounding, and then do the same with Time Warner. When the designs have been completed, City of Newport Beach to work with Supervisor Moorlach’s staff to prepare an ASR for the Board to consider approving the project in final form if necessary. Update June 2005 The cost of the project will be funded by RDA. The current Estimate Summary is based on costs updated to the present and includes facilities that will be undergrounded within the public right-of-way, and does include on-site private property service conversion (undergrounding).  There was a notice sent to the all the residents to outline the project. Look at the links above to see the Engineers reports and the Staff report. At the public hearing held June 14th, the Newport Beach City Council voted to create the Underground Utilities Distric thus kicking off the project. Now we go into the design phase. Estimated time line Utilities Design Project July2005 - July 2007 Public Utilities Commence Work Jan. 2008 Private Property Conversions Begin Oct.2008 Private Property Conversions Complete Oct. 2009 Overhead Utilities Removed Dec 2009 Here is the proposed payments and when they will be due.  Update 11/11/05 We also are happy to announce that the first down payment has been made by the City of Newport Beach to Southern Ca. Edison for the Undergrounding Project on Mesa Dr. and Cypress St. This means the design process is getting under way. |
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