The City Council on Aug. 14 approved a contract for trip hazard removal service.
(The Sun looked at trip hazards in August 2022. See “Tripping, falling, and insurance claims” at sunnews.org.)
This was a Consent Calendar item. Consent items are voted on collectively and are not discussed unless a council member removes the item from the Consent Calendar for a separate look. Nothing was removed from last week’s Consent Calendar.
Seal Beach is basically hiring Southern California Precision, Inc. (doing business as Precision Concrete Cutting), to assess city sidewalks and remove trip hazards for a maximum of $125,000.
“Sidewalks develop unevenness over time due to pavement expansion and contraction, underlying soil conditions, trees, landscaping, and other deterioration reasons. The City routinely conducts inspection and maintenance of these public sidewalks, note deficiencies, and systematically make repairs.” wrote Deputy Director of Public Works/City Engineer Kathryne Cho.
According to Cho’s report, the city code allows contracts without competitive bidding for services in cooperation with state, county, or other agencies. In 2019 and in February of this year, the Joint Powers Insurance Authority entered an agreement with Southern California Precision, Inc., to inspect and maintain sidewalks, according to Cho’s report. Seal Beach belongs to the JPIA.
Last August, the city made a contract with the company to carry out a pilot program for sidewalk assessment and trip risk removal, according to Cho’s report.
Staff recommends going ahead with the next phase of the project.
“This next phase will address additional locations to further reduce the City’s potential liabilities. Phase 2 does not include those locations requiring full sidewalk panel removal and repair,” Cho wrote.
