The pavement at Santa Monica Airport (SMO) is about to be upgraded, as the Santa Monica City Council approved at its Tuesday special meeting a contract for almost $700,000 to repave the airport’s runway and runway; parking lot improvements are also included in the expenditure.
PALP Inc., doing business as Excel Paving Company, was the winning bidder for the city contract, which is not to exceed $672,525.
“The Santa Monica Airport Runway, Taxiway and Parking Lot Improvements project would remove the build-up of rubber deposits from aircraft tires from the runway surface, repair damaged pavement sections of the taxiways north and south of the runway, refresh and update pavement markings along the runway and taxiways, and resurface the tenant parking lot serving the Santa Monica Arts Studio… and the Ruskin Theater Group… buildings,” City staff stated.
Santa Monica Arts Studio is located at 3026 Airport Avenue and Ruskin Theater Group is at 3000 Airport Avenue.
According to City staff, construction would take place after hours “to allow removal of rubber deposits from the runway surface and to refresh the runway markings.”
“The rubber removal and runway restriping would occur over a period of four nights, between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., during which time the runway would be closed to aircraft landing and take-off,” City staff stated.
Expect some loud noises coming from the runway during construction.
“The equipment for the rubber removal process utilizes high-pressure water,” City staff stated, adding the equipment “is designed to fully recover all the wastewater and rubber debris for disposal at an approved treatment facility.”
Long Beach-based Excel Paving was one of two companies to submit a bid to City Hall to provide airport construction services.
Sully-Miller Contracting Co. from Brea, Calif., was the other company that submitted a bid; its bid was $670,728. With the 10 percent contingency paid by City Hall, Sully-Miller’s contract would have been for $737,801.
Excel Paving, according to City staff, had recently completed projects in Long Beach, Los Angeles, and here in Santa Monica. The company “successfully completed the City’s Annual Paving and Sidewalk Repair project and the Ocean Park Boulevard Complete Green Street project,” City staff pointed out.
Construction is expected to begin June 3 and continue through July 31.
The airfield pavement rehab portion of the project is expected to cost $539,856; the pavement of the parking lot is estimated to cost $132,660.
Council members had discussed this expense item earlier in its special meeting dedicated exclusively to SMO. Some council members pointed out this project is an example of how City Hall subsidizes SMO.
The pavement project was one of two consent calendar items on the April 30 agenda; the other item was a contract modification for the operation of a landing fee program at SMO. Vector-US, Inc., was authorized to receive an additional $58,344 “to provide for the image capture of aircraft operations, data management and reports, billing, and payment collections” for SMO’s landing fee program.
Vector-US originally had a four-year, $400,000 contract with City Hall to perform its services for the landing fee program; with this modification, the contract is now worth $458,344 over four years.
Both consent calendar items were approved unanimously.
Mayor Pro Tem Terry O’Day was not present at the April 30 meeting.
