La Pata Avenue Gap Closure Project

By: Orange County Supervisor Pat Bates

The Board selected Sukut Construction, Inc. of Santa Ana in the amount of $72.7 million to construct the La Pata Avenue Gap Closure Project, which is more than $5 million below the engineer’s estimate.

The Project consists of three components, identified in the Project Plans & Specifications as Schedule A, Schedule B and Schedule C.

Schedule A, also known as the “gap closure,” details the Project’s construction of a new roadway consisting of four new travel lanes from the existing roadway terminus at the Landfill to the intersection of Calle Saluda in the City of San Clemente.

Schedule B will widen La Pata Avenue from three to five lanes, from approximately 750 feet south of Ortega Highway in the unincorporated County area to the existing road terminus at the County’s Prima Deshecha Landfill.

Lastly, Schedule C is the construction of Camino Del Rio as a four-lane facility, from its current terminus in the City of San Clemente to its future terminus at La Pata Avenue.

Schedule A, which will occur first and is the County’s top priority, is estimated to take approximately two and a half years to complete and will result in a critical roadway connection from the City of San Clemente to Ortega Highway.

The County is expecting to break ground on the project in March 2014.

I would like to thanks OC Public Works staff for their diligent efforts over several years to move this project forward; and I would especially like to thank Harry Persaud for shepherding this project and working so closely with stakeholders to ensure its success.

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