Ledger-Dispatch

By Roger Phelps=20

From left, Aaron Brusatori, Michael = Vasquez and=20 Janet Spencer are sworn in Thursday night in Amador City. = Brusatori and=20 Vasquez were elected to the city council, while Spencer will serve = as city=20 clerk.

Photo by: Roger = Phelps
A=20 new-look Amador City Council got to work quickly Thursday around ideas = on a=20 Amador Creek Bridge replacement.

Newly sworn in were council = members=20 Michael Vasquez and appointed incumbent Aaron Brusatori, as well as City = Clerk=20 Janet Spencer.

Next, an election by the council installed = Brusatori as=20 mayor and incumbent Councilman Tim Knox as vice mayor. A three-member = council=20 will govern the city during a search to fill two vacant = seats.

After=20 approving a business sign application for the Amador Hotel from = applicant=20 Michael Monroe, council members absorbed details on a pair of proposals = that=20 engineers might bridge Amador Creek. Matt Griggs of Dokken Engineering = Inc. said=20 the city faces a big choice in coming months. He said it's between = keeping open=20 the existing Amador Creek span for one-way traffic or closing the whole = bridge=20 and detouring motor traffic. The bridge-replacement project belonged = originally=20 to the state Department of Transportation, but when Caltrans bowed out, = the city=20 stepped in by getting grant funding.

"We could build it in = stages, moving=20 traffic to a new portion when complete," Griggs said. "Option two is a = complete=20 closure."

Dokken officials have researched some details of a = possible=20 detour-route proposal, but await advice from residents and city = officials before=20 settling on any fixed proposal for an alternate route, Griggs said. "(An = idea is=20 to) use Keystone Alley to Water Street, but we haven't confirmed that's = viable,"=20 Griggs said.

In addition, Griggs said, council members will have = to=20 choose between two bridge types. "One, with new abutments, we could = bring in=20 pre-cast girders," Griggs said. "They would be craned off a truck, and = set on=20 the abutments.

"Second would be a cast-in-place concrete slab = custom-fit=20 to needed dimensions, with openings for your (utility) lines," Griggs=20 continued.

"Option one sounds like C.C. Myers," Brusatori said of = the=20 construction firm noted for speed.

Griggs said the pre-cast = girders would=20 be faster, but not much, and would cost slightly more.

Vasquez = wanted=20 more detail on costs and time for a bridge project.

Griggs said = the=20 detour-option costs would include purchase of a traffic signal, in the = $8,000 to=20 $10,000 range. "(Closing) one side at a time, you're looking at May to = October,"=20 Griggs said. "With a closed bridge, it would cut six = weeks."

Vasquez said=20 he leaned toward the one-way-traffic idea.

Brusatori asked that = Dokken=20 analyze how a new bridge would fare in storm-event conditions recorded = in 1997,=20 a severe flood year. Griggs agreed Dokken would do that.

It was = agreed=20 Dokken would present again in a few months to the city council at an = unscheduled=20 date on the bridge project. Dokken held a public comment session in = October on=20 the project.

Roger Phelps
Ledger Dispatch contributor=20