A slight detour in the road is causing major headaches for businesses along El Camino Real.
A month ago the Santa Clara Valley Water District began construction on a 12-by-12-foot culvert beneath El Camino a few blocks south of Page Mill Road, part of a massive $5 million flood-control project for Matadero Creek to provide protection in the event of a flood so rare that it's not expected to happen more than once in a century.
But the project, which could take up to two years for just the section under El Camino, might sink businesses along the stretch before it's completed.
Linda Hsu, owner of Tony's Mini Market at 3487 El Camino, said the project's concrete traffic dividers have made access to her store difficult and cut back on parking in front. "We are a convenience store, so we really depend on customers having easy access and parking. We were missing a lot of business already and now this happens," she said.
Vickie Turner, general manager of the Sizzler restaurant at 3375 El Camino, said business has fallen off about 30 percent since the erection of traffic barricades and a solid six-foot fence around the construction site that blocks the view of the restaurant. "People think we're closed," she said.
Turner said her establishment is fortunate because it has the backing of a large company, but some independent businesses may not survive.
"The construction company should have insurance to help out small businesses that will probably go out of business," Turner said, adding that the China Lion and the Motel 6 next door and Quality Tile across the street also were suffering from the construction.
"It's quite ironic that Santa Clara County declared a drought watch last week and this is a flood-control project," she said.
However, Ralph Oswald, owner of the Fresco restaurant across the street, which had many of its parking spaces eliminated, said the water district has been very cooperative. To mitigate the loss of Fresco parking, the district obtained permission from Varian Associates to lease additional parking north of the restaurant.
The construction is part of phase four of a flood-control project for Matadero and Barron creeks that was approved by the district in 1988 and received final approval from the Palo Alto City Council in February. It will involve building a 4,300-foot-long underground concrete box culvert along the Bol Park bike path from Gunn High School to El Camino. The concept is to provide flood protection without disrupting the natural flow of the creek or lining the channel with concrete, as has been done on Matadero east of El Camino.
Water district spokeswoman Teddy Morse said the district is trying to disrupt businesses and traffic along El Camino as little as possible and that's why the project could take up to two years to cross the road.
"We could go in there and shut down everything and be finished in three months, but that would cause real big problems," Morse said.
Instead, the portion under El Camino, a six-lane road, is being built in six phases that will mean changing the detour from one lane to another every three to four months, working from the downstream side to the upstream side, said the district's supervising construction engineer, Ralph Blair. RGW Construction of Fremont is doing the work.
Because El Camino is a state highway, Caltrans is requiring the district to maintain three lanes of traffic in each direction for most of the construction period, added Project Engineer Steve Ferranti. In addition, three major communication lines have to be moved by Pacific Bell, which may interrupt construction for a couple months.
The construction schedule for the rest of the project, which runs through land leased by Varian from Stanford University, could be substantially shortened if Varian does not invoke its right to shut down construction for 166 days, Ferranti said. Because the high-tech company does manufacturing using vibration-sensitive robotics nearby, Varian retained the right to halt work if it interferes with its manufacturing. Without any delays, the contractor estimates that section of the project will be completed in 14 months.
"We've tried to be cooperative with everybody out there," Ferranti said. "I hope they realize the long-term benefits of the work," such as an end to flood insurance premiums.
--Peter Gauvin
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