GPT Construction Masonry & Design

GPT Construction Outdoor Masonry & Design owner/ operator Geoff Thomas builds outdoor kitchens, barbecue islands and pizza ovens.

Courtesy photo

Owner:

Geoff and Paula Thomas

Opening date: Dec. 15, 2022

Goods/services offered:

GPT Construction Masonry & Design is an outdoor kitchen builder recently relocated in proximity to downtown Placerville. Outdoor kitchen options are endless and GPT is a full service, family owned, company that can take an outdoor project from design to completion.

GPT creates designs that work in the real world and are customized to meet each client’s taste and budget.

Clients can have just a grill or design a custom kitchen with a refrigerator, kegerator, bar sink, dual burner stove, cocktail station or storage unit, plus an overhead awning with a ceiling fan for those hot summer days. Want more?

Add a custom, wood fired pizza oven. GPT is a one-stop shop from design to build with full masonry construction that withstands the test of time for future generations.

Contact: (916) 204-1223 GPTconstruction.com

New in business? Let the Mountain Democrat know at mtdemocrat.com/submissions/new-business-announcement

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Bridge

Continued from A1 care to maintain a creekside viewing area like the one currently behind the Ivy House Lot and would leave the Druid Monument unmoved, unlike the previously presented plan.

Changes to the plan, which would see replacement of the bridge over Hangtown Creek with a wider twolane option and realignment of Clay Street to create a four-way intersection with Cedar Ravine Road and Main Street, necessitated a new EIR, Neves explained to the council April 11. The city entered into a contract with Michael Baker Inc. to work on the new report but Neves discovered in October 2022 that “key staff on the project had retired and no institutional knowledge of the project had been passed on to Michael Baker staff.

“I was really surprised; the was my first time to ever be ghosted by a consultant,” Neves said.

The work done by Michael Baker staff is not a complete write-off, as the information already collected can be used and changes to the planned approach would have required a revised contract either way, Neves told the council. When asked what the break in information flow from the contractor cost the city, Neves estimated it to be no more than 25% of the original contract.

The council unanimously approved a resolution that amended a contract already in place with Dewberry Engineers Inc., expanding the scope of its involvement in the bridge project. Dewberry had been involved in National Environmental Policy Act compliance and design services for the project and will now update final hydrology and hydraulics reports and prepare a location hydraulic study. The amendment to the contract with Dewberry is set at a price of $603,126.77, bringing the total cost of the contract and prior amendments to more than $1.6 million.

Delays caused by a communication breakdown do come with a silver lining, as the heavy storms in recent months have provided new data to consider when designing a replacement bridge to withstand similar weather conditions in the future.

The replacement project has a long history that spans close to half the lifetime of the bridge itself. The project first entered public discussion in the late 1960s and early 1970s and made its debut in city planning documentation in 1975, according to Neves.

“1975 — thats the year I was born, just to put into perspective when city fathers and mothers first took a look at this,” Placerville Mayor Michael Saragosa said. “Lots of things change over time and that bridge has changed over time and its only gotten worse.”

The original date of service for the narrow bridge is not clear, according to city records, but estimates place the age at 95 to 97 years old. Bridges are typically designed to perform for 50 years; after 75 years of operation they are automatically recommended for replacement by the federal Highway Bridge Program. Biannual bridge inspection reports have noted the bridge as functionally obsolete due to its narrow width and impeded functional use and have marked a steady decline in the sufficiency rating of the infrastructure. The most recent sufficiency rating, which is a measure of structural integrity of the bridge and foundation, was set at only 52 out of 100 potential points, according to a staff report.

The bridge has begun to show the beginning stages of deck failure, including significant sidewalk settlement and cracks at the southernmost portions. The design, an earthen filled concrete arch style bridge, is no longer used in modern bridge design due to safety concerns and rainwater entrapment that deteriorates the concrete walls, notes the city’s staff report.

City staff and council members shared the sentiment that bridge replacement was an inevitability; if action wasn’t taken willingly, an eventual failure would force their hand.

“If we take no actions, the bridge is going to collapse,” Councilmember Nicole Gotberg said. “That’s just a function of the geologic conditions, the design and construction of the bridge and physical processes over time. If anybody has questions on that, I used to give a lecture at Princeton on the topic of failures because of geology and site conditions and I’m happy to meet with any constituent that would like to learn more.”

Further worries lurking beneath the Ivy House Lot and Druid Monument are prompting the city to take action. The Cedar Ravine culvert that begins at Pacific Street and terminates as part of the Clay Street Bridge is beginning to show signs of significant structural deterioration, most notably in the area directly underneath the druid monument. A city report shows that if the culvert is not repaired, the monument could begin to sink and tip to the side.

The sinkhole that has devoured a portion of the Main Street Tap House parking lot was caused by failure of a similarly constructed culvert, according to Neves. Lidar photos from a 2020 survey available on the city website show the Cedar Ravine culvert is in rough shape.

“She’s had a good life. We need to let her go for the sake of the monument and for access on Main Street,” Neves said. “If the culvert fails where it bisects Main Street … staff reports in 2004 show some failure of the culvert where it is under the Ivy House Lot. We’ve been pretty fortunate that it hasn’t happened where it meets Main Street yet.”

The culvert would be addressed during the road realignment project, though other issues farther up Clay Street, including their “clifflike sidewalks,” as Neves described them, would fall outside of the very specific scope of the bridge project due to federal funding limitations.

A timeline and expected delivery schedule regarding the project estimates that the NEPA and California Environmental Quality Act approval process will conclude by December. The planning and approval phase could reach 100% completion by July 2024.