City of Gonzales
PUBLIC WORKS / CITY ENGINEER DEPARTMENT
ACTIVITY REPORT
TO: Honorable Mayor Rios and City Council
DATE: March 16, 2026
FROM: Octavio Hurtado, Public Works Director/City Engineer THROUGH: Carmen Gil, City Manager
SUBJECT: Public Works/City Engineer Activity Report
WASTEWATER
Public Works is working on a daily basis to maintain control of the WWTP and is making good progress.
We currently have 9.5 inches of free board in our primary and secondary ponds. Pond A and B have 2 to 3 feet of freeboard and Pond C is in the process of being drained. Staff continue to check the influent and effluent, run daily inspections and testing of Dissolved Oxygen levels, pH, and conductivity daily.
Staff continue to work on general plant maintenance and cleanup including weed control. A new aerator motor was purchased and has been delivered to the plant. It will be installed by public works staff. With the installation of this new unit there will be 7 functioning aerators and 5 nonfunctioning aerators. Given that aeration is one of the key methods of treatment, staff will continue to work on procuring and installing more aerators to increase the effectiveness of the existing wastewater treatment plant.
The City has replaced the outflow pipe for the clarifying system which is cleaning the water being pumped out of the secondary ponds into Pond D from 4 inch to 8 inches allowing the system to treat an additional 400,000 gallons per day bringing the treatment capacity to 1,000,000 gallons per day. With this change we are able to maintain freeboard in the ponds without using ponds A, B and C.
Gateway has allowed the City to pump water from Pond C into one of the Industrial Treatment Plants ponds to be able to dry out, remove sediment/sludge, disk and rip the basin floor to increase the percolation rate. Once pumping of pond C is complete, the City does not intend to use the Industrial ponds in the future.
AGENDA
ITEM
11 Industrial Wastewater Treatment Facility – The Contractor (Gateway Pacific) began construction on 7/21/2025. The contractor, construction manager, design consultant, and City staff hold weekly progress meetings to discuss open items, status of submittal reviews, schedule, and other business. The Contractor is currently working on installing necessary piping and pouring concrete at the headworks.
Staff have looked into the existing domestic well to see if it can be used at the Industrial headworks to eliminate the designed tanked water system that will eliminate the need to truck water in. Thus far, the County does not have any records of the installation of the well. We are reaching out to the local well drillers to find the company that installed it in the early nineties to get a copy of their drill logs and specifications.
One of three pumps at the lift station located at the WWTP headworks went out. A new pump was purchased and has been delivered. Staff have ordered a new cord and will install the pump when the cord is delivered.
Staff check the influent and effluent, run daily inspections and testing of Dissolved Oxygen levels, pH,and conductivity at the wastewater treatment plant on a daily basis.
Staff continue to monitor influent water levels on a daily and weekend basis.
Staff is taking advantage of the good weather to get more weed abatement completed.
Staff is disking available ponds to better the percolating process at the WWTP.
Staff continue to work on weak levy’s to make them more stable for our staff.
WATER
Staff tests for chlorine residual daily, and maintenance on the water system. Staff repairs chlorine leaks and performs maintenance on the wells.
Maggiora Brothers is still in the process of refurbishing Well 4.
For the month of January, all water samples taken at the sampling stations for the water system tested negative for coliform.
There were 60 door tags this month, prior to shut offs. We had 10 disconnects because of non-payment.
Staff continue to monitor and up-keep the lift stations around the city.
PARKS
Staff have been addressing graffiti on various sites throughout town. There is good coordination between the Police Department and the Public Works Department.
Staff continue to mow turf areas in the City parks regularly. Staff cleans restrooms, cleans trash, and make repairs in parks as necessary. Staff also repaired and maintained irrigation in Central, Vosti and Centennial Park.
Staff continue to assist community park reservation needs on weekends.
Staff continue to weed and clean Bio Swales and the redwoods regularly, including trimming of hedges that need to be addressed.
GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS
Staff continue to clean the Vosti Center restrooms daily, clean the Council Chambers weekly and order all supplies for City buildings and disburses them appropriately.
Staff assisted in turning over the library facility to the County Staff working with Contractor on final punch list on the Community Center.
Staff are also addressing trash outside the Community Center.
STREETS
Fifth Street Truck Ban – Bid opening for the traffic signs for the truck ban was 7/23/2025 and a single bid of $121,436 was received. Staff awarded this contract at the 9/15/2025 Council meeting. Funding is $16,788 in RSTP Fair Share Reserve Funds and $113,512 in a Mid-Cycle RSTP Grant from the Transportation Agency for Monterey County. The Contractor submitted an Encroachment Permit to Caltrans for the work in the State right of way on January 7, 2026. On February 4, 2026, the City received a response to the permit application denying approval as proposed requiring a resubmittal addressing their concerns. The concerns require moving the location of some signs, modifications/replacement of existing destination sign instead of adding a new sign near an existing sign. Staff were notified by GHD, the design engineering firm, that they were not going to make the changes to the plans being out of contract.
Staff requested the CAD drawings and had TL Engineering make the necessary changes addressing the comments. The plans were resubmitted to Caltrans on March 9, 2026, and should receive a response in one week. Once the encroachment permit is in hand, the contractor can proceed.
Regional Surface Transportation Program (RSTP) and TDA 2% funds are distributed on a three-year cycle with the next cycle coming up this year. The funds are administered by TAMC and are distributed in various ways. 10% goes to TAMC for special projects, 3.6 million gets distributed to the local agencies under a fair share program based on population. Gonzales is expected to receive $54,237. The remaining
13.4 million is distributed through a competitive grant application. The grant application is further divided into large projects and quick build projects. The quick build projects are meant to accomplish needs and add amenities that improve safety and promote bike and pedestrian use to an existing street project that the City is programming.
Staff will be actively looking for projects that will score well in the competitive application. Staff have reached out and are in communication with the County of Monterey to put an application in to widen Alta Street from the City limits to the US 101 interchange. This project will all bike lanes, install curb to prevent parking and improve the entrance to the City of Gonzales. Staff is also looking at submitting a project to make improvements to Fifth Street that will compliment the Safe Routs to School participatory grant improvements and tie the Fifth Street corridor with the Downtown Street improvements (Fourth Steet Pavement Rehab).
Fourth Street Pavement Rehab – Harris Assoc is preparing the construction documents to reconstruct the 100 Block of Fourth Street and the 400 and 300 blocks of Alta Minor. Harris Assoc submitted 65% plans, technical specifications and cost estimate on 8/08/2025. Staff met with Harris and Associates on February 6, 2026, to get updated on the project. An item of concern was the condition of the sewer manholes. The plan moving forward is to assess the manholes in question and review the funding sources and assess the project against funding opportunities if combined with complete streets objectives. The goal is to have the project advertised and constructed in 2026. Staff will assess the project to see if the project can be coordinated or be part of the competitive RSTP grant application process.
TAMC Safe Routes to School Program - Staff engaged TL Engineering to prepare several alternatives for pedestrian safety improvements along Fifth Street from the Southbound Highway 101 on/off ramps. On 5/09/2025 TL Engineering submitted draft alternatives for city staff review. Funding is a $250,000 RSTP grant from the TAMC. Staff is reviewing the draft alternatives provided and will be in contact with TAMC to make sure the project is in line with the participatory program recommendations. The most cost-effective way to implement these improvements will be to add them to a street project such as the Fourth Street Paving Project.
TAMC Vision Zero – Staff met with the Vision Zero Project Manager on 7/11/2025 and discussed potential traffic safety project to be designed and implemented. On 8/28/2025 a draft list of safety projects was emailed for city staff’s review. Staff will be reviewing the list of recommended safety projects and aligning them with future street improvement projects. The draft report will be completed soon and is expected to go before the City Council in June.
Staff continue to fill potholes, especially in the Industrial Park.
Staff continue to address weed abatement around town and the outskirts of the city.
EVENTS
No city events.