City of Gonzales
PUBLIC WORKS / CITY ENGINEER DEPARTMENT
ACTIVITY REPORT
TO: Honorable Mayor Rios and City Council
DATE: April 20, 2026
FROM: Octavio Hurtado, Public Works Director/City Engineer THROUGH: Carmen Gil, City Manager
SUBJECT: Public Works/City Engineer Department Activity Report
WASTEWATER
Existing Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant
Public Works is working on a daily basis to maintain control of the WWTP and is making good progress.
We currently have 15 inches of free board in our primary and secondary ponds. Pond A and B have 2 feet of freeboard. Staff continue to disk available ponds to increase percolation.
Major efforts have been put into Pond C. The pond has been drained into the Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant in order to begin dredging material out of it on March 30th. One foot of material has been removed and placed on the west side of the treatment plant where a drying bed has been created. This avoids the need to off haul the material which is an expensive effort. Once the grading is complete, the pond was cross ripped to promote percolation.
A new dichlorination unit was installed in the existing Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant to mitigate any excess chlorine that may get to the plant that negatively affects the effectiveness of the biological process necessary to treat sewage flows. The system was initially to be installed temporarily and relocated to the Industrial plant when it goes online next year. Given the unit cost $50,000 and it will cost $25,000 to move it.
We are now going to leave the unit in place, and a new one will be ordered for the new plant. This will ensure the municipal plant is protected from chorine spikes in the future in the event the Industrial Plant reaches the one million gallons per day capacity.
The aeration system is working with 10 out of 10 aerators functioning. An additional new aerator motor has been ordered to have onsite as a spare. With the dichlorination unit in place and having all aerators working will improve the effectiveness of the existing wastewater treatment plant.
AGENDA
ITEM
10 With the dichlorination unit installed and Pond C functioning, The Municipal WWTP will be taking back the water from the Industrial Ponds to dry them out so Gateway Pacific can continue with construction activities without causing a delay in project schedule. This will be done by pumping the flow back through all of the ponds at the plant which should increase water quality.
One of the three lift station pumps at the headworks was sent out to be rebuilt. The pump is scheduled to be returned by April 23, 2026, to be installed by City staff.
Staff continue to check the influent and effluent, freeboard, and run daily inspections, and collect samples for the County to conduct lab testing of Dissolved Oxygen levels, pH, and conductivity. Staff also continue to work on general plant maintenance and cleanup including weed control. Staff continue to monitor and up-keep the lift stations around the City Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturdays.
Industrial Wastewater Treatment Facility
The Contractor (Gateway Pacific) began construction on 7/21/2025. The contractor, construction manager, design consultant, and City staff hold progress meetings every two weeks 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. Work is also being performed on the perimeter fence.
Gateway has allowed the City to pump water from Pond C into one of the Industrial Treatment Plant's ponds to be able to dry out, remove sediment/sludge, disk and rip the basin floor to increase the percolation rate. With Pond C complete, Gateway will be pumping the water back to Pond 1 in the Municipal Plant.
WATER
The refurbishment of Well 4 is underway. This well has not received maintenance in many years and is due for major service. Maggiora Brothers performed well rehabilitation cleaning efforts including air swabbing, jetting and acid cleaning. The next step is to replace the pump and associated piping which has been authorized and is scheduled to be completed in the next 60 days.
Staff tests for chlorine residual daily, and maintenance on the water system. Staff repairs chlorine leaks and performs maintenance on the wells. For the month of March, all water samples taken at the sampling stations for the water system tested negative for coliform. There were 64 door tags this month, prior to shut offs. We had 14 disconnects because of non-payment.
PARKS
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.
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.
STREETS
Cleaning up all entrances to the City Project
Public Works crews have been working on cleaning up all entrances to the City of Gonzales. This effort will provide the City with a good curb appeal to city residents, the work force that commutes into the City, visitors and the highway transient traffic promoting more highway commuters to stop and shop and/or eat in Gonzales.
Work has been performed at the Alta Street entrance near 10th Street, Gonzales River Road and Alta Street, and at the Fifth Street Monument sign in front of McDonalds.
Future Plans include Alta Street South of Gonzales River Road.
Fifth Street Truck Ban
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. TL Engineering made the necessary changes addressing the comments and the plans were resubmitted to Caltrans on March 9, 2026. On April 7, 2026, the City received comments, and TL resubmitted the plans addressing the comments the same day.
TAMC Vision Zero
TAMC is developing a Transportation Safety Action Plan for Monterey County. Their consultant recently reached out to us that they are ready to start drafting the City of Gonzales plan. Staff met with the consultant from DKS to review the draft plan and layout the next steps.
Fourth Street Pavement Rehab
Staff is assessing the project to be included in the competitive RSTP grant application process.
Applications are due in June, and awarding is scheduled for August.
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.
Grant Opportunities
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. The following are projects the City is looking at submitting a competitive RSTP application for.
Staff will be submitting a traffic calming project at Del Monte Drive and Cielo Vista and Del Monte Drive and Rincon Road. This project is scheduled to move forward in the fall of 2026 regardless of the grant award outcome.
Staff is also looking at submitting a project to make improvements to Fifth Street that will complement the Safe Routes to School participatory grant improvements and tie the Fifth Street corridor with the Fourth Street Pavement Rehab project.
Staff will be submitting a bike lane project along Alta Street to remove the gap that exists just south of First Street which will also address the relocation of traffic light at Gonzales River Road and Alta Street that is prone to traffic accident damage.
Staff will be submitting an application to widen Alta Street from the City limits to the US 101 interchange. This project will add bike lanes at the north entrance to the City of Gonzales. This will be a joint project with the County of Monterey under an Encroachment Permit.
EVENTS
Staff is assisting with setting up the Community Center for the Coastal Commission meeting to be held on April 15th through 17th.
Attachments:
1. PW Activity Rept March 2026 Pictures