Storm Drain

In a town where nearly everyone travels by foot or by bicycle poor drainage is just not acceptable. All day Wednesday and Thursday construction crews worked quickly to install the new storm drain that will control future flooding in downtown Isla Vista. The pipes seen here will connect to a new storm drain system and move rain water out of Isla Vista Streets. The manhole connects the Pardall pipe to the Embarcadero del Mar pipe.

This work will continue at the Pardall and Embarcadero del Mar intersection through Wed, Sept 3 then move to the intersection of Pardall and Embarcadero del Norte.

Pardall Groundbreaking

Wednesday's groundbreaking event went off smoothly as construction crews took a break from installing the new storm drain at the corner of Pardall and Embarcadero del Mar. UCSB Chancellor Yang, First District Supervisor Salud Carbajal, Second District Supervisor Janet Wolf and about 50 others were on hand for the event to celebrate the first major project to go to construction from the Isla Vista Master Plan. Unfortunately, Third District Supervisor Brooks Firestone, whose office played an instrumental role in getting this project to construction was ill and could not attend the event.



Special thanks to UCSB, the Isla Vista Recreation and Parks District, the Isla Vista Foot Patrol, County Public Works, and all the students, residents and business owners who attended.


Silvergreens and FreshStart Cafe provided coffee and tasty snack.

To watch the video of the groundbreaking paste this link into your browser:

http://sbcounty.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=5&clip_id=626&publish_id=&event_id=

Pardall Palms to Temporary Home

Five of the palms on Pardall near Embarcadero del Norte were removed over the last two days and moved to a temporary home on the UCSB campus. Each of the ten palms planned to be moved will be brought back to the EDN intersection and replanted as part of the final project. The palms are being moved by Senna Tree who specializes in palm relocation and does a lot of work for Las Vegas casinos. A large crane and a flat-bed truck were used to move the trees from Pardall and campus.

The palms will be temporarily stored on campus, west of the campus police station, near Mesa Rd and Stadium Rd. You can clearly see them from Mesa Rd as you pass by. They are being cared for by a professional arborist while at their temporary location. These types of palms, Washingtonia robusta, or fan palms, are very hardy and have a nearly 100% survivability rate.

Blue Pipe

Trenching and installation of the new water main is underway. Contractors are installing a new blue colored 8 inch water main down the middle of Pardall and backfilling the trench as they go. The contractors anticipating reaching all the way to the Embarcadero del Mar intersection by Friday.

The new water main also includes a new set of valves in the EDM intersection that will allow the water district to minimize downtown wide construction related water shut-downs in the future.

Waterline Trenching to Begin

Tomorrow, Aug 13, trenching will begin for the new water line that will run down Pardall Rd and service all the businesses and many residences in downtown IV. The trench will start at the Embarcadero del Norte end and move down the road toward Embarcadero del Mar over the next 3 days. The contractor will be installing new water pipe and backfilling the trench as they go.

While this work continues traffic along Pardall will continue to be limited with only delivery and service vehicles allowed during construction hours. Sidewalks will be open and there is a dedicated area open in the road for bicycles.

In the middle of all the construction there are still plenty of people out enjoying IV businesses. The picture here shows construction in the background while summer session student enjoy a crepe at the new FreshStart Cafe across from IV Bookstore.

Filtera Goes In

The Filtera bio-retention unit discussed in yesterday's blog was installed today along with the new man-hole and drain inlets at the Camino Pesc intersection. The Filtera and the man-hole are pre-cast concrete made in a factory and delivered to the site on a tractor trailer ready to place on location using heavy equipment. The Filtera box will be filled with bio-filter media and living landscape to capture and remove pollutants from storm water run-off. The filter media and the landscape element will be installed later, but by the time the next storm arrives Isla Vista will have bio-filtration. For more info on Filtera visit http://www.filterra.com/

First Concrete and the Coming of the Filtera

Today the contractors poured the first concrete of the project; not the most exciting bit of concrete but it sets the foundation for the new storm drain at the intersection of Pardall and Camino Pesc. Over the next couple days a concrete specialist will be on site to build the storm drain inlets.

Of special interest will be construction of the Filtera Bio-retention unit at this location. Filtera uses landscape vegetation and bio-filter media to remove pollutants from storm water before they enter the storm drain system. The Redevelopment Agency intends to install several more of these around the Embarcadero Loop as the downtown IV storm drain system is expanded with a future project.

The Goleta Water District will be shutting down water service in several blocks of downtown IV on Monday Aug 11 and Tues Aug 12 from 9 pm to 8 am. These shut-downs are necessary to replace old valves and connect the new lines to the water system. The late night shut-down is intended to minimize impacts.

Pardall Utility Day

Today we brought together representatives from So Cal Gas, Goleta Water District, So Cal Edison, Cox Communication, and Verizon to walk the Pardall project site and confirm that everyone was coordinated on utility relocation issues. Building a project of this magnitude in the middle of an existing town and where utility location record keeping has been spotty is a real challenge. Fortunately, we have a group of utility providers who understand the need to keep services intact and keep business open and fully functioning in downtown Isla Vista.

Construction to install a storm drain at Pardall and Camino Pesc continued today as the construction crew worked to complete the 4 ft wide trench across Camino Pesc where the new storm drain pipe will be installed.

At the other end of Pardall, several locations in the roadway were excavated to begin relocating the So Cal Gas lines. Locations in front of Freebirds, IV Surf Co and Dublins were excavated and work will continue tomorrow on relocating natural gas lines.

Construction Begins

Pardall Rd construction kicked off today with the demolition of the traffic barrier at the west-end intersection of Pardall and Camino Pescadero and the trenching for a new storm drain. A new and improved traffic barrier will be reconstructed on Pardall near Giovanni's Pizza and will allow bikes to pass but not auto traffic. Cars will still be able to drive to the businesses and residences on the west end of Pardall, but as was true in the past, will not be able to travel between Camino Pesc and Embarcadero del Mar. This phase of construction will last all week.

So Cal Gas Company was also working on the gas lines at Pardall and Embarcadero del Norte. This work will continue for the next two weeks.

The Pardall Rd Streetscape Project is the first major project to be implemented from the Isla Vista Master Plan. The IVMP was developed over a ten year period based on over 60 community meeting with students, long-time residents and local business people. To lean more visit http://www.ivrda.org/