Sanborn Road in Salinas may soon get a facelift – if bids don’t come in too high.

At a traffic signal on North Sanborn Road and Garner Avenue, a line of cars file into a left-turning lane, waiting for a green light. It finally blinks green, but the cars aren’t going just yet. They’re inching in the middle of the intersection, narrowly making their turn as the light flashes red again. This intersection, along with nine others on Sanborn Road between Freedom Parkway and East Alisal Street, are all part of a project of a $1.6 million project aimed at adding protected left turns, coordinated traffic lights, adding pedestrian signal countdowns and replacing non-ADA-compliant ramps. If only the city had a contractor to do the job.

Salinas put the project out to bid May 4. The lowest bidder, Tennyson Electric Inc., was 250-percent over budget. “I almost fainted,” says city engineer Victor Gutierrez. “I’ve never seen those kinds of costs associated with simple retrofits.” On June 20, City Council rejected all bids.

Assistant Public Works Director Jim Sandoval speculates that the high demand for contractors during the summer is hiking up the price. “Most of them are so overloaded,” Sandoval says, “so they’ll drive the price [up] ridiculously, as an incentive to themselves.”

The project is being funded partly by a $1.4 million grant through Caltrans. The city is willing to match the grant at 10 percent, but not to take it massively over-budget.

“We’re going to do it,” Sandoval says. “We’re just waiting for someone who’ll do it on our budget.” They’re planning to put the project out to bid again, some time in August. This time around, Public Works officials will offer pre-construction tours of the site to bidders.