Acting Director Harvey introduced a staff briefing on the Llano Trunk Rehabilitation Phase 1 project, and supervising engineer Rochelle Amayeda told the Board of Public Utilities the work rehabilitated roughly 8,100 linear feet of 66-inch trunk sewer, the longest single segment the city has undertaken.

Amayeda said the trunk carries about two-thirds of the city's wastewater and required a bypass system sized to roughly 16,000,000 gallons per day while crews carried out trenchless rehabilitation. The city used cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) lining as the trenchless method because the line sits 25 to 30 feet deep and the project footprint is in environmentally sensitive ground-water conditions.

The project had substantial environmental requirements: an initial-study/mitigated negative declaration under the California Environmental Quality Act, two years of rare-plant surveys, wetland delineations, and consultations with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the regional water quality board and the Army Corps of Engineers. Amayeda said the section lies in habitat for the state- and federally protected California tiger salamander and that the city purchased mitigation credits and worked inside a June 15 to Oct. 15 construction window to limit impacts.

On budget, Amayeda presented the project's early estimate of about $21 million and said many line items were approved by the board earlier in the year, including roughly $14.7 million for construction and about $1 million for mitigation credits. "We do expect that the final project cost will be closer to $18,500,000," she said during the briefing, noting final payments and invoices were still being processed.

Public commenter Michael Hilber challenged that characterization of coming in under budget, saying the city simply did not exhaust an existing contingency and warning against removing competitive bidding safeguards. "You just didn't use up all that contingencies," he said, adding concern that moving away from low-bid contracting could expose ratepayers to higher costs. Amayeda responded that the trunk segment was installed in the 1960s and had reached the end of its useful life, and she emphasized the city's design-build selection process remains rigorous and considers experience and qualifications as well as cost.

Board member Wright underscored the operational risk: "Failure is just not an option for this pipe," he said, noting the difficulty and public-health consequences of an emergency repair on a 30-foot-deep trunk that conveys millions of gallons per day.

Amayeda credited the collaborative design-build team for completing the work on schedule and under budget, but she recommended earlier engagement of subcontractors (particularly the bypass specialty contractor) and careful planning of project boundaries to avoid driving up mitigation-credit costs in future phases. Staff said phase 2 planning will start next year and that construction is not expected before 2027; they said phase 2 likely will not be design-build and staff hope to leverage U.S. Army Corps support where appropriate.

The presentation concluded with board appreciation for staff and acknowledgement of remaining close-out work and final invoices.