Town Says It Will Sue to Get Moraga Road Fixed

In July of last year Moraga awarded a Road Rubber Cape Seal project to Modesto-based International Surfacing Systems to the tune of $550,000. The work was conducted, and traffic on Moraga Road tied up, through summer and fall with the bulk of the work completed on Oct. 27, 2009.

The Cape Seal was never billed as a repaving project matching the stretch of Moraga Road between Sky-Hi and Buckingham, but it was expected to hold up and provide needed stability to a heavily used stretch on one of Moraga's two main roads

Instead, Town Engineer Jill Mercurio said, it began to fail almost immediately.

"It's not the worst stretch of road I've driving on but you'd think that after spending that much money it would be a little better than a road in rural Georgia," said Bill Young, visiting friends in the area. "It was so rough I thought it was still under construction. We wondered why there were no cones out."

The town agrees and has informed International Surfacing that the work is not to their liking and that legal action is a possibility. Lamorinda Patch has a call in to Project Manager Jason Lampley for comment on the situation but has yet to hear back.

Mercurio has reported that International Surfacing had said it would return to finish the work as soon as late rains lifted. That time, apparently, has come and gone.

"Staff is hopeful that the contractor will respond with an acceptable proposal to provide the quality of surface originally specified," Mercurio said.