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For two months, Sebastiano’s, a mom-and-pop sandwich shop and Sicilian bakery in the heart of Sellwood, has been a storefront without a sidewalk.
Co-owner Dan Gold tells WW a crew showed up in mid-July and dug up the sidewalk on Southeast 13th Avenue at Umatilla Street in front of the shop. This was a surprise because he says he never received any notice, verbally or in writing, that work would be done. The project was a significant inconvenience to Sebastiano’s customers, who had to swing out and walk on busy 13th Avenue to get by the construction, or cross the road completely. Plus, it blocked the only path to the restroom.
“It’s annoying, and it’s dangerous,” Gold says.
The workers disappeared for three or four weeks, and then a crew came back and poured some concrete. Gold was encouraged that the end was nigh. But the crew didn’t fully finish the job, leaving a 36-inch gap between the sidewalk and the street that was impassable for strollers and wheelchairs. Another month went by.
Frustrated, Gold called PDX 311, the government help line, which directed him to the Portland Bureau of Transportation. PBOT told him it might be a Portland General Electric project, so he called the utility. Getting nowhere, he contacted Willamette Week.
One day after WW made the same calls, the work was completely finished.
It turns out it was a PGE project after all: a telephone pole replacement, followed by ADA-ramp improvements to the curb, according to PGE spokesman Drew Hanson. PGE followed all requirements of the PBOT permit for the work, Hanson says, including a preconstruction notice to PBOT on July 24. The contractor notified local businesses and tenants of the work in person, and there was a permitted traffic control plan for the work, he says.
The delay was due, in part, to some neighborhood mischief.
“A job like this requires multiple inspections performed by PBOT after each phase of the job is completed (engineering, grading, concrete, asphalt, etc.),” Hanson said in an email. “In addition to the inspection schedule, a member of the public destroyed some of the new concrete which delayed completion and, subsequently, required another inspection.”
In retrospect, Gold wishes he would have asked the contractor for proof it had a permit to be operating before tearing up the sidewalk, and Sebastiano’s customers’ access to the restroom.
“It seems like there should be clearer communication between the utility and PBOT so everyone can at least know what’s going on, and know what the time frames are for repairs,” Gold says. “Call me crazy.”
