Community Corner

Guava Street to Reopen Ahead of Schedule

Guava Street between Jefferson and Adams avenues will be open to traffic Friday, July 12, following a project meant to divert flood waters.

A flood control project that has had Guava Street closed in Murrieta since February has finished well ahead of schedule.

The widened and freshly paved section of road between Jefferson and Adams avenues is scheduled to reopen Friday to traffic, according to Murrieta City Engineer Bob Moehling.

The project was initially expected to keep road closures in place for one year.

"(It) started in January and was estimated to take 12 months to complete, but was completed in seven months," Moehling said.

The nearly $4-million project involved installing an 1,100-foot-long box-shaped culvert (tunnel) under the intersection of Guava Street and Adams Avenue, because heavy rains often meant the closure of Guava as well as parts of Jefferson.

Completed by Riverside-based AlAbassi Construction and Engineering, the work diverts storm waters underneath the roadway and into Murrieta Creek.

This complements the recent realignment of major underground lines that carry flood waters from behind Walmart on Madison Avenue.

Next up will be installing a bridge connecting Guava to Washington Street. The plan is for that work to get started in 2014, Moehling previously told Patch.

The flood control projects are being funded as part of the City's capital improvement plan.

In an unfortunate forklift accident in May, an equipment operator—Antonio Toro, 38, of Riverside, employed by a subcontractor—died on site of the Guava Street project.


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