San Marcos Creek Infrastructure Project

SEMA’s work on the San Marcos Creek Infrastructure Project has helped the City of San Marcos relieve historical long-standing flooding issues and open a new neighborhood park. Two new bridges constructed by SEMA have separated Bent Avenue and Via Vera Cruz from San Marcos Creek as well as brought architectural enhancements to the community utilizing colored concrete, decorative railing, and stone veneers on the bridges and throughout the project site. Discovery street was widened from two to four lanes, which helps improve traffic flow as the community continues to grow. Below the bridges and along the creek, the project has also restored 1.5 miles of environmentally sensitive habitats through the removal of invasive plant species and placement of over 100,000 new trees and plants. Additionally, the project has provided the San Marcos community with 1.2 mile loop trail and new playground area to be enjoyed by generations to come.

Major Achievements

By the later part of 2023, the community had noticed the delayed construction milestones at the San Marcos Creek Infrastructure Project and was placing the City under political pressure open South Discovery Street and Via Vera Cruz to public traffic. Despite extensive negotiations of multi-year delays and over 100 change orders, the City and SEMA were able to partner on this community issue in late 2023 to accelerate the opening of Via Vera Cruz before the 2023 holiday season. This finally gave the community the ability to utilize the improvements they had been waiting on since the beginning of planning in the previous decade.

Savings

On bid day, SEMA’s price to perform the work saved the City over $1.7M compared to the 2nd place bidder. The opening of the bridges has saved the City substantial maintenance department expenses. Before the project, the City would need to close Via Vera Cruz and Discovery Street to traffic during rain events. So during each rain event, the City would incur traffic control labor, equipment and material expenses from setting up, maintaining and removing closures of both streets. SEMA’s construction of the two bridges over San Marcos Creek has eliminated this previously mandatory expense and allowed to City to utilize their funds elsewhere.