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City shocked by cost of Portland Loos

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RELATED: Portland Loo opens downtown

San Diego officials say they’ll end up spending about $560,000 installing two innovative Portland Loo restrooms downtown, an amount significantly more than double the initial estimate of $215,000 — which shocked even the company that makes them.

Costs ballooned because the loos don’t meet California electrical, seismic and other standards, and because they are being installed in spots where connecting to sewer and water lines has been difficult.

“It cost $180,000 just to buy the two of them and have them shipped, but that doesn’t get them installed or connected to the city sewer system,” said James Nagelvoort, the city’s public works director. “Anywhere between $550,000 and $560,000 is probably where we are going to end up landing.”

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Nagelvoort said the costs and hassles should prompt city leaders to explore other types of restrooms as they continue pursuing efforts to increase the number of public toilets in the downtown area.

The loos were chosen because they’re less vulnerable to crime, drug use and graffiti than other public restrooms. There are open slats at the top and near the ground, so passersby and law enforcement can glean whether there’s illegal activity going on inside without compromising the privacy of users.

In addition, the metal design is graffiti-resistant and easier to clean.

The company that markets the loos, Madden Fabrications, says it should cost about $130,000 total for an installed and connected loo, far less than the $280,000 San Diego is spending per loo.

But company spokesman Evan Madden said San Diego’s costs become easier to understand when you factor in connecting to utilities.

“It’s shocking how much they are spending, but it’s probably a true number,” Madden said. “No matter the city or state, if you don’t have utilities on site and you want to put a loo there, it’s very, very expensive.”

Nagelvoort said the particular locations chosen for San Diego’s loos — Market Street at Park Boulevard and 14th and L streets neat Petco Park — have created especially large hurdles for making those connections.

The San Diego trolley runs between the Market Street site and the nearest sewer main, forcing the city to run lateral lines under the train tracks, he said.

Carol McCreary, a vocal advocate for the loos, said such hurdles have prompted Portland to reject three proposed locations in favor of sites where utilities are present.

“This is the highest number I have ever heard and I don’t want anyone else to repeat San Diego’s experience,” said McCreary, who helps lead a Portland nonprofit called Public Hygiene Lets Us Stay Human, or PHLUSH.

She said San Diego officials should have replaced their two proposed locations with cheaper sites when they became aware of the hurdles.

Nagelvoort said public works officials didn’t consider that an option.

“Our job is to design and install them, not to figure out where to put them,” he said. “It wasn’t us that came up with the locations, and I don’t know the politics of where you put one.”

Regardless of location, Nagelvoort said the costs would still have been significantly higher than the $215,000 Councilwoman Marti Emerald estimated when she first proposed the loos four years ago along with the nonprofit Girls Think Tank.

That’s because, Nagelvoort said, Emerald wouldn’t have been aware that the loos don’t meet several California codes for wiring, disabled access and seismic safety.

Differences between Oregon and California codes forced the city to widen the entrance to the loo, redesign the underlying bolt structure to strengthen the foundation and make other changes, Nagelvoort said.

“The main issue with installing a Portland Loo in the state of California is that it doesn’t meet state of California requirements,” he said.

San Diego had to pay a consultant to design the changes, but Portland handled the retrofitting for free, Nagelvoort said.

Madden agreed that California codes differ from Oregon, but characterized the required changes as relatively minor. He said many fewer design changes were required when a Portland loo was installed recently in Arcata in Northern California.

He also said no other cities have struggled as much as San Diego.

Since 2008, loos have been installed in Portland, which has eight, British Columbia, which has two, Arcata and a small city in Alaska.

Additional loos have been purchased and are slated for installation in Seattle, Salt Lake City, Compton, Monterey and Cambridge, Mass.

San Diego opened the 14th Street loo on Dec. 3. The Market Street loo is scheduled to open Jan. 12.

Madden said most cities vote to buy loos without allowing their planning and engineering staff to examine how they will be installed, a practice he said should change.

Nagelvoort said one benefit of San Diego’s experience is that the city is in a better position now to install more loos.

“I don’t want the Portland Loo to be labeled a bad unit,” said.

But Nagelvoort said he would recommend the city look elsewhere for future public restrooms. “I think it makes sense to go with a manufacturer with more experience and a product that has already been permitted,” he said.

The $560,000 total includes $175,000 for the loos and shipping, $74,000 for city staff time, $23,000 for permits, $41,000 for consultants and about $245,000 for construction work.

While the $560,000 total is higher than expected, some at the city believed the costs had climbed all the way to $800,000 during a November public hearing. The cost estimate for the two loos combined before that hearing had been $400,000, and the city’s budget committee was reviewing a request for an additional $400,000.

Nagelvoort said the confusion probably stemmed from how much money had already been spent on the project and then returned to Civic San Diego, which handled the loos before they were turned over to public works.

david.garrick@utsandiego.com (619) 269-8906 @UTDavidGarrick

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