When will the sidewalks actually show up on 4th Avenue? For anyone who has followed Yuba County's Olivehurst Roadway Climate Resiliency Project since the state funded it in late 2023, the answer has changed several times. The latest answer arrived this month. Yuba County's bid deadline closed at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 8, 2026. The next afternoon, the county's procurement portal posted three notices: an apparent low bidder with subcontractors, a bid tabulation and a notice of intent to award.
So the project now has bids. It doesn't have a shovel in the ground, and it won't for months. The contract also gives the builder far more time than most people would guess for a sidewalk job.
Every Timeline Has Pushed the Start Back
You can follow this project's schedule through the paperwork, and each document set a later start than the one before it.
| Source | When it was published | Projected construction start |
|---|---|---|
| State CEQA environmental filing | Received August 2024 | February 2026, with full construction by August 2027 |
| CivicMic project timeline | June 2026 | Groundbreaking in August 2026, after a July contract award |
| Yuba County Board of Supervisors memo | July 28, 2026 | "Tentatively scheduled for March 2027," with award in November |
After that memo, the county released its bid solicitation on August 26, 2026, with bids due October 8.
The CEQA filing expected crews to be working this past February. The CivicMic timeline moved groundbreaking to this past August. Neither happened. The county's own July 28 memo to the Board of Supervisors is the most recent schedule on record. It expected bids to be advertised in August, opened in mid-September and awarded in November, with construction "tentatively scheduled for March 2027."
Even that memo is already a few weeks behind. Bids opened October 8, not mid-September. The memo also says plainly that the March start is tentative. Until the board votes on a construction contract, the safest reading is spring 2027 at the earliest.
Thirteen Streets, Mostly Within a Few Blocks of the Park
The county memo says the project covers "thirteen (13) streets in the heart of the community." Here are the streets the bid documents list:
- Full length: 2nd Avenue, 3rd Avenue, 4th Avenue, 5th Avenue, 8th Avenue, Canal Street, Beaver Lane and Tulsa Avenue
- 6th Avenue: from the west end to Olivehurst Avenue
- 9th, 10th and 11th Avenues: from Western Avenue to Olivehurst Avenue
- Western Avenue: from 2nd Avenue to 11th Avenue
Planned work includes storm drains, curb and gutter, sidewalks, ADA ramps, bike lanes, striping and traffic control devices, along with road rehabilitation tied to the new drainage. When the county applied for the grant, it described the project as a storm drain system serving five miles of roadway. It said the sidewalks and bicycle routes would create walking and biking routes "throughout the unincorporated community of Olivehurst."
Put those streets on a map and they land next to places most Olivehurst residents pass every week. The Olivehurst Public Utility District office is at 1970 9th Avenue, on one of the segments in the project. OPUD describes Olivehurst Community Park as running from 9th Avenue and Powerline Road through 10th Avenue. The park's tennis and pickleball court sits at 10th Avenue and Powerline Road. Anyone walking to the park or driving to pay a utility bill will be near the work on 9th and 10th.
The work also reaches the low end of the avenues. The bid listing names two storm drain outfalls into the Clark Lateral Canal, one at 2nd Avenue and one at 3rd Avenue. Those spots are where the new pipe network ties into existing waterways.
What "500 Working Days" Means on a Residential Block
The bid documents give the size of the job. The solicitation sets a county estimate of $34,882,163 for construction and requires the contractor to "complete the work within 500 working days."
Working days are weekdays when crews can actually work, not calendar days. At five working days a week, 500 of them is roughly two calendar years of work before holidays and weather. If the March 2027 start holds, the contract allows work on these streets to continue well into 2029. The county hasn't published a phasing plan, so nobody can yet say which avenue goes first or how long any one block will be torn up.
The quantities in the bid listing show how much digging is involved. They include about 10,500 linear feet of 8-inch PVC storm drain pipe and 2,250 linear feet of 12-inch HDPE pipe. They also call for 16,700 cubic yards of roadway excavation, 29,500 square yards of asphalt pavement removed and 9,650 tons of new hot mix asphalt. Large parts of the road surface itself will be removed and rebuilt.
The county's project manager is Chris Brady, and the bid documents list him as the contact. According to the July memo, the plans, specifications and estimate are available for review on request at Yuba County Public Works, 915 8th Street, Suite 125, in Marysville.
The Money Changed Shape Between 2023 and 2026
The funding has also changed since the grant was first announced.
In December 2023, the county's board packet reported that on December 6, 2023, the California Transportation Commission voted to award $48,477,000 to Yuba County for the project through its Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program. The packet said that money "will cover the full cost of design, construction, and construction management for the entire project." The same packet said Yuba Water Agency had previously committed $9.9 million toward the 20% local match this grant usually requires, but the commission awarded the full amount without requiring a local match. The Territorial Dispatch covered the award that month.
The July 2026 memo lists different numbers:
- $43,269,000 from the Local Transportation Climate Adaptation Program grant
- $6,500,000 from Yuba Water Agency's Special Drainage Projects funds
- $0 from the county General Fund
That totals $49,769,000. The grant line is about $5.2 million below the 2023 award, and Yuba Water Agency money is back in the budget at $6.5 million. The memo doesn't explain the change. The 2023 award itself covered design and construction management as well as construction. That helps explain why the full budget is bigger than the $34.9 million construction estimate.
Part of the money outside the construction contract already has a clear use. The county hired Dokken Engineering for preliminary engineering and construction support, and the July memo says the county and Dokken have finished the design. The county also asked for proposals from a construction management firm to add resident engineers and inspectors to its own staff during the build. That firm's construction-phase agreement won't be awarded until construction funds are authorized.
Residents should know that the October 9 notices name an apparent low bidder, but the public listing we reviewed doesn't show the bidder's name, how many bids came in or the dollar amount. The $34.9 million figure is the county's own estimate. It isn't a winning bid.
What to Watch Between Now and Spring
The steps from here are public, and each one sets the dates for the next.
- The bid notices. The Addenda & Notices page on Yuba County's OpenGov portal holds the October 9 bid tabulation and notice of intent to award.
- The board vote. The July memo expected the Board of Supervisors to award the construction contract in November. That agenda item should give the contractor's name and the final contract amount.
- The road delay page. The county posts work windows by street on its road delays and closures page. It was last updated October 9, 2026. The Olivehurst entries there now cover unrelated work, including potholing on Fleming Way from 7th to 11th Avenue in mid-September. Once this project starts, that page is the likeliest place to see which avenue is closed and when.
For now, people on 2nd through 11th Avenues, Canal Street, Beaver Lane, Tulsa Avenue and Western Avenue have no active work zone to plan around. They do have a November board vote coming and a tentative spring start, and the contract sets the job at 500 working days.
If you own a home on one of these 13 streets and want to know how a multi-year roadwork schedule might affect a sale or a move, Quinn Stacks can walk you through it with your timeline in mind. Get your free home valuation and personalized seller strategy, and we'll keep an eye on the project's milestones as they're posted.
