SLO County supervisor, challenger both take credit for new bridge. Who did what?
After San Luis Obispo County completed construction on a temporary bridge at Cecchetti Road, Supervisor Jimmy Paulding and his challenger Adam Verdin both took credit for getting the project to the finish line.
The new one-lane bridge restores access for Huasna and East Arroyo Grande communities after the original low-water crossing was washed out by strong winter storms in 2023. Construction could start on the permanent bridge in the spring of 2027, the county said.
“For more than two years, I’ve been pushing to move the permanent replacement project forward as quickly as possible,” Paulding said in a Friday news release. “As it became clear the permanent bridge would take longer to deliver, I fought for a temporary solution to ensure the community wasn’t left without access.”
Verdin, Paulding’s opponent in the upcoming District 4 election, announced Thursday that he contributed to the project as well.
He worked with the project contractor, Souza Construction, and an unnamed neighborhood engineer to create a cheaper and “more resilient bridge solution,” according to a Thursday campaign news release.
“What matters is the outcome,” Verdin said in the release. “The original plan would have left these communities once again cut off or with lengthy detours every winter. That wasn’t acceptable, so we worked to deliver a solution that makes year-round access far more likely.”
How did the bridge get built? And what contributions did the incumbent supervisor and his challenger make to the project? The Tribune looked into these questions as part of its Reality Check series.
Why it took 3 years to create a temporary Cecchetti Road bridge
The temporary bridge renews access between Lopez Drive and Branch Mill Road near Arroyo Grande after rushing floodwaters washed out the crossing in January 2023.
For more than two years, residents were forced to take Huasna Road as an alternate route, slowing emergency responders, farmers trucking agricultural products and locals taking children to school at nearby Branch Elementary.
Paulding said he advocated for funding a temporary bridge during budget hearings in June 2024, but at the time, Public Works recommended against it in order to streamline a permanent fix. The board voted down a temporary Cecchetti Road bridge again in October 2024.
In June 2025, county supervisors initially approved $250,000 for a temporary bridge, but in October, the board rejected a budget adjustment after the price to construct the structure more than doubled to $656,000.
After months of back-and-forth over the project’s rising costs, supervisors voted 3-2 on Nov. 18 to fund a temporary bridge at Cecchetti Road by diverting leftover funds from the Morretti Canyon Road bridge repair project to pay for the budget shortfall. Originally, the surplus funds were slated to fix other South County bridges, the staff report said.
Supervisors Paulding, Dawn Ortiz-Legg and Bruce Gibson voted in favor of the item, while Supervisors Heather Moreno and John Peschong opposed it.
That same day, Verdin posted on Facebook that “robbing Peter to pay Paul” was not good government.
“The Cecchetti Bridge finally received funding, but only by stripping resources from ten other long overdue bridge projects across our county,” he said.
Verdin told the Tribune that he “thought it was silly” at the time to be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on temporary infrastructure.
Supervisor candidates clash over SLO County bridge project
But after the funding was passed, Verdin said he connected with Souza Construction to find a better, easier fix.
In a Thursday campaign release titled “Better Bridge, Same Cost,” Verdin said he was able to deliver on a “longer-lasting solution.” He said the county planned to build a 60-foot temporary bridge, but he advocated for the bridge to be 100 feet long so that it’s more resilient to higher flows in the creek.
The San Luis Obispo County Public Works Department, however, didn’t plan for the bridge to be a specific length, height or elevation, agency spokesperson Shelly Cone said. Instead, contractors submitted their own design to meet the county’s criteria.
The criteria required that the bridge extend at least the 60 feet between both sides of the pavement, that the bottom of the bridge not be lower than the existing road, that the bridge include a minimum lane width of 13 feet, and that the bridge be able to accommodate trucks of a certain weight, Cone said.
Verdin also said he connected Souza Construction with Sterling Equipment in Boston to get parts needed for the permanent bridge, which are now waiting in San Luis Obispo County, the release said.
While Public Works could not confirm whether Souza Construction acquired parts from Sterling Equipment, Verdin shared emails with The Tribune verifying that connection, as well as detailing how he brought the two companies together to find a longer-term remedy.
Paulding said it was ironic that his opponent was now trying to take credit for the bridge after initially opposing project funding.
”I fought to identify the funding and encouraged our staff to use innovative performance specifications to deliver a cost-effective solution,” Paulding said in a Friday campaign newsletter. “Now that the work is done, my opponent — who originally dismissed the funding strategy as ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ — is attempting to seize the spotlight. You cannot fight against a project’s survival and then claim its victory.”
He said the real credit is due to the SLO County Public Works Department for finally getting the temporary bridge to completion after three years.
