A sizzling construction market has dampened Palo Alto's progress on replacing the Rinconada Park fire station, which is now slated for completion nearly a year behind the initial goal.

The city broke ground on the project in January 2018, expecting to finish it in about a year. A year and half later, the station at Newell and Embarcadero roads remains a work very much in progress — a fortress of exposed Sheetrock enveloped by scaffolding.

Public Works Director Brad Eggleston conceded that the project has not gone well.

"It's somewhat of a victim of the strong economy here," Eggleston said.

The biggest challenge, he said, is having enough subcontractors in place to complete the job. Strawn Construction, the San Jose-based contractor hired to work on the project, has had trouble managing the project and is now on its fourth project manager and its fifth superintendent. The project is also currently without a project engineer, he said.

Various subcontractors and project managers have left the project to take jobs offered by other construction companies, he said.

"What that results in is new people constantly coming in and trying to get up to speed," Eggleston said. "And the organizing work and subcontractors hasn't been as it should be."

A major complication occurred in February, when a subcontractor who was responsible for installing the exterior cladding and the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system at the station was removed from the project. A replacement subcontractor was brought in, but the work has been slowed by the "significant lead time" needed to get the materials to construct the terra cotta siding and the zinc paneling at the station's exterior, he said.

Eggleston said the city has been working with Strawn and the new subcontractor; he now expects those tasks to be completed in September.

"We're at the point now where very soon they should be able to do that work very quickly," Eggleston said.

Once the siding is in, contractors will be able to install windows and then finish constructing the station's interior. Eggleston said he now expects the fire station to be completed by the end of the year. In the meantime, the department's firefighters and equipment have been working out of a facility near the Baylands at 2000 Geng Road.

The delays have not gone unnoticed. At a June discussion of another upcoming infrastructure project, the replacement of the Newell Road Bridge, Planning and Transportation Commissioner Michael Alcheck alluded to the delays at the fire station.

"I'd encourage the city not to select the same construction-management company that is currently taking its sweet, sweet time at the fire station at the other end of Newell," Alcheck said during the meeting.

But while the $9.9-million project has taken longer than expected, Eggleston noted that it remains within budget. He was also quick to contrast the project with the prolonged construction of the Mitchell Park Library and Community Center, which was marred by disagreements and litigation between the city and its contractor, Flintco. The city ultimately terminated the contract and hired another company, Big-D Pacific Builders, to finish the job (the library was completed in 2014).

In the Mitchell project, Flintco submitted a large number of change orders to try to justify its lack of progress. Strawn, by contrast, appears to be making a genuine effort to bring the project to completion, Eggleston said. The company is not making excuses or issuing frivolous change orders, he said.

"We're disappointed that the project is late and we're doing everything we can to get it on track," Eggleston said. "But Strawn is out there, cooperating. They're not adversarial and they're making progress on the project."

Even though Eggleston attributed the delays to market forces, he also said that he doesn't believe these challenges have hampered other projects in the city's ambitious infrastructure work plan. The city's construction of a new garage in the California Avenue Business District remains right on schedule, with completion scheduled for summer 2020.

The city is also planning to complete Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Charleston-Arastradero corridor project in November. That project includes adding landscaped medians, pavement markings, a new bike lane and various intersection redesigns along a 2.3-mile stretch of the corridor in south Palo Alto.