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Utility projects on track |
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Friday, 15 May 2009 |
By MIKE BURKHOLDER
Managing Editor
ST. MARYS — A handful of projects related to the new school site north of U.S. 33 are slated to begin in the coming weeks.
City officials opened bids April 24 for the electrical extension across U.S. 33 to the site. Vaughn Industries came in with the winning bid at $239,860 — well below the engineer’s estimate of $404,000.
“We are happy with how they came in,” Safety-Service Director Tom Hitchcock said. “Contractors are very hungry now and we are getting very good bids because there isn’t a lot of work out there.”
Hitchcock said the project will include running electric lines across U.S. 33 to service the site. With the project comes the opportunity for development — residential or commercial — in the area.
“It definitely won’t hurt us on future development because we will have utilities out there,” Hitchcock said. “Any leads that come from the state require sites to be shovel ready, which means you need to have utilities to the site.”
The electric project has a target completion date of November. Plans also are finished on the water and sewer extension to the site as well as improvements to Shipman Road. Bids for those projects are scheduled to be opened next week.
“Shipman Road will be a reconstruction of the first 400 feet, just past the school’s entrance,” Hitchcock said. “We anticipate bids to come in at the engineer’s estimate, but we are very happy when they come in below. I don’t want to jinx the bids.”
Work on Shipman Road is scheduled to be finished in November. Work lines are scheduled to be finished by September and sewer lines by May 1, 2010.
Engineering Supervisor Craig Moeller said he expects a smaller turnout of bids on the water and sewer projects.
“We currently do not have a lot of interest in the projects and it is kind of shocking us right now,” Moeller said. “Going into these projects, I thought we would have more plan holders out.”
A plan holder, Moeller said, is a request by a contractor for blueprints and specifications associated with a project. Moeller said he suspects the type of work could be the reason for the limited number of plan holders.
“With the depth of sewer lines and size of lift stations, right now we are kind of anticipating some average bids,” Moeller said. “St. Marys doesn’t really generate a lot of interest in these types of jobs. Some communities will see 20 to 30 plan holders and we’d get 10.”
Moeller said the city keeps a list of contractors who request plans for a project.
“These are the first two times the city has charged for a set of prints — $50,” Moeller said. “In years past they were free to the contractor and that might have to do with the amount of plan holders. I guess we have a few different scenarios — the type of work and size of the project may be another reason we aren’t seeing the activity we have.” |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 19 May 2009 )
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