Council Ok’s bids for major city street, utility projects
An aerial view of 12th Avenue West.
By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
The Columbia Falls city council last week approved a couple of major bids for street and utility work in the city.
Sandry Construction was awarded a $991,301 contract for reconstruction 12th Avenue West from Highway 2 north. Sandry was the low bid, beating out LHC and Cutting Edge Excavation.
The project, in part, is funded by a $660,000 federal Economic Development Administration Grant that was garnered due to job losses a few years ago when Weyerhaeuser shut down the sawmill and plywood plant in Columbia Falls.
The city will pay for the other half, the Medical Center the rest.
The work could begin as early as this fall, with sewer and water lines going in to the center.
The road is in poor condition.
There’s still concern the project could cost more, however, and the city would have to pick up the tab.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe has made some indications that the city may have to put in a crossing signal at the tracks, even though it’s a spur line and the trains typically go about 20 mph, if that. The city also has to pay for Flathead Electric Co-op utility pole guy wire relocation, Flathead Electric street lighting, and Century Link telephone pedestal relocation. These items are estimated to amount to approximately $141,000.
If it has to put in the crossing arms as well, the cost could rise to $1.2 million for the entire project.
In addition to the 12th Avenue West project, the council approved a bid from LHC construction to rebuild Beth and Martha Roads, which includes adding several dry wells to stem drainage problems on the streets.
The contract is for $759,000, which pretty much eats up most of the city’s street budget for the year.
The bid came in about $164,000 over the engineer’s estimate. LHC was the only bidder.
The city was hoping to do other projects as well, including angled parking on First Avenue West, an overlay on First Street East North and Vans Avenue and a repair to 13th St West on the west end.
All told, the engineer estimate for all the projects was $829,870. The bid came in at $1.11 million.
If the bids had come in as estimated, the city would have had funds to award all the projects, but councilors lamented the lack of bids on the projects.