City commissioners approved a resolution to award a bid to A.M. Cohron for $2,298,601 for the project to replace the 18th Avenue bridge over the Kansas Turnpike. The project also will improve 18th Avenue between Deerbrook and the entrance to Jones Aquatic Center.
The Kansas Department of Transportation will pay for all of the project’s cost, except for the city’s $563,000 share. The engineer’s estimate for the bridge replacement was $2,865,000, considerably higher than the bid received by A.M.Cohron.
City Engineer Mike Novak brought up questions commissioners asked about the project at the commission’s last action session. After the mistakes that were made on the Graphic Arts bridge, commissioners had some concerns about the project.
One question concerned whether Transystems, the engineering firm that designed the new bridge, has coverage for errors and omissions. Novak said the company does have coverage.
“I hope you can see our concern, after the last bridge we built on Graphic Arts, where we had a situation afterwards where you couldn’t see,” said Commissioner Jim Kessler. “We want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Brett Letkowski, senior vice president of Transystems, explained that the sight distance is not a concern in this case because the closest entrances are hundreds of feet away.
Commissioners wanted to know if there are penalties in the project in case it is not finished by the completion date of Dec. 31, 2010. A penalty of $2,000 per day will be assessed to the contractor if the project is delayed, Novak said.
In other business, commissioners approved a resolution to suspend timed parking from Jan. 18 to 23 for the Flint Hills Shoot Out Tournament, and from Jan. 25 to 30 for the Lyon County League Tournament.
deluvly1 (anonymous) says...
Oh lord, when does this debacle begin and “end…?”
Speaking of never-ending projects (and I was) when was the last time that you were able to turn off highway 50 and drive, unimpeded, to the middle school…or visa versa? My god, it has been YEARS…and this is what, a half a mile (or less) stretch of road?…any wonder why we just can’t wait for the bridge replacement project to begin…?
January 7, 2010 at 3:12 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
dhcc66 (anonymous) says...
pretty soon we will have isolated the entire northwest side by lack of passable roads....guess thats one more reason to call of school
January 7, 2010 at 3:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MadMack (anonymous) says...
I hope they put in a 4 lane bridge, since people avoiding the huge mess west of Graphic Arts on 50 will probably use it exclusively as will folks from the trailer park and Americus.
January 7, 2010 at 7:06 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
booker5m (anonymous) says...
Why is a new bridge needed? I know it will only cost us 1/2 million
January 7, 2010 at 7:32 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )