‘Phase I’ could begin in April
By Seth Schmidt
A $3.2 million construction bid has been accepted for a large sewer, water, and street improvement project in northeast Tracy.
Duininck Inc., Prinsburg, was awarded the $3,256,112 bid Monday night. City council members attached one condition to the bid; that the city is able to finalize financing for the project.
Consulting engineer Chris Larson of the I&S Group, Mankato, said construction could begin as early as mid-April, depending on the weather. Duininck is the same general contractor that handled the Tracy’s underground infrastructure project for 10 blocks of Fourth and Morgan streets in 2015.
This year’s project runs generally northeasterly from Central Park to Circle Drive, and on to the site of planned sewage lagoons north of the Tracy Airport. Relocating an old sewer that now runs through private property, putting in the right-of-way, and eliminating storm water inflows connected to the sanitary sewer, are major objectives of the project. New water mains and storm sewers will be installed where needed, and a new sanitary sewer outlet will be built to the site of new sewage settlement ponds. Streets, curb, gutter, and sidewalks will be reconstructed in disturbed areas.
The $3.2 million Duininck bid was the least of six contractor proposals submitted. Larson recommended accepting the Duininck bid, calling the company “reputable” and capable of completing the project.
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Several years ago, in an initial report, the Phase I costs were estimated at just over $2.5 million. Larson explained that the scope of the project grew, after underground televising “discovered what a tangled web” the infrastructure in that part of town is. The latest construction estimate from I&S was $3,067,097. But Larson said he considered the $3.2 million duininck bid a “good number.”
Larson said that the higher construction costs, left an “gap” of over $600,000 “between costs and previously lined up financing.
Council members accepted a recommendation from City Administrator Madonna Peterson for bridging that gap. The city will use $190,000 from a short-term bond fund to pay the water and storm sewer shortfall, with the remaining money being temporarily borrowed from a Phase II wastewater ponds fund.
See this week’s Headlight-Herald for more on this article.