Reconstruction complications add more than $58,000 to bill
By Jason Arndt
Editor
While the Lewis Street wall was under reconstruction this past summer, contractors were hampered with two unexpected circumstances, which left the City of Burlington covering cost overruns.
Although the city was reimbursed for the first unexpected circumstance, which was for $14,380 from AT&T, the second snag did not fare as well for the city.
According to Director of Public Works Peter Riggs, in the second instance, workers with All-Ways contractors discovered the existing wall footing was larger than expected.
The larger footing forced crews to account for material and labor costs, which came it an additional $58,004, bringing the total gross project cost to $331,209.
About $14,000 of the $331,208 will be offset by the AT&T reimbursement.
District 3 Alderman Jon Schultz, meanwhile, was concerned about the overruns after the Common Council diligently sought a low bid following an initial proposal of around $363,000 last year.
Riggs, in response, said regardless of what contractor was chosen, crews would have likely ran into the same issue.
Additionally, Riggs said, the former Lewis Street wall had already been demolished when the problem was discovered, which forced crews to take immediate steps to correct the issue.
“When we encountered the footing adjustment that we needed to correct, we had already demolished it,” he said. “We couldn’t leave the condition of that site the way it was.”
“We do our best to make sure that we don’t have these surprises in construction,” Riggs added.
It is the latest setback for the project, which was originally slated for 2017 but postponed after the initial bids came back higher than expected.
In June, the Common Council approved the first change order, when members learned crews found a buried utility cable owned by AT&T.
Unlike the recent change, since AT&T owned the cable, the telecommunications company assumed responsibility for all costs associated with the relocation.
To read the full report from this week’s Common Council meeting, see the Oct. 18 edition of the Burlington Standard Press.
-
-
-
-
-