Unanticipated increases in construction costs will result in two City of Sun Prairie street reconstruction projects being shelved until 2024 if a recommendation OK’d by the Sun Prairie Public Works Committee is affirmed by the city council.
City of Sun Prairie Engineering Director Tom Veith recommended delaying two street projects and one storm water project in 2023 after seeing “significant increases” in bidding prices.
Tom Veith
“This is resulting in requests for budget amendments to increase spending to complete all of the projects that were included in the 2023 [Capital Improvement Plan],” Veith wrote in a report to City Administrator Aaron Oppenheimer and copied to the committee. “In this case, costs have far exceeded budgets that Engineering is recommending to delay certain street projects, allowing for reallocation of their funding to complete the highest priority projects.”
Veith proposed shelving the O’Keeffe Avenue Rehabilitation from Summerfield Way to Sunfield Street and the North Thompson Pavement Rehabilitation from Windsor Street to St. Albert the Great Drive, as well as a storm water quality project.
The council will also need to approve a budget amendment to complete the two projects the city is moving ahead with: the North Bird Street project from the Highway 151 bridge north to the city limits; and Commercial Avenue from South Bird Street to Kroncke Drive.
The committee recommended Veith’s recommendation to increase general borrowing by $188,701 for street projects, $184,213 from the city’s storm water fund and $147,519 from the Wastewater Fund to complete the Bird and Commercial Avenue projects, as well as an increase of $644,132 from Sun Prairie Utilities for replace water main on those two projects.
That’s because the city projected a $3.275 million project cost for North Bird, and that project was awarded during the March 14 meeting to Forest Landscaping Inc. as the responsive low bidder for $3,412,982.
R.G. Huston Inc. was the only bidder on the Commercial Avenue project at $1,852,715 — far greater than the estimated $1.7 million project cost. The committee voted to award Huston the bid.
McIlroy
District 1 Alder Terry McIlroy asked what will happen if the city delays the two street projects, because both could be more expensive next year.
Veith said he didn’t want the city to fall behind on street projects because of the danger of not catching up. He said he talked with City Finance Director Kristin Vander Kooi and she agreed the delay of the two projects was the best step to take financially to reallocate the money from the two shelved projects.
“How bad are these streets?” McIlroy said, referring to Thompson and O’Keeffe projects.
Veith replied that both have rough street surfaces, but felt they could be delayed one year.
Later during the discussion, District 2 Alder and Public Works Committee Chair Bob Jokisch asked how the city could proceed with street projects in the CIP with prices increasing significantly.
Jokisch
Veith replied the projects are confined by the funds allotted, but told the committee that the city may have to reduce the number of lineal feet, re-examine replacement of water main or cutting back on storm sewer upgrades.
“This is kind of an unprecedented turn in the market,” said Veith, who said the increases were “unprecedented in my time here.”
Bristol-Main solution coming in April?
Schleicher
City Public Services Director Adam Schleicher said he is working with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to get interactive traffic signals approved as a possible solution for dangerous turning movements at the Main-Bristol intersection downtown. He said he hoped to have a solution to present during the committee’s April meeting.
Bailey Road bids backed
Acting on a recommendation from City Wastewater Treatment Plant Director Jeremy Cramer, the committee recommended the city award a bid of $12,685 to Seltzner Farms to plant crops on 36 acres of land owned by the city on Bailey Road. The city received lower bids from three other area farms.
