Ferndale’s E. 9 Mile Project to Continue in Segments

Ferndale’s E. 9 Mile Project to Continue in Segments
(Crystal A. Proxmire, June 24, 2014)
After bids came back higher than anticipated for construction work on E. 9 Mile Road, Ferndale City Council members voted Monday to divide the project into two distinct segments in order to move forward. The project involves a water main replacement, resurfacing and streetscaping.
The City had expected the project to cost about $1.5 million. The lowest bid MDOT received for the project was $2.5 million.
Instead of continuing with the project, Council voted to divide the project out and seek separate bids for parts of it. The water main replacement portion will be done in the fall, with a temporary asphalt over the trench through the winter. Then in the spring E. 9 Mile will be resurfaced from Woodward to Hilton, and is expected to be completed before festival season.
“Our hope is that rebidding the project in stages will make the costs come down and still allow for the project to be completed in the early spring of 2015, ahead of major downtown events,” said Mayor Dave Coulter.
Scott Ringler, the City’s engineering representative from Giffels Webster recommended removing and rebidding the water main component as a standalone municipal project. Ringler stated “Removing the water main portion of the project from federal requirements will open the bidding process to other qualified contractors that might not bid on MDOT and federally funded projects.”
Council members were concerned about why the bids came back so much higher than the estimates.
“When we reviewed the bid there’s three bid items that we relate to what we call mobilization, flag control and minor traffic control devices. The three work items came in about $300,000 more than our estimate,” Ringler said.
“We talked to a contractor who was one of the bidders and like we really thought, it was how we split the project up.” The project had been scheduled to work around the Dream Cruise, causing a stop in the workflow.
Ringler also said that the water main construction was $200,000 more than estimated and that only one company had bid on that portion of it. Lastly the cost of asphalt and concrete was 10-15% higher than expected.
Bids for the water main reconstruction project are expected to be released later this summer with construction scheduled in the fall of 2014. Bids for the MDOT resurfacing project are expected to be re-released during the fall of 2014 with construction suspended until the spring of 2015.
When asked if this new dividing up of construction components would save the city money, Ringler said that by doing it this way it would bring the cost back in line with the original estimate. The cost is also lower because resurfacing will stop at Hilton instead of West End. The plan also means that construction should not interfere with any of the festivals. This year the DIY Festival was cancelled by organizers in anticipation of the E. 9 Mile construction.
*NOTE:  The last sentence was updated to clarify that organizers cancelled the festival, not the city.
 
Previous stories:
https://oaklandcounty115.com/2014/06/09/ferndale-to-decide-on-e-9-mile-project-after-higher-than-expected-bids/
https://oaklandcounty115.com/2014/06/05/construction-coming-to-e-9-mile-info-sessions-june-9/
https://oaklandcounty115.com/2014/05/09/diy-festival-takes-a-year-off/

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