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Costs for Kent span decrease: Price tag for Fairchild Ave. project about $4 million less than expected

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Matt Fredmonsky
July 2, 2009

 

By Matt Fredmonsky

Record-Courier staff writer

Construction and land acquisition costs for Kent’s Fairchild Avenue Bridge project have continually increased in the past decade. 

But city leaders announced Wednesday the cost to build the new bridge over the Cuyahoga River has decreased — by about $3.9 million.

Engineers for the Ohio Department of Transportation projected construction costs alone for the span to be $17.6 million. Late last month, ODOT identified the lowest bid at $13.7 million from Canton-based Beaver Excavating.

Kent Service Director Gene Roberts said the bid came in 22 percent below the ODOT construction estimate.

“I’m happy,” Roberts said. “I think everybody’s happy. The alternative is if it had come in 9 percent over, we would have been in bad shape.”

Roberts said the ODOT construction estimates were based on recent costs of steel, concrete and asphalt, all of which had ballooned in the past year because of the Olympics in Beijing and last summer’s record-high oil prices.

The new bridge will replace the existing Crain Avenue Bridge and re-direct Fairchild Avenue across the river to North Water Street. The overall project cost had increased by roughly $10 million from 1998, when the cost estimate was about $20.2 million with about $3 million for property acquisition. More recent numbers showed the overall project cost, including land acquisition, at about $25 million.

However, the cost savings does not translate directly to Kent’s share of the project.

Kent City Engineer Jim Bowling said the actual savings the city will experience on the cost of the project because of the low bid is yet to be determined.

“Some of that was coming from the county, and some of that was coming from the federal funding sources we had picked up,” Bowling said. “We’ll know more as the job progresses.”

The city continues settlement negotiations for a few properties in the construction area, so those settlement amounts will impact the total cost for property acquisition. And change orders during actual construction will affect the cost.

Roberts said the city will have a better idea of exactly how much it will save after ODOT provides the detailed breakdown of the bid showing the cost of each aspect of construction. 

“We know we’re going to save money definitely,” he said. “How much we’re going to save, we won’t know ... until the job’s done. But we’ll be able to have a better handle on the city’s funding once we see the bid tab.”

What will happen to the money saved by the city also is yet to be determined. Ultimately, the decision of how those dollars will be spent lies with Kent City Council.

Kent City Manager Dave Ruller told council Wednesday morning in an e-mail the dollars saved will be reflected in the city’s 2010 capital budget plan, which lists budgets for major projects in the city during the next five years.

Ruller said, overall, the savings should give the city more flexibility to fund other capital projects.

 




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