High bid prices delay Whitefish trail work
Construction of the long-awaited Wisconsin Avenue trail and other bike paths in Whitefish will be delayed a year because a lone bid for the projects came in too high.
The city intended to construct about 3 miles of trails this summer, including a 2-mile stretch along Wisconsin Avenue, paths along Second Street and Edgewood Drive and a segment of trail behind Don K Chevrolet.
"They all came in way over the engineer's estimate," Whitefish Public Works Director John Wilson said.
JTL Group of Kalispell was the only bidder for all of the trail projects.
Wilson has recommended that the City Council reject the bid for the Wisconsin Avenue project, but he's still evaluating the other projects.
"We're kind of in reaction mode," Wilson said. "The other projects look doubtful."
The root of the problem is too much growth in the Flathead and two few larger contractors to do the work.
"Only the big contractors can afford to bond" the larger trail projects, Wilson said.
THE COST estimate for the 2-mile Wisconsin Avenue trail along one of the resort town's busiest streets has more than doubled over six years, from $1 million in 2001 to $2.1 million now.
When JTL's construction bid came in at nearly $2.8 million, it put city officials in a quandary. Construction was scheduled to begin later this summer. It was delayed last year while the city secured drainage easements on private property.
"The unexpectedly high bid does not appear to be caused by rising costs for labor and materials, but may be due to the scarcity of contractors," Wilson said.
Earlier this year, the city of Whitefish and state Department of Transportation decided on a funding agreement based on a cost estimate of $1.78 million for the Wisconsin trail. The deal called for Whitefish to contribute $570,364 from its $3 million federal highway grant. It also called for $215,931 from other secured grant sources and $142,300 from city coffers.
The deal further stipulated that the city would ante up the extra money in the event of higher bid prices or change orders. Therein lies the dilemma.
"Our estimated cost share at this bid price would be an additional $861,000 from our federal highway grant allocation," Wilson said. "This one project would consume almost half of our $3 million federal grant and more than three-quarters of our available matching funds."
THERE ARE ways to make the projects more competitive, he said.
Instead of limiting advertising to legal ads and e-mail notices to general contractors, the city could more directly solicit bids, hand-delivering notices not only to general contractors but also subcontractors that handle elements such as landscaping.
Amenities such as park benches and garbage cans could be eliminated, but that may shave only a few thousand dollars off a project. Wilson said he's also investigating whether the city could hire more employees to build the smaller trail segments.
Provided the council agrees with Wilson's suggestion of rejecting JTL's bid for the Wisconsin Avenue project, the city will re-advertise the project in November or December.
Cities such as Polson and Great Falls are getting bike-trail bids that reflect engineering estimates, but rapid growth is an obstacle here, Wilson said.
"Whitefish is an odd duck, the whole Flathead is for that matter," he said. "It's a pretty tight market."
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com