Riley County Commissioners are rethinking the McDowell Creek Road project.
Leon Hobson, the county’s public works director, told commissioners Monday morning that the project’s bids all exceed the engineer’s estimate by more than 110 percent, and can’t accept any of them based on state statute.
“When this project was first put on the sales tax initiative, the cost was estimated around $3.5 to $4 million,” Hobson said. “And at that point we thought that was a viable project.
“As we got into the design, or as Olsson Associates got into the design, a lot of challenges started popping up pretty quick.”
Commissioners have expressed interest in modernizing the road with safety in mind and opened bids a month ago ranging from $6.7 million to as high as $7.3 million.
The most up to date engineer’s estimate was at $6 million.
Hobson said many factors upped the cost of the project, including curbs, guardrails and traffic control during construction.
“Even putting in the retaining walls that we were talking about putting in on the unstable hillside became a real challenge,” he said. “All of those things kind of snowballed, for lack of a better word.”
Commissioners approved the denial of the bids and asked if there were ways to trim the project’s cost.
“I don’t think we’ll get the project down to $6.2 million,” said Mark Bachamp of Olsson Associates, who calculated the engineer’s estimate.
In other items, commissioners approved to extend the Native Stone Scenic Byway to include Zeandale Road and 177 to the I-70 interchange.
Commissioners Robert Boyd and Ben Wilson voted in favor of the addition, while chairman Ron Wells differed.
Wells said while he was supportive of the byway overall, he had reservations to the addition due to the fact it will add state regulations prohibiting the construction of billboards and commercial signage along the route.
Commissioners also approved the transfer of $1,838,583 from the county’s General Fund to the Capital Improvement Projects budget to aid equipment improvements for the Public Works Department.
