BENTONVILLE — The City Council approved a $4.6 million budget adjustment Tuesday and awarded a bid so utilities related to the Bella Vista bypass project could be relocated.
A bid of $4.6 million was awarded to Rosetta Construction to relocate water, sewer and electrical utilities associated with the project. Rosetta Construction submitted the lowest of five bids that were received Jan. 30, according to council agenda documents.
More than $1.3 million, or 38.75 percent, qualifies for reimbursement from the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, Mike Bender, city public works director, wrote in a memo to Mayor Bob McCaslin.
Bender and McCaslin emphasized the project is an unfunded mandate the council had no choice but to approve.
The city's wastewater funded depreciation will provide $2.6 million, and $657,419 will come from the Electric Department, according to the budget adjustment.
"The city has known for several years that this relocation project was out there on the horizon and that we would use the funded deprecation money (savings) when it happened," Denise Land, finance director, wrote in an email.
The city entered into an agreement with the state Highway Department in 2007 to perform preliminary engineering services for the utility relocations and entered into another agreement in 2012 to proceed with the final engineering, bidding and construction relocations, according to agenda documents.
The Bella Vista bypass will be a 19-mile highway that connects Bentonville to Pineville, Mo.
The Highway Department accepted a low bid of $52.7 million from Kolb Grading for the construction of a six-mile portion that will run from Bentonville to southeast of Hiwasse. It's the first Connecting Arkansas Program project to be funded by the half-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in November 2012, said Danny Straessle, assistant public information officer for the Highway Department.
Two other projects related to the bypass are under construction, he said. A 3-mile portion rounding Hiwasse to the southwest is projected to be complete early this year, and a 2.4-mile stretch from Arkansas 72 to County Road 34 is expected to be done in the middle of this year.
The last section of the highway that will connect it from County Road 34 to the Missouri state line hasn't been contracted as Missouri can't meet the road at the state line yet, Straessle said.
The bypass is being built with two lanes, but will eventually be widened to four when money becomes available, Straessle said. When it does, certain highways will be redesignated as Interstate 49, which will connect New Orleans to Canada.
NW News on 02/27/2014