BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials have drafted a second set of bid documents as they search for a contractor to repair the War Eagle Bridge.
County Judge Barry Moehring said the documents will be sent to the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department for review before advertising for bids. The timetable is for the bids to be opened Feb. 9 and a notice to proceed on the project issued by Feb. 23, Moehring said.
Bridge work
Benton County spent about $640,000 to repair War Eagle Bridge in 2010. State inspectors identified critical deficiencies in the structure during an annual inspection in 2013. The county hired Great River Engineering of Springfield, Mo., to identify problems and develop plans for restoring the bridge.
Source: Staff report
The schedule calls for the work to be completed by Sept. 30.
Officials chose not to accept any of the first set of bids submitted in October. The bids didn't require experience in building or repairing older bridges. The county requires such experience in the new documents: "The contractor shall provide a list of their specific experience related to rehabilitation of bridges listed on the National Register of Historic Places."
The change requiring experience is one of two changes in the bids, Moehring said. Consultants have said the work will require some pins used in the original construction be exposed. When that's done, the pins will be inspected, and some may need to be replaced. A contingency has been added to cover that possibility.
"They won't know the condition of the pins until they expose them," Moehring said. "If they need to be replaced, that will be an addendum."
The county hired Great River Engineering to assess and develop recommendations for repairing the 109-year-old bridge. The company also included two alternate packages of additional work to extend the life of the bridge and increase its weight-bearing capacity.
The engineering estimate from Great River for the base bid work was $859,550, with the base plus alternate one coming in at $987,550 and the base bid plus alternate one and alternate two at $1,158,550. The county is slated to receive a $500,000 federal Transportation Alternatives Program grant to help pay for the work.
Glenn Jones with the Benton County Historical Preservation Commission said he has spoken with Moehring about the bids and he's satisfied with the added requirement the bidder have experience with historic bridges.
"That's exactly what I requested," Jones said. "A low bid is not always the best bid. Even if a bid is 50 percent less than the next one you still have to consider experience with 100-year-old bridges."
Pat Adams, justice of the peace and chairman of the Transportation Committee, agreed the new documents should result in more qualified bidders.
"There's a big difference between building a new bridge with modern construction methods and trying to rebuild a 100-year-old bridge that can't use modern methods," Adams said.
The new documents also call for the contractor to have a plan for phased work on the bridge to allow for some traffic during the May arts and crafts fair.
"In a worse-case scenario, we can get it open to foot traffic." Adams said. "It'll have to be safe to do it. If not, it'll just have to be closed."
Adams also wants the county to start planning to replace War Eagle Bridge as a conduit for everyday traffic. The county needs to develop plans to move the highway and install a new bridge for vehicles, leaving the old bridge for foot traffic and possibly some local traffic, he said. That will be a better use of money than additional repair to the bridge, he said. The county should plan to use state money for a new bridge, which would reduce the cost to the county, he said.
"I'm really hoping this is the last money Benton County has to spend on War Eagle, except for maintenance," Adams said. "I would like to see us make a start, this year if possible, on routing a bypass bridge for vehicle traffic."
NW News on 01/21/2017