Money Short For Springdale Street Projects

SPRINGDALE -- Street bond money will fall far short of the estimated cost of city officials' road improvement wish list.

The City Council, in a Monday committee meeting, will discuss cutting back on projects to be paid by money raised by a bond sale after construction bids came in higher than officials hoped.

"The bid climate is not the same now as it was two years ago," said Mayor Doug Sprouse. "We only had two bids on our last project when we used to have seven or eight."

The money needed to complete the list would be too much to spend from the city's Capital Improvement Program Fund, said Rick Evans, an alderman and Street and CIP Committee chairman.

"We made our list to see what we could afford," Evans said. "Now we know. We'll have to wait on some projects until we get enough money to make it work."

Extending 56th Street north of Bleaux Avenue to Elm Springs Road is a likely project to be delayed, Sprouse said. The extension would have connected Don Tyson Parkway to the location of a new Walmart Supercenter.

"I'd like to see if we can complete the design and the right of way acquisition," Sprouse said. "That way we'd be ready to go if we get another funding source."

Estimates for the projects showed the $42.7 million raised by bonds was at least $7 million short. The hope was construction bids would be less than estimates, Sprouse said. The last two bids came in higher, said Alan Pugh, city director of engineering.

The low bid for extending Don Tyson Parkway from Hylton Road to Habberton Road was $3.48 million with an engineers estimate of $3.36 million. The low bid for improvement to 56th Street from Don Tyson Parkway to Bleaux Avenue was $13 million and estimated at $12.98 million, Pugh said.

A little over a year ago, the $11.2 million bid to build the Don Tyson Parkway interchange on Interstate 49 was $2 million less than the estimate. The interchange is scheduled to be complete in August.

After the contracts for Don Tyson from Hylton to Habberton, improvement to 56th Street, the interchange, a traffic signal at Don Tyson and 40th Street and right of way purchases, the street bond program had $1 million uncommitted, Pugh said. Another $2.5 million could be available if contingencies in those contracts weren't used, he said.

Projects yet to have money committed to them are widening Don Tyson from Carley Road to 40th Street and extending 56th, Pugh said. The city has also committed $370,000 to widening the Elm Springs Road overpass of I-49, Pugh said.

Sprouse said he will recommend completing the Carley to 40th widening project.

The largest change in the original budget was the money needed to buy right of way, Sprouse said. The city has paid $8.82 million on right of way for the interchange and $1.47 million for 56th Street, said Pugh. On May 13, the council approved settling a condemnation lawsuit with Victory Church for $925,000 more than the $2.45 million appraisal. Interchange construction caused the demolition of the church building.

"We had to get a list that would spend all of the bond money," Sprouse said. "Now we're paring the list to what we have. The decision is up to the council."

Money not spent for street bond construction would legally have to repay bonds and can't be spent for anything else, according to law. The bonds, approved by city voters, are being paid by a 1 percent sales tax.