The paperwork is finalized for construction on the 14th Avenue ditch project to start Dec. 1.
In August, Columbus councilmen accepted a bid from Colom Construction Tuesday of $755,394 for the long-awaited improvement project.
The city’s agreement with Multistate Trust, which is overseeing cleanup of the Kerr-McGee site nearby, requires that the city and Colom Construction carry pollution and professional liability insurance. A special call council meeting was held Thursday to approve a change order to the project contract to add that coverage. It’s an extra $96,000 to have that coverage for three years after the contract’s end date, which is May 8, but the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is paying 80 percent of that. Over the next four years, the city will have to pay an extra $4,800 a year for its match to pay for the coverage.
The project includes moving the ditch approximately 20 feet south of its current position along 14th Avenue North and widening the 1,700-foot-long ditch from 23rd Street to the rail line on the east side of the old Kerr-McGee plant. The new ditch will be lined with concrete. The project also includes filling in the old ditch with new dirt, widening 14th Avenue itself so it can have a turning lane with a safe shoulder and installing curbs and gutters.
Multistate is using a company to clean the ditch. Colom Construction will build the new ditch. Falcon Contracting is using money from the city’s $5 million street improvement bond issue to add the turning lane.
Despite the added cost, Colom Construction’s bid was still well under the engineer’s estimate for the project, city engineering consultant Kevin Stafford said. For all the work, the USACE has set aside $800,000 and the city committed $371,000.
“You should end up with money on the table after this project is over because the bids came in under budget,” Stafford said. “This is all in the plan financially. It just wasn’t in the specs up front. You didn’t lose out anything. It’s just when they bid out the job, it wasn’t there to begin with.”
Stafford said a second pre-construction meeting was held Thursday.
The project is separate from remediation of the Kerr-McGee plant site itself. In April, the company who bought Kerr-McGee’s assets settled for $5.15 billion to clean contamination at all the old plant sites. This included $68 million to be used at the Columbus site that was shut down and sealed off in 2003. Nearby residents have been exposed to creosote, a wood preservative used extensively at the plant and determined to be carcinogenic, ever since. Multistate Trust is overseeing this process, which may take up to two years to investigate and determine extent of damage before remediation begins.
Nathan Gregory covers city and county government for The Dispatch.
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