2. Road Dept-budget adjustment - Laserfiche WebLink

Update on County Hie:hwav 17 Costs September 26. 2008 In May of 2008 the Commission was provided with a budget update based on information available at that time. A decision was made to proceed with each of the projects as recommended by the County Engineer. The Cass 17 project has exceeded the May projections that were used as a basis for decisions. The current projected revenues from the State Highway Distribution fund are somewhat higher than the figures used in May but not enough to cover increased costs In the following paragraphs I'll discuss why the Cass 17 project has turned out more expensive than earlier estimated. Highway contracts are typically awarded as unit price contracts. This means the contractors bid the project with unit costs. The contractor's bid and successful contractor (low bidder) are determined by totaling the individual unit prices multiplied by the County's estimated quantities for each line item. The contractor is ultimately paid based on the actual quantities required which typically vary somewhat from the estimated quantities. The project has had a number of items that have significantly exceeded the original estimated quantities. The design consultant had estimated the various quantities that would be required. It has become apparent that some quantity estimates of the major contract line items were quite low. The quantity estimates left me in the position of having to significantly exceed estimated quantity amounts in order to achieve good long term quality on the project. There are 80 line items in the project. There have been many variations. I'll outline the largest ones below: Gravel Base: In addition to starting off with an overly optimistic estimate, difficult soil conditions were encountered. To ensure we achieved a good base under the reconstructed mainline road and widened shoulders, it was necessary to use far more base material than estimated. Slow removal of utilities by Qwest added to the difficulty. The estimated quantity was 32,000 tons. The current projection for a final quantity of base material is about 88,000 tons. At a contract price of $ 14/ton this amounts to $784,000 over the estimate. Asphalt: The quantity of asphalt required to complete the project is now estimated at about 49,500 tons. The original estimate was 44,812 tons. At $49.45/ton, this amounts to $231,822 over the estimate. This is in spite of the fact that a significant area (11,600 square yards) that was originally estimated in asphalt was ultimately done in concrete. One reason for this increase in quantity was that the original estimate didn't take into account how much asphalt would be required to fill in the ruts in the existing surface prior to overlaying the road. In addition, a street in Horace that was damaged from the increased detour traffic was overlaid.