City Commissioners voted during their Sept. 3 meeting to approve a change order and final payment to United Materials for the lower northside street reconstruction project.

The change order was for $29,728.60 and the final payment was $103,194.07 to United and $1,042.36 to the State Miscellaneous Tax Fund.

The project reconstructed six blocks of roadway, installing base course, asphalt, curb and gutter, storm drain inlets, and Americans with Disabilities complaint curb ramps.

The project was along 7th Avenue North from Park Drive to 9th Street North and 3rd Avenue North from Park Drive to 3rd Street North to replace aging infrastructure, according to city staff.

Lower northside road work continues

Asphalt on those streets had been cracking causing poor drivability and the road to deteriorate faster with water infiltration and subsequent freeze/thaw cycles, according to public works. Many of the storm drain inlets were made of brick with bricks missing or deteriorating.

The ramps hadn’t been compliant with ADA rules and were creating hazards and barriers in a high pedestrian traffic area near downtown and Gibson Park.

The project was completed between April 1 and July 25 with road closures during construction.

Eleven trees were removed to accommodate installation of the new ADA-compliant ramps but 22 trees were planted in nearby locations as replacements.

City approves lower northside street project

The street reconstruction was done in conjunction with a water main replacement project that had begun in the area in 2023.

United was the lowest bidder for the project at $2,055,000.

The final project cost is $2,084,728.60, requiring the change order for additional cost to place extra geotextile fabric and 8-inch thick subbase course since the contractor had found large areas of subgrade material that wasn’t suitable to build on, according to staff, and those areas were larger than anticipated.

To firm up those areas, United excavated eight inches below subgrade for the entire 35-foot width of road, installed additional geotextile fabric and subbase course, according to staff, for a total of 5,704-square yards at a cost of $23.67 per square yard for a total of $135,013.68. Of that, most was paid using existing funds from the contract and the remaining $29,728.60 is through the change order.

City Manager Greg Doyon authorized the work items with the change order in April when the soft subgrade areas were first found and authorized the additional $30,000 in the contract, preventing delays in the project schedule, according to staff.

The project had been selected under the public works capital improvements program. Of the total cost, $1,769,993.30 was funded by the street fund and $314,735.30 was funded by the storm drain fund, according to staff.