Bids were opened for multiple federal road projects at the Wednesday morning meeting of the Highland County Board of Commissioners and will most likely need to be redone due to the cost of the projects being over the estimates by too much.
Christian Dunlap, the Highland County deputy engineer, said that the engineer’s office will have to rebid all three of the projects by legislation through the Ohio Department of Transportation and redo “everything.”
Dunlap said there “most likely” would be no action done on them because the county can only go 10 percent over the bid, according to federal guidelines. He said the estimate for the guardrail was $300,000, the striping was $325,0000 and the resurfacing was $1.95 million.
He said they completed the estimates in September 2021 when they had to submit the projects. Concerning one item, he said last year they were buying asphalt at $120 per cubic yard, while now it’s $200 to $225 per cubic yard now.
“It’s hard to estimate and predict the future,” Dunlap said.
Prior to the bids being opened, Highland County Engineer Christopher Fauber said they would probably have to rebid the projects because of the increased cost of materials. Fauber said that whatever happens, they’ll spend the same amount of money but will probably get “a lot less” done.
There were three separate projects bid out Wednesday morning.
The first was the guardrail, which was described as: “This project consists of the removal of obsolete guardrail and installation of new type MGS guardrail at various locations throughout Highland County, Ohio.”
The submitted bids were as follows: Lake Erie Construction Company with $412,675; and PDK Construction, Inc. with $417,756.
The second was the striping/pavement markings, which were described as: “Improvement of 55.526 miles of various county roads in Highland County by placement of item 643 polyester pavement markings on the centerline of roadways. Also, improvement of 76.602 miles of various county roads by placement of item 643 polyester pavement markings on the edge line of roadways.”
The submitted bids were as follows: The Aero-Mark Company LLC with $229,335; and Oglesby Construction Inc. with $268,319.
The third project was road resurfacing, which was described as: “The resurfacing of 5.92 miles of C.R. 36C Antioch, C.R. 39A Greenbush and C.R. 20A Mowrystown Sardina. Treatment for these routes shall be 1.50” milled and filled using 1.50” item 441 asphalt concrete surface course, Type 1 (449) PG 64-22. The resurfacing of 13.121 miles of C.R. 27A-B North Shore, C.R. 33C Anderson, C.R. 98A Martinsburg and C.R. 7D-E Mad River. Treatment for these routes shall be paved using 1.50” item 441 asphalt concrete surface course, Type 1 (449) PG 64-22. Item 643 polyester pavement markings are to be used throughout the entirety of the project.”
The submitted bids were as follows: Fillmore Construction with $2,586,589; Cox Paving LLC with $2,782,574; Miller-Mason Paving Co. with $2,427,181; The Shelly Company with $2,581,185; and *Brown County Asphalt Co. with $2,599,869.
In other news concerning the new county dog pound, commissioner Jeff Duncan said that he knows the architect said they were hoping to break ground this week, but that he hasn’t heard from him or the contractors this week.
Also concerning the dog pound, Daniels said he met with American Electric Power (AEP) and Environmental Engineering at the dog pound to try and look at getting the utilities posted there. He said they were supposed to get some engineering drawings that would show where the electric and sewage lines were supposed to go.
In other news, Duncan said that the work being done on the old jail is ongoing. He said he talked to the contractor and “we’re all amazed at how the old-timers got some of those stones up there.” Duncan said the stones are “pretty big” and that he thinks they have to take them out in chunks because they can’t get them down from where they are now.
“I saw them swinging a sledge up there this morning and breaking them up,” Daniels said.
Commissioner Terry Britton said the board was waiting on the contractors to get started on the Buford School and Sugar Tree Ridge demolition projects.
The board of commissioners also authorized a Sales and use Tax construction Contract Exemption Certificate from the animal shelter and an MSP Recovery Demand Letter Package Client for Highland County employees from Medical Mutual of Ohio.
The board of commissioners also announced that their weekly morning meeting next week will be on Thursday, July 14, at 9 a.m. rather than the usual Wednesday morning meeting time because they will be in Columbus.
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
