Tentative contracts for two major infrastructure projects have been approved by St. Joseph Commissioners, and both came in more expensive than expected. At a meeting this past week, City Engineer Tim Zebell said the Upton Drive reconstruction project will run $9.7 million. It was estimated at $6.5 million. The only bidder was Kalin Construction, and Zebell told commissioners the price is so high because of risk to the contractor due to contaminated groundwater and soil on the site. He told us the work will be paid for with loans, grants, and some city funds, which meant delaying some other projects.
“There are a couple of projects we had hoped to do,” Zebell said. “Some work on Anchors Way and Anchors Court as well as some work on the Water Street retaining wall that we’ll need to delay in order to make the cashflow work and to have the appropriate balances in our funds.”
The project involves rebuilding Upton Drive from the St. Joseph River to Momany Drive and sewer line work under the river. It could start in the fall. Also this week, commissioners gave tentative approval to a bid from RK Davis Construction for water plant work that will include replacing clarifiers installed in 1976. That cost will be $15.8 million. Again, there was only one bid, which Zebell said is common across the state right now due to this being a contractor’s market.
