The Truesdale Board of Aldermen provided the contractor with a 30-day extension due to weather.
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The Truesdale Board of Aldermen approved a 30-day extension for the Smith Street project due to delays caused by winter weather at their Jan. 9 meeting.
The extension was approved following two emergency change orders that were approved by Mayor Jerry Cannon earlier this month for a total of roughly $9,500 although project engineer Bart Korman said they were still sorting out the billing for those.
The first of the two change orders was to address the ADA-compliant sidewalk on the street, which Korman said had significant cracking as well as some improvements to the concrete on the street in places where it had softened.
“We don’t have all the tickets yet to sort out where that number ended up at, but it’s probably going to be pretty close to most of that ($9,500)” said Korman.
The extension was required because the contractor, TS Banze, was going to run out of contracted days to complete the work before the next board meeting on Jan. 22 due to the winter weather in the area slowing construction.
Korman said there were also some delays communicating with utility companies to get their connections moved for construction.
“Their days are going to expire soon, so that’s for a 30-day extension if it’s bad weather,” said Korman. “That may not even be enough for them to get what they need to do, but they need to do that because their time will expire before the next meeting.”
He also said that most of the concrete work on the street was finished and should be open to local traffic in the near future although they would still prohibit heavier traffic and the concrete is not strong enough to withstand plowing or salting yet.
“Their plan is, once weather is good enough, to get some of these driveways in, getting graded up and formed up,” said Korman.
He went on to say they hoped to touch base with the city once again at the beginning of February for a potential completion date.
Cannon wanted to confirm that the 30-day extension would be enough to keep contractors accountable, since the project was originally slated for completion around Thanksgiving.
“Then giving them a shorter window, like a 30-day extension, instead of something longer, maybe that will help them be accountable for moving along at a decent pace?” questioned Cannon.
Korman also offered an option to Cannon to hold TS Banze’s contract as not “substantially complete” until work on the driveways was completed as well. He said this would motivate the contractor since without the completion of their project, there would still be significant constraints on their bonding capacity.
Bonding capacity is how much work a contractor can take on at once, and Korman said without the completion of the contract, TS Banze would be limited from bidding on additional projects until they were finished in Truesdale.
“The bond situation is always enough teeth, because if the bond doesn’t release them out, they can’t bid some other stuff without that bonding capacity,” said Korman.
City Attorney Amber Bargen also said the city would have other legal avenues they could pursue if the project was not completed correctly.
“The substantial completion piece of things, with the percentage left out there should be enough of an incentive, but obviously, if it drags on and it’s not we can look at other ways to handle that,” said Bargen.
The extension was approved unanimously.