WESTFIELD – City officials are reviewing the second round of contract bids for construction of the next phase of the Columbia Greenway project after rejecting the first round of bids last month because the prices far exceeded projected costs.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said in March that the estimate for the work was $1 million, but the low bid, submitted by ET&L Corporation of Stow, which completed the last phase of work extending the rail trail from South Meadow Road to East Silver Street was $1.5 million.
The City rejected all of those bids for construction of the next phase of work to extend the elevated rail trail from East Silver Street to the area of Main Street and restructured the proposed scope of work to reduce the cost of the project and bring it closer to the original estimate.
“We had to reject those bids and will rebid the project with some changes. The bids were two high across the board because we included installation of a metal fence in the city’s urban center,” Cressotti said last month. “When we rebid that work we will bid it as a wood fence, which is what we have along the completed section of the rail trail, with a metal fence as an alternate.”
Cressotti said that ET&L, hired in January on a separate contract for construction of a bridge over East Silver Street and an underpass connecting the Hedges Avenue and Taylor Avenue neighborhoods, will continue with that work under a $700,000 contract.
The new bids were opened Wednesday, April 22, 2015, with ET&L again submitting the apparent low bid of $980,000 for the base contract and $40,000 forbid alternatives, bringing the bid near the $1 million Estimate.
Greg Freeman, a civil engineer with the city’s Engineering Department said that the bids opened earlier this week are currently under review by the Purchasing Department to ensure they are in compliance with state and city bids laws.
“They opened the bids Wednesday, but have not awarded the contract,” Freeman said. “ET&L is the apparent low bidder, but that has to be verified by the City Purchaser (Tammy Tefft).”
The city received a $2 million grant awarded by the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs. That grant money is being used to fund construction of a new bridge over East Silver Street and an underpass connecting the St. Dennis Street., and Taylor Avenue neighborhoods.
Cressotti has pushed to get the rail trail bridge and underpass work started as soon as possible because, under the state grant, those elements of the rail trail must be substantially completed before the end of the 2015 fiscal year. The fiscal year ends on June 30.
The extension of the Columbia Greenway rail trail, work that was rebid, is being done through a Chapter 90 funding allocation to complete the section between East Silver Street to the area of Main Street.
City officials anticipate that the Purchasing Department will complete it bid reviews and a contract will be awarded as soon as the end of next week.
