From Staff Reports
TRAVERSE CITY — Building three lengths of Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation Trails’ planned expansion and extension of its bayfront path in Traverse City will cost more than expected.
City commissioners on Monday will consider approving a contract with Elmer’s Crane and Dozer for $1,242,449.
That’ll build the trail from Sunset Park to Traverse City Senior Center along East Front Street, rebuild a stretch along Clinch Park’s beach to a point west of the Murchie Bridge over the Boardman/Ottaway River, and add a new bit of trail south of Grandview Parkway between Hall and Division streets, according to TART Trails.
Out of the contract total, $68,503.95 is a contingency fund for cost overruns and $100,925 to Progressive AE to manage construction.
That’s according to a memo city Engineer Anne Pagano sent recommending the project’s approval.
Pagano wrote that, by far, the biggest reason for the higher-than-anticipated cost was unit costs for asphalt and aggregate — loose material used in construction, typically crushed rock or gravel, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
While the estimated unit price for aggregate was $18, Elmer’s Crane and Dozer’s bid price was $125.
And the company bid $196 per unit of asphalt, while the engineer’s estimate was $130.
Traverse City worked with Elmer’s Crane and Dozer as the sole bidder, Pagano wrote.
She believes the price to be fair, and coordinating with ongoing highway work on Grandview Parkway and East Front Street for which the company is also the contractor brought savings elsewhere, including slashing mobilization costs by 95 percent of estimates and cutting site preparation by more than half from estimates, Pagano wrote.
Traverse City will chip in $421,449 from its general fund, while the city Downtown Development Authority will put up $200,000, TART Trails will spend $121,449 and a state Revitalization and Placemaking Grant is secured for $500,000, according to numbers Pagano included in the memo.
Future plans not included in the contract call for extending the trail from Traverse City Senior Center to Peninsula Drive, then along the road to Hull Park, according to a presentation TART Trails showed to commissioners in January.
Other work would rebuild and widen the trail along Grandview Parkway from West End Beach through Clinch Park.
City leaders on Monday also will consider new employment contracts for five collective bargaining units representing city employees, plus Traverse City Police Department command, sergeants and patrol unit officers.
Changes include raises each July 1 for the next three years of 6, 5 and 4 percent, respectively, and extending a residency requirement to 30 miles.
They’ll also meet in closed session to discuss an attorney-client privileged document in connection to a 1947 agreement between the city and the Michigan Department of Transportation’s predecessor.
That agreement stated, among other things, that the city and state highway agency must jointly agree on any work on Grandview Parkway.