Somerset Village Board saves money by rebidding project

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Re-opening bids on Jan. 12 for the Shay Street lift station project proved to be a cost effective decision by the Village of Somerset Board.

The village saved about $85,000 by redesigning and rebidding the project.

Design Engineer Robert Jones of Cedar Corp. said the initial estimate for the bid package was about $405,000.

At the end of the first bid opening the lowest of six bidders was $470,000 and the highest was $843,000.

Since the bids were higher than the board anticipated, Cedar Corp. worked with Haas Sons Inc. to pinpoint what the high-cost items were, Jones said.

They found that the depths and risks associated with directional drilling were primary reasons for the high bids, so they came up with a plan to cut costs for the village and construction risks for Haas Sons Inc.

“One of the things that we did was try to minimize as much directional drilling as we could and move it to run parallel to Shay Street without infringing in the street,” Jones explained.

By changing some pipe directions and using different materials, the price of the project dropped quite a bit, Jones said.

“Without really changing a key component, we got the price from about $470,000 to a little under $430,000,” he said. “We were able to save about $40,000.”

Even after reducing the costs, Jones said the cost of the project was still too high.

He said removing an integrated building that houses the control panel was not enough of an asset to justify the costs, so Cedar Corp.’s contractor found a more traditional panel that will be housed in an above-ground cabinet.

“That reduced the price from $430,000 to about $385,000,” Jones said.

The board awarded the Shay Street project to Haas Sons Inc. for the amount of $384,893.90, with an additional 5 percent construction contingency fund.

In other news the board:

-Approved an SMC expansion of about 104,000 square feet.

-Approved appointing officer Tom Sirovatka and officer Jerry Strohbusch to sergeant positions.

-Approved hiring Brian Edwards to the full-time police officer position.

Tags: local government, communities, wisconsin, somerset