Five companies submitted bids for the county’s Community Crossing road projects and the County Commissioners opened those bids on Monday.
Three separate projects were bid: North Michigan Road, from 1st Road to Tyler Road; Beech Road from US 6 to 3B Road and South Michigan Road from Dewey Street to State Road 110. Each company bid projects individually which allowed the county to select which projects were to be completed with the funds available. Bids ranged from $482,000 on the high end to $317,376.25 on the low end.
Marshall County had applied for a million dollars but when the Community Crossing grant awards were awarded the county only received $518,322.87. The required 25% match is another $129,580.72 for a total of $648,203.59.
Laurie Baker, Highway Administrative Manager and Jason Peters, Supervisor of County Highways reviewed the bids and prior to the close of the meeting recommended awarding the bid for Beach Road to E & B Paving for $317,376.25 and the North Michigan Road project to Walsh & Kelley for $325,250 for a total of $642,626.25. The commissioners went with the recommendation although that left the third project, South Michigan Road unfunded.
Beech Road is scheduled to be paved yet this fall while North Michigan Road will be completed in the spring of 2018.
The commissioners are hoping the county council will allow the additional $120,420 from initial million dollar match to help fund the third project. The commissioners have $113,000 of LOIT money available along with $100,000 left in last year’s Community Crossings grant that could be applied to the south Michigan Road project that has a low bid of $450,352 from Walsh & Kelly.
A discussion will happen in the next few weeks between the council and the commissioner on funding the final project.
