Sibley Culvert Project Awaits Council Approval | Gazette Tribune

Sibley Culvert Project Awaits Council Approval | Gazette Tribune

Sibley – Completion of an upcoming culvert project would have to wait another week as Sibley City Council sought to sign construction contracts before the end of 2024.

City Manager Susan Sembach announced the postponement of a public hearing scheduled for the Monday, Dec. 23 meeting.

“There was an error in posting a public hearing on the culvert project, so we are unable to hold a public hearing tonight,” Sembach said.

Bids opened this afternoon for the project on Fifth Avenue near Golf View Drive. Sembach said they could still discuss the offers but would not issue a permit until a new date for the public hearing was set and the meeting was held.

The council approved a resolution setting the public hearing date for Monday, Dec. 30 at 5 p.m.

One catalyst for approval was the ability to use American Rescue Plan Act funds. Contracts for projects using ARPA funds had to be signed before January 1st.

Engineer Jason Eygabroad of Beck Engineering in Spirit Lake presented a condensed one-page breakdown of the bids received.

“The good news is that it’s so small because we had 11 bidders today,” Eygabroad said. “Even the highest bid was pretty close to our estimate and everything else was well below that.”

This gave him reason to be optimistic that the project would stay within budget, which he said would be a major benefit to the city.

“I had an offer on Friday afternoon and I was worried that was all we were going to get,” Sembach said. “They just streamed in today.”

Two alternative materials were listed in the bids: either a prefabricated reinforced concrete box culvert or a cast-in-place reinforced concrete box culvert.

Construction time varies depending on material specification and is 25 working days for prefabricated culvert and 40 working days for cast-in-place culvert.

The completion date for both culvert types is August 8, but no start date has been set.

Eygabroad said cast-in-place projects can sometimes be a little more durable, but if things are done right, the finished pieces will last a long time. He saw no need to increase the costs for the in-situ concrete culvert.

The main advantage of precast materials is faster completion, especially in higher traffic areas.

“Our plan is to set December 30 as the agreement date,” Eygabroad said.

This December date allowed remaining ARPA funds to be used.

He added that the new culvert will have a similar capacity to the old one in the event of a flood. Eygabroad also noted that the site suitable for construction typically remains dry.

If the contractor fails to complete the project by August 8, a $500 fine will be due for each day of work beyond that date.

The bid information was reviewed and the contracts were expected to be awarded after The Gazette-Tribune's deadline at the special meeting scheduled for Monday, Dec. 30.

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