City seeks contractors for streetscape

Bids due Sept. 14 for Broadway project

The city of Lorain is seeking a contractor who will lead the reconstruction of Broadway from Ninth Street to West Erie Avenue.

City officials have begun advertising for builders to bid on the Broadway streetscape project, which will add new sidewalks, signage, lights and traffic patterns to downtown Lorain.

The project is estimated to cost more than $3.94 million.

The contractors’ documents are due at 11 a.m. Sept. 14 at the Engineering Department at Lorain City Hall, 200 W. Erie Ave.

Bids will be opened publicly at 11:15 a.m.

Staff at the construction companies who may work on the project will have some homework between now and then.

Bid specifications include a 213-page book of documents and 118 pages of blueprints.

That stack of paperwork is not uncommon for a project this size, said City Engineer Dale Vandersommen.

The Engineering Department has worked with a law firm that specializes in construction contracts to fine-tune the needed documents for building projects, Vandersommen said.

The number of blueprint pages is larger than usual; by comparison, the Baumhart Road resurfacing project had 79 pages of blueprints.

The project bid specifications included illustrations of the signs and new banners that can be mounted on the new street lights.

Most of the new features have been illustrated in artist renderings of what Broadway will look like after reconstruction.

The bid book and technical drawings are peppered with legal language and design details about the project, which has a completion date of Sept. 30, 2019.

There will be a PrePhase I of construction to repair the vault beneath the Broadway Building, 301 Broadway, by Nov. 16.

In the U.S. Route 6 resurfacing project last year, a backhoe shaping a handicap-access sidewalk ramp dug through to the basement of the building, Vandersommen said.

It has been repaired with a temporary patch but must be sealed so renovation can commence inside the Broadway Building, he said.

Ariel on Broadway, a company owned by Cleveland businesswoman Radhika Reddy, will hold a construction kickoff Aug. 29 to begin remodeling to create a new hotel and event center.

For the Broadway streetscape, Phase 1 will be the west side of Broadway. Traffic will be maintained in both directions.

Phase 2 will be the east side of Broadway.

Northbound traffic will remain, but southbound traffic will be detoured to Washington Avenue.

The detour could be changed because city officials are open to suggestions from the contractor, Vandersommen said.

Phase 3 will be construction of the new traffic

median in Broadway.

The project includes new architectural signs that will be just north of Ninth Street, just south of Fourth Street and at Broadway and West Erie Avenue.

The project bid specifications included illustrations of the signs and new banners that can be mounted on the new street lights.

There will be decorative patterns in the new concrete sidewalks.

City officials will not host a pre-bid meeting for the Broadway streetscape, Vandersommen said.

Despite the size of the project, the move is not unusual, he said.

If contractors have questions about the details, they may submit written queries to the city.

The questions and the city answers then will be distributed to all contractors who request the bid specs, Vandersommen said.

Contractors also must answer a number of questions within the bid specifications.

The first request for information is: “Describe your company’s experience with projects of comparative size, complexity and cost within recent years to demonstrate ability to perform a substantial portion of the project with own workforce.”

Bidders also must provide details about possible violations of wage, safety or environmental regulations.

The bid specs are available for public viewing from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Engineering Department.

Copies of the books are available for $50.