Council OKs road paving program

NORTH WALES » The 2018 road repair and repaving program for North Wales Borough is now officially on the books.

Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to award a contract for $223,451 to contractor Couzins Inc., for a larger set of roads than staff had been expecting.

“We didn’t know where the pricing would come in, so we did worst-case and best-case. So we would be looking at the $223,451, and that’s including the base bid and all alternatives, including Tenth Street, full width,” said Borough Manager Christine Hart.

According to Hart, the borough’s road paving project for 2018 includes a total of roughly 6,300 square yards of milling and paving, with seven replacement handicap ramps and two new handicap ramps included in the bid package, while the alternates also include an additional 1,001 square yards of pavement repairs. The base bid includes paving the following roads:

- E. Prospect Ave. from S. Fourth St. to S. Second St.

- S. Tenth St. from East Prospect Ave. to Spruce St.

- S. Tenth St. from Church St. to Montgomery Ave.

- Highland Ave. from S. Pennsylvania Ave. to S. Main Street.

- W. Montgomery Ave., from Pennsylvania Ave. to Swartley Street.

- Summit St., from S. Fourth St. and S. Fifth St. - Spruce St. at S. Fifth St. - Pennsylvania Ave., from Walnut St. to Shearer St.

- Swartley St. from Shearer St. to W. Montgomery Ave.

Three bidders replied to a borough request for bids, and Hart said the pricing was low enough to include four alternates:

- Prospect Ave. from S. Fourth St. to S. Second St.

- 10th St. from E. Prospect Ave. to Spruce St., full width.

- Summit St., from S. Fifth St. to S. Sixth St.

- Pennsylvania Ave. from Walnut St. to Elm St.

The road repair contract will be funded by the borough’s liquid fuels grant money, which is state grant money allocated by PennDOT and awarded to local municipalities based on the total distance of roads within their borders.

“Our liquid fuels balance is $490,000. We were anticipating a cost of $271,000, which included a plus-orminus of ten percent for change orders, which would have come to $300,000, worst-case scenario,” Hart said.

Starting with the balance of $490,000 and removing the total of $300,000 for paving would have left a total of $190,000 in the borough’s liquid fuels fund balance, Hart said. The borough also currently has $250,000 in its capital improvement fund, and Hart said the roughly $30,000 in inspection and engineering costs for the road repairs will come from there, leaving a $220,000 balance in the capital improvement fund.

“Liquid Fuels doesn’t account for the engineering or inspection fees,” Hart said.

“So we were anticipating an overall cost of $330,000. As you can see, the bids came in less, and there will most likely be change orders, which are accounted for, and will have to be approved as we go along,” she said.

Councilman Dan O’Connell asked if any additional engineering costs will be needed beyond the inspections, and Hart said the engineering design of the road repairs has already been done, and were paid in the monthly bills already approved by council. Council member Wendy McClure asked if stormwater flow concerns were included in the bid documents, and Hart said they were, and at least two stormwater inlet upgrades are included in the contract.

“The only time we’d get into any grading issues is if there’s an inlet near where a handicap ramp goes. That has all been looked at, prior to this bid,” Hart said.

North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Aug. 14 at the borough municipal building, 300 School St.

For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.