City awards contract to design utility plan

The Hot Springs Board of Directors awarded a $276,708 utility relocation design contract Tuesday night for the widening of Park Avenue from Gorge Road to the junction of highways 5 and 7.

In addition to design work, Garver LLC’s contract also requires it to determine how much of the city’s estimated $3.8 million in relocation costs are eligible for reimbursement from the Arkansas Department of Transportation. The department reimburses utility owners for moving infrastructure that’s outside of the state’s right of way.

“Most of those utilities we believe are outside of the existing right of way, so we’ll be reimbursed by the state for moving the ones that are outside of the existing right of way,” City Engineer Gary Carnahan told the board last week. “The ones that are inside the existing right of way we have to pay for.

“So we have to do a very detailed survey and design of the new lines and determine the cost breakdown of what’s reimbursed and what’s not reimbursed. All that’s complicated. It takes a lot of effort.”

Carnahan said the survey will also determine the city’s reimbursement on the Garver contract.

The board awarded Diamond Construction Co. a $1.8 million contract last year to move water and sewer lines for the widening that’s underway on Highway 7 south from the south shore bridge over Lake Hamilton to Highway 290.

The city budgeted $1.5 million in its water fund and $750,000 in its wastewater fund for 2018 utility relocations.

Construction of the Park Avenue project is scheduled to begin in 2020, according to the draft 2019-22 State Transportation Improvement Program. The $11.8 million project paid from National Highway Performance Program and state funds

will widen 4.17 miles from Gorge Road to the junction of highways 5 and 7.

“Most of that will be widened from two lanes and very skinny shoulder edges to three lanes with bike lanes, curb and gutter and sidewalks,” Carnahan told the board.

The city’s water infrastructure on Park reaches north of Belvedere Drive, and an 8-inch wastewater force main extends outside the corporate limits to Fountain Lake School. Carnahan told the board the city may consider acquiring easements outside of the project’s expanded right of way to avoid future relocations.

“That way we don’t have to worry about having to move them again someday,” he said.