Bids for Bedford Stellar Communities trail project come in nearly $2 million too high

Bids for the Limestone Trail, which would create a connector to the Milwaukee Trail along Lincoln Avenue/L Street and a loop to the downtown were opened last week.

Four bids were submitted with the lowest coming in at $6 million from Crider & Crider and the highest at $7.1 million from Infrastructure Systems Inc. of Orleans.

The project was part of the city of Bedford’s Stellar Communities grant and construction was set to begin this summer.

The primary funding for the project was the Indiana Department of Transportation with the city responsible for 20 percent, or in this case, $855,000.

Marla Jones, business and community development director for the city of Bedford, said the city approached INDOT about increasing its funding to cover the funding gap, but INDOT said it couldn’t. The city also proposed upping its contribution to be responsible for 20 percent ($1.2 million) of the low $6 million bid if INDOT would cover 80 percent ($4.8 million). That would have been an increase of $1.6 million from INDOT’s original amount pledged if the project stayed on budget, but INDOT refused that proposal.

Jones said reducing the size of the project was another option, but because the bids were let so late in the INDOT funding cycle, there was no time to do that and open the pared-down project to another round of bid-letting and stay within the allotted time frame. INDOT does not allow money to carry over from one fiscal year to the next.

The result, she said, is the money earmarked for the project will revert back to INDOT and from there returned to federal coffers.

“The money that was earmarked for Bedford, now it’s gone,” said Jones. “Now, we will have to be a new project and get in line again.”

Although no timetable has been set for resuming the project, the delay will be at least one year.

Jones said INDOT informed the city it has “overprogrammed” for 2017, meaning it has allocated all its funds for municipal projects for the year, and the project will likely be delayed until 2018.

Bedford Mayor Shawna Girgis said the city plans to pare down the scope of the project and re-submit it later to INDOT. She said there are a couple of options the city has to explore to find other ways of funding the project. For instance, the state recently released funds held in reserve to local governments to use for roads and bridges. Girgis said using some of that $783,827 is one possibility to pay for the sidewalk/bike path.

“Obviously, it’s disappointing,” said Nick Batta, project manager for Lochmueller Group, which has consulted with the city on its Stellar projects. “We still have a great project. You can always rebid, but not as it was. We will sit down and see what can we cut out to reduce the cost.”

Once that is done, the city can request INDOT to prepare documents for another bid-letting.

He said he could only speculate on why the bids far exceeded the expected costs.

“These urban trails, they are different than just rebuilding a street,” he said. “It’s tight quarters you’re working in and I’ve talked with people at INDOT and they’ve been seeing bids come in high for these projects.”

The project encountered some opposition from L Street residents concerned about its impact on historic homes and sidewalks and the possible loss of mature trees. There was also public concern about the street being narrowed to accommodate a wider sidewalk.

Some residents raised a couple of objections and suggested the trail take another route to downtown that would avoid the high-traffic Lincoln Avenue/L Street.