SEQUIM — After years of planning, construction on West Fir Street could begin once the Irrigation Festival ends, according to Sequim city staffers.
The Sequim City Council unanimously agreed 6-0, with Candace Pratt excused, to a contract with Interwest Construction of Sequim on Monday. The contract is worth up to $6,198,700 including a 10 percent construction contingency to rebuild half-a-mile of road over 18 months.
The West Fir Street Rehabilitation project includes new underground utility connections, sidewalks, a traffic light at Fir Street and Fifth Avenue, two bike lanes and new street surfacing.
City Engineer Matt Klontz said Interwest was the lowest of three bidders and that it came in under the engineer’s revised estimate of $6.2 million.
City staffers estimated the rehabilitation project would be just over $5 million in the 2018 budget, and then about $5.5 million for this year’s budget before city staff reported in February that the project could be as much as $1.7 million over budget due to a consulting firm’s estimate bringing construction to $6.9 million.
Klontz previously said several elements led to the increase, including consultants not accounting for changing irrigation piping, inaccurate costs for supplies and quantities, and the city adding additional landscaping elements last year when funding seemed below estimates.
“The good news is we’ve come a long way down,” Klontz told City Council members Monday.
He said during the bidding process, city staff made some modifications, bringing the estimated shortfall to about $465,000 for construction.
Klontz said no design work is compromised with the changes and that some of the savings come during sewer line work where at least 70 percent of trench back fill could be reused.
“[The shortfall] is less than the contingency, so there is the theory that if things go great during construction, we’ll end up right on target with our original budget we planned,” he said.
Council members allowed for some time for Klontz to meet with Interwest’s team to go over some final points prior to City Manager Charlie Bush finalizing the contract.
“Interwest is eager to start working,” Klontz said.
He estimates they’d create a staging yard just prior to the Irrigation Festival in late April. The festival is May 3-12.
No timeline has been set for when construction will begin to impact residents and schools. City staff previously said Fir Street will become one-way and one lane going west at times during construction with drivers being able to turn on Second, Third and Fourth avenues.
Sequim School District’s parking lots and softball fields will move four feet to five feet north for construction, but Sequim Schools Superintendent Gary Neal said the high school’s fastpitch teams’ practices and games should be unaffected by the construction this season.
City staff previously said school bus parking will remain unaffected.
Shortfall options
Council members tentatively will conduct a public hearing on a potential budget amendment to make up for the project’s shortfall at the April 8 regular meeting.
Klontz said about 60 percent of the project’s funds come from grants but funding partners said no additional funds are available.
Some of the city’s options for making up the shortfall, city staff said, include using higher than budgeted sales tax revenues at $775,000 in the general fund, using up to $450,000 in the real estate excise tax (REET) over two years, using rainy day funds with a current balance of $826,000, using funds from the Transportation Benefit District (TBD), and/or using water reserves for the project’s water construction.
City staff said there are risks with using some of the funds, such as deterring from potential emergency street work (REET), minimizing flexibility during an economic downturn (Rainy Day Fund), and delaying future pavement rehabilitation projects (TBD).
Sue Hagener, director of administrative services, said the general fund is perfect to fund this type of project with one-time support. She said Transportation Benefit District funds are low right now and pulling funds from it might not be well regarded by the community.
“Pavement preservation projects are so loved,” Hagener said. “The community looks at them with joy and relief.”
She said, if needed, the City Council could take more time to decide because the city has enough funds for the project through the end of the year.
Construction manager
Along with a construction firm, the council approved a contract worth up to $178,700 with Steve Miller of Sequim’s Raven Engineering Inc. to serve as a consultant for construction management.
Klontz said city staff didn’t have enough capacity to oversee the project so they budgeted for the position and that Miller is a seasoned engineer with 40-plus years of experience.
For more information about the West Fir Street Rehabilitation project, call Sequim Public Works at 360-683-4908 or visit www.sequimwa.gov.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
