Council votes to remove blasting, painting work from Center Street Viaduct project
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After unanimously approving a motion to untable the item on Monday night, the Marshalltown city council discussed several options for the Center Street Viaduct railing and ultimately agreed to proceed with a plan to simply remove the current repair work from the project altogether while allowing more time to decide on a long-term plan.
In keeping with the council's previous requests, Public Works Director Heather Thomas and City Engineer Ben Daleske presented a series of options and costs, and Thomas recommended that the contractor remove the blast cleaning and painting of the existing railing from the current contract while city staff "further explore discussion" with the contractor, Boulder Contracting, regarding previous direction to proceed with chain link fencing and a $40,000 restocking fee.
She asked that city staff go out and address the sharp and exposed metal edges with rubberized filler material and the rust and flaking paint remaining, and she also requested that the council work through strategic planning sessions and community discussions to identify and provide direction to city staff on the ultimate direction moving forward.
Thomas provided some history on the railings and how they were attached to the currently closed bridge, and she also noted that the Linn Creek Bridge, which has a matching railing, is coming up for replacement within the next few years. The original contract for the viaduct repair project included blast cleaning and painting for the railing, but it has been called into question during several recent meetings as the council has debated whether to scrap the railing and install a chain link fence instead.
According to Thomas, the Union Pacific (UP) Railroad has not always been "up front and forthcoming" during construction as the city navigates the potential change order. From there, she proceeded to lay out all of the options including proceeding with blasting and painting at an estimated cost of $360,000, a side mounted black vinyl chain link fence at an additional cost of $480,300, a sleeve mounted black vinyl chain link fence at a cost of $343,800, an ornamental fence with black vinyl chain link at a cost of $1,647,800, a side mounted fence fabrication with two-inch mesh at a cost of $1,922,800, a vertical spindle fence/wrought iron also at $1,922,800 and simply removing the blasting and painting from the contract, a reduction of $245,100.
Thomas did shoot down the idea of putting up black vinyl coated chain link fence now and adding "other elements" in the future because of how the posts need to be designed.
Ultimately, she recommended the last option to remove the painting and blasting, and Thomas told the council that rusted metal and flaking paint are not safety concerns from a liability standpoint according to the city attorney -- but deteriorated metal members and sharp edges are.
"As a standalone project, if we go with a black chain link fence in the future, we're probably looking at just north of $1 million. If we go with something a little bit more decorative, maybe a little bit more historic, you're probably in the $2.85 million dollar project (cost)," she said.
She then addressed the controversy over the chain link fencing change order after the council approved that direction in a unanimous motion to direct staff but never finalized it in a resolution.
"So semantics, if this went into a lawsuit, the city attorney has weighed in and said 'Well, technically there's no change order, so we might have a leg to stand on there,' but from a practical standpoint, especially projects that impact the public greatly, we try to keep projects moving forward the best we can in the most expeditious manner," Thomas said. "At this point, if we would then not honor the direction that was voted on by council in a 7-0 vote, there is a reputation and ability for us as project coordinators in the field to gain that trust of the contractor and do damage to that."
She added that she wasn't going to "bend over" and immediately hand the contractor $40,000, but she would like to understand the basis for the number and whether they had ordered material no one would take as a return. According to Thomas, the fencing could potentially even be put to use somewhere else in the city.
"Those are the kind of conversations I want to have with the contractor right now is to understand, really, how that $40,000 was made up, and see how we could maybe find a negotiated middle ground," she said.
She left the door open for future community conversations on how to fundraise for some of the options presented. Due to change orders and a shutdown during RAGBRAI, the current estimated final working day is Nov. 12.
During the public comment period, Linda Clark advocated for getting the bridge reopened as quickly as possible, and Layne Pieri asked if additional safety measures were considered and whether the city applied for historic preservation grants. Thomas said there had been no need for a safety net, and they did receive a general $1.5 million grant to help with the project that was not tied to any historical aspects but the condition of the bridge.
Heidi Dalal thanked the council for taking extra time to present more options, commended Thomas for doing "an incredible job" and expressed support for the option she had recommended.
"Unfortunately, you are all in the seats to have to deal with some of this deferred maintenance that happened so long ago," she said.
Councilor Greg Nichols then indicated that he would support Thomas's recommendation and hoped it would provide ample time for community partners to raise money through other mechanisms. A motion to proceed as outlined and discard a previous change order passed by a unanimous 7-0 vote.
Contact Robert Maharry at (641) 753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.