Dave Walrath, Jefferson County Public Works Administrator, announced to commissioners April 27 that he had received five bids from companies vying for a chance to do the Kettle Butte Dairy Road project.
Companies that have put in for the bid include HLE, Horrocks, Paragon Consulting, Keller and Associates and Forsgren Associates.
Walrath told commissioners that he would like for them to be on the committee of evaluators as well as himself in the scoring process when deciding on which company to award the bid to.
Once the commissioners and Walrath score the bids, they’ll make a decision on which company to award the bid and will send out a formal letter to the business.
In October 2019, the county’s grant application for the Kettle Butte road project was partially denied after the county put in for a $3.5 million grant.
Walrath stated that the grant now covers the design of the project and should not exceed $455,000.
“We’re still looking at the same cost for the project overall, but it will be a different grant for the construction portion,” Walrath said.
With the county having tto match 20% of the project cost and the Department of Commerce covering the other 80%, Walrath said they’re looking into have the Public Works road crews do the paving. Walrath also stated that a state grant could provide the county with the funds to match the 20%.
Once the design bid is awarded, the county will move forward with submitting the request for proposal for the next step in receiving funding for the project.
The requests for proposal, or RFP, requires the county to prepare and submit their project plan, the specifications and the estimated cost by October 29, 2020.
Once the RFP is submitted, the county will wait to hear back from the Department of Commerce on the grant for the construction portion of the project.
The goal of the Kettle Butte Road project is to armor and raise four miles of the road near Roberts to assist with flooding issues.
Source: https://www.postregister.com/star/news/kettle-butte-dairy-road-project-receives-five-bids-for-design/article_db7a2616-1de1-53c0-a881-a0f0b9707f78.html