Council OKs bids for two projects
By Matt Caulder
Published in News on June 18, 2014 1:46 PM
The Goldsboro City Council approved bids for the new GATEWAY transfer station and the Center and Walnut streets portion of its Streetscape plan at its meeting Monday night.
A $10 million federal transportation grant is being paired with nearly $5 million in city money to complete the projects.
The city awarded the Center Street Streetscape project to TA Loving Co. for $6.8 million without contingency, which produced the lowest qualifying bid for the project.
The city is planning $200,000 in contingency funds for the project.
The project encompasses the next three blocks of Center Street, running from Mulberry Street to Spruce Street.
During the planning stages last year, the decision was made to maintain part of the existing sidewalk to maintain access to the businesses while also saving money on the project overall.
Three roundabouts will be constructed as part of the project, removing the traffic signals at all three cross streets along Center Street.
The single-lane roundabouts will have mountable curbs that will allow emergency vehicles to pass and large trucks to deliver products to vendors and make U-turns.
Unlike the first block of Center Street in front of City Hall, angled parking will be offered on the right side of the road with parallel parking on the left side allowing for a wider median.
Both sides of Center Street will be brought down to one lane in each direction with a bike lane.
The Walnut Street Streetscape project was awarded to Daniels and Daniels Construction Co. for $2.9 million, without contingency.
The project will run from Center to Carolina streets and includes streetscape around the city's planned multi-modal transportation complex encompassing Union Station and the new bus station.
The city approved $80,000 in contingency funds to go along with the project.
Daniels and Daniels was also awarded the GATEWAY transfer station project, a bid which came in at $5.1 million.
The scope of the GATEWAY transfer station project was reduced by $500,000 to fall within the budget for the projects.
The city removed one of the sheltered concourses from the plan to trim the project.
$120,000 in contingency funds were approved for the project.
The Council voted 5-2 to approve the projects with councilmen William Goodman and Gene Aycock voting against the measure.
"I haven't swayed from my stand that the scope of the project is too much," Aycock said. "We could take what we are spending on the Center Street match and pave a lot more roads in Goldsboro that need it worse than Center Street."
The city is matching the $10 million in federal funding with nearly $5 million local dollars.
When asked why he voted against the projects, Goodman's only response was, "I have no comment for that."
The projects are expected to be completed by next summer.