An artist’s rendition of the planned Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex. The project recently had its land grading work bid out with roughly $700,000 of savings for the city based on an engineer’s estimates.
The city of Ridgefield made out with some significant savings to the tune of nearly $1 million on public works projects following approval of two bids late last month.
The Ridgefield City Council voted 6-0 to approve two bids for construction projects in the city during its July 27 meeting. The projects are focused around Hillhurst Road, including the land grading work for the planned Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex, a project that will see several sports fields constructed in the city for both municipal and school district use.
Apart from land grading, work on extending a water main along Hillhurst also was accepted, with hundreds of thousands of savings itself.
Ridgefield Director of Public Works Bryan Kast said that for the grading work, the engineer’s estimate was $4.6 million. The lowest bidder for the project, Tapani Underground, had a bid of $3.9 million, leading to around a $700,000 savings from projections.
Likewise, the water main extension was also cheaper than the engineer’s estimate, $755,000 to Tapani’s bid of $538,000. That project, although related to the RORC, was on the city’s long-term capital facilities plan and therefore separate.
As to why Tapani was able to bid so low, Kast reasoned it was due to proximity. The company is currently working on the Ridgefield School District fifth to eighth grade school complex which, by design, is right next door to the RORC.
“They already have all their equipment and personnel right there, and they also have the lay of the land,” Kast said. He explained that the grading work was right in line with what the construction firm was doing with the school district’s property, so moving a parcel over and doing the same thing shouldn’t be as costly, as evidenced in the bid.
Kast said specifically the mobilization fee in Tapani’s bid was less than half of the engineer’s estimate, resulting in a decent chunk of the savings.
Kast explained savings like that associated with the current bids were a part of the plan for going with a partnership with the school district.
“The goal all along behind this partnership is to do more for the community; build better facilities and be able to build the facilities with less cost to the taxpayer,” Kast said.
That said, the low bids were a bit out of the ordinary for the rebounding economy.
“During the recession that was a good time to bid stuff, because this (low bids) was the ordinary back then,” Kast said. “Recently bid prices have not only gone back up to where they were before the Recession, but they have continued to escalate.”
“It’s a little bit unusual with the bidding climate we have right now, but again, it’s really the result of that partnership and the planning that went into the school, the RORC project and fitting those two projects together,” Kast said.
In an email, Kast said there will be an official groundbreaking for the RORC Aug. 31 at 1 p.m. at the future location of the site, south of the high school on Hillhurst.
