Pennington is out to bid for the borough’s Abey Drive improvement project.
Mayor James Davy explained that bidders for the project have picked up the specifications and that bids are due by Oct. 15.
“As you know we have been trying to get this project completed by the end of the year. [Borough Engineer Brandon Fetzer] is thinking he can review the bids and make a recommendation to the council by the October work session,” he said.
“To speed this project along, instead of a special meeting, we might need to approve the resolution awarding the contract in the last meeting in October.”
The improvements to Abey Drive, which is between Mallard Drive and East Delaware Avenue, will include adjusting roadway grades and cross slopes, replacing deteriorating curbing, driveway aprons, curb ramps and sidewalks as needed, and installing new stormwater sewer structures, according to the advertisement.
“Now we have been trying to get this project in this year but when we accept the bids and Brandon talks to the contractor, whoever the low bidder is, if it does not look like the contractor can get it done by end of the year we might have to slate it for the spring,” Davy added.
“We are hoping that we can get this done by the end of the year.”
At next week’s Pennington Council meeting, there will also be a resolution to authorize engineering services with Colliers Engineering for the redesign of Abey Drive in the amount of $111,500.
Some of the money will be recouped through the New Jersey Department of Transportation grant process, according to Davy.
Borough Engineer Brandon Fetzer, who is with Colliers Engineering, said the engineer’s estimate for the project as designed by Pennoni is under the NJDOT grant allotment.
“I’m comfortable with that as long as the quantities are correct, which we checked them and they are close. We should be close and right about there as long as the estimates and numbers haven’t changed with respect to where the fuel index is,” Fetzer added.
“That is the thing that kills a lot of this is asphalt fuel prices. Asphalt fuel prices drive a lot of the cost to the projects. With the rising fuel prices there are … increases. So, as long as those all stay moderate, we should be good.”
The $111,500 in the resolution is not just for the redesign of the Abey Drive project. The money is for everything needed to get the project through construction, Fetzer said during the Borough Council’s late September work session.
“That is the inspection time for everyone to be out there, material testing we need to do for NJDOT, pay applications, final change orders, close out, that is everything there,” he said. “The true redesign was about $20,000, the bidding and getting all the stuff through DOT was about $12,000 or $15,000. The title on the resolution is not for the redesign itself.”
