The city of Brainerd portion of the Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport utility extension project missed its final completion date of June 2.
In order to make sure the project is completed correctly, the Brainerd City Council Monday night approved a fee amendment for engineering services with Short Elliott Hendrickson and Widseth Smith Nolting.
The estimated rate for the services will be $6,300 per week. The agreement lasts until the project is completed or until the retainage on the project is spent. A previous agreement with SEH and WSN ended when the final completion date of June 2 passed. The 3 percent of the total project contract that's been retained can cover about 30 weeks of engineering fees, City Engineer Paul Sandy said.
Because the final completion date was not met, liquidated damages have been accruing at a rate of $900 per day. In a safety and public works committee meeting prior to the council meeting, Sandy said this was intended to cover engineering expenses past the completion date. At seven days per week, this amounts to $6,300 per week, which includes about 28 hours of field observation time, a construction progress meeting and normal administration time.
"I was really surprised when I walked by there yesterday and it was still not done," council member Dave Badeaux said.
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Thankfully, the engineers will be there to make sure the project is finally completed, council member Kelly Bevans said.
"At this point, I don't think cutting off our engineers would be a good decision," Bevans said.
According to a project update dated June 15 from Scott Hedlund, project manager with SEH, it is estimated the project will not be completed until late summer or fall of this year. The main remaining work includes correcting three segments of water main along Highway 210 which are not passing hydrostatic pressure tests. A segment of gravity sanitary sewer main in Lum Park needs grade correction and there are other punch list items to be completed.
Tom's Backhoe Service is responsible for installing water and sewer lines from the city of Brainerd to the airport property boundary. This city project has experienced multiple issues since being deemed substantially complete last fall.
The airport bid its own project. The two utility projects are independent, but related as they will connect to each other. Ryan Contracting completed the airport project last fall, installing water and sewer infrastructure on the airport property. Ryan Contracting's project passed pressure and bacteria tests last fall and is ready to connect to the project Tom's Backhoe Service is working on, when it is complete.
In other business, the council:
Accepted a recommendation from Sandy to enforce a no parking zone on a small portion of Kingwood Street running north and south near North First Street. The city will use notifications and signage to let people know about the no parking zone.
City code section 1310.05 prohibits parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk at an intersection. In a safety and public works committee meeting prior to the council meeting, Sandy said he interprets that to mean there's no parking within 20 feet of the end of the radius point of the intersection. The radius point of the intersection is the curved part of the curb on the corner of an intersection.
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"If vehicles stay back 20 feet from the actual radiuses on the curbs, I think that it would be perfectly fine," Sandy said. "There would be no sight impeded from vehicles turning in the intersection."
John Erickson, a resident on Chippewa Street, made the request to implement a no parking zone. He spoke about the issues with parking at the oddly shaped intersection during a public comment portion of the committee meeting.
Adopted an ordinance amending city code 1315 pertaining to street cleaning and snow removal. The ordinance re-establishes snow emergency routes in the city and tweaks the existing snow removal system.
The new ordinance puts a parking ban in place for 48 hours on snow emergency routes following the declaration of a snow emergency. This provides city staff enough time to plow and scrape streets and spread salt and chemicals on the streets.
Snow emergency routes include Laurel Street, College Drive, Willow Street, Wright Street, Buffalo Hills Lane, Oak Street, Jackson Street, H Street, League Avenue and portions of Eighth Street and Fifth Street. Vehicles parked on these streets during the snow emergency will be ticketed and towed after 48 hours.
On the first day of the snow emergency, streets running north and south will be plowed, which will mean parking is only allowed on streets running east and west. On the second day, streets running east and west will be plowed, which means cars will have to be parked on streets running north and south. All streets west of the Mississippi River and south of Willow Street will be plowed on the first day.
The council held a public hearing and final reading of the ordinance prior to its adoption. No one spoke at the public hearing. The first reading of the ordinance was held on June 5.
Accepted a request from Sandy to explore hiring a consultant engineering firm for design and construction of three sidewalk projects scheduled for 2019. Two of the projects are funded in part by the federal safe routes to school grant program and involve extending sidewalks in the neighborhood around Garfield Elementary School. The other project involves extending sidewalks along South Sixth Street.
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Sandy will determine an estimated cost for these consultant engineering services and come back with more information at the July 3 meeting.
