Work remains on schedule in Clintonville

By Bert Lehman

Repair and maintenance work to the bridge on Hemlock Street remain on schedule.

Clintonville City Administrator Chuck Kell told the Clintonville City Council at an April 19 meeting that the original bid for the project was for around $150,000 but the city was able to lower the bid by having city crews do some of the work. By having city crews do some of the work, Kell said the bid was lowered to around $143,000.

Kell added that the work on the bridge was progressing well, but a couple of things came up during the work on the bridge. He said the city approved a change order that changed the specifications for the painting of the bridge. This was recommended by Pheifer Brothers Construction, the company doing the work on the bridge.

“That’s going to have a savings of $23,000,” Kell said.

Clintonville Public Works Director Toby Kersten said the bridge will still be painted, but it won’t be entirely sandblasted.

“The bridge, when they opened it up, they found the bearings in better shape behind the scene than they thought,” Kersten said. “Instead of sandblasting the whole bridge, they are just taking care of the areas that actually need to be taken care of.”

Since the entire bridge isn’t being sandblasted the savings is being realized because less environmental safety precautions will be needed.

The drainage around the bridge was also found to be insufficient, Kell said. With the grades of the surfaces in the area, the water was going to sit in puddles, rather than drain off the roadway.

“So we’ve authorized another change order increasing the cost by $3,000,” Kell said.

This change order will have the area re-graded so water properly flows off the roadway.

“We thought that if we’re fixing this thing up we should do it right and end up with a nice refurbished bridge and not have puddles of water sitting on it deteriorating the concrete over a period of time,” Kell said.

Kersten said the project remains on schedule, even with the change orders for the project.