Antrim bridge project up $174K

Costs for the construction of the North Main Street Bridge in Antrim may be running over by as much as $174,000. Originally, the cost for the project was estimated to be about $700,000. The increase is mainly due to the overage in tonnage of material excavated from the soil below the bridge.
Although the state’s bridge program pays 80 percent of costs for bridges, the possible hike would still be nearly $35,000 on top of the already expected $140,000 cost of the bridge to the town.
Scott Burnside of Landsite Corp., the contractor who is putting the bridge together, pointed out that $24,000 of the increase is due to unexpected winter conditions during the job created by a two-month delay by Concrete Systems, Inc. According to Burnside, that company was contracted to deliver the large precast cement pieces of the bridge by Sept. 17. But the precast pieces did not arrive until Nov. 17, two months late.
With $24,000 of the increase due to cold weather problems, the actual possible overage due to unexpected boulders, rock and other unsuitable materials is $150,000.
“All the information they have is preliminary,” said Burnside of the increase he presented to Quantum Construction and the town. “That is not the final number. All that has to be negotiated because of the unforeseen quantities of rock. . . . We have a base bid we price, but if we uncover unsuitable rock and boulders, and other unsuitable material [the cost increases.] What’s under negotiation now is the amount of unsuitable materials and cubic yards of boulders found, many tons of unsuitable material that were not part of the base contract to excavate.”
Both the Department of Transportation and people in the state bridge program will also have to look over the increases presented by Burnside.
Quantum Construction Consultants, LLC are the Engineers for the project. According to selectman Gordon Webber, and Quantum is also responsible for overseeing the project.
“Quantum Engineering is the Clerk of the Works, but they are not paid every day all day and neither is anyone from the town,” Webber pointed out. “Quantum did core samples but never found big rock by the wing wall. Burnside had to take out more fill than anticipated. This bridge was built in the 20s or 30s and there were buried organics in there such as stumps and other dumped stuff. That’s where a lot of the cost overrun came from, removing large rock and replacing with more fill. However that is a really big number and it isn’t itemized yet.”
Webber is more concerned about why Concrete Systems, Inc. was two months late and whether they will be fined because of holding up Burnside, therefore causing the $24,000 overrun in winter-related costs for construction.
But town administrator Neal Cass pointed that other issues may have prevented Concrete Systems from delivering on time, such as permitting delays.
“Until the final plan is approved by the Department of Environmental Services, the concrete can’t be ordered,” said Cass, who also pointed out that there had also been an historical review to be completed before work began. “The Department of Transportation also has to approve the plan before concrete is ordered. These things kept pushing the start date back. It did take longer than expected, certainly.”
Antrim has 19 bridges, many which need replacement. Because a lot of preliminary work has been done on those projects, the town has been able to get state funds quicker than other communities with bridges on the red list of bridge throughout the state.