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City to open bids for work at V&M Star
YOUNGSTOWN
City officials will open proposals Friday for the second time on a major improvement project needed for V&M Star’s $650 million expansion.
If all goes well, the city could award the contract in a few weeks with construction starting in November or December. The project will take up to 300 days to complete.
The city is using more than $13 million in federal stimulus funds to pay for the work, which primarily relocates railroad lines located on the site of V&M’s $650 million expansion project.
The city originally opened the proposals for this job May 28.
The project’s estimate was $13.56 million.
The four proposals opened in May ranged from $18.18 million to $20.21 million. The city charter doesn’t permit the awarding of contracts to bidders that exceed the city’s estimate for projects.
It took the city nearly four months to receive permission from V&M, the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration for a scaled-back proposal and to put together updated bid specifications.
The new proposal includes the elimination of several rail switches and other items the company decided are not essential to the needs of the new facility.
The V&M Star expansion project is to be finished in late 2011.