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Best bid for city road upgrade comes in at $3.55M
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
A city company submitted the apparent lowest proposal for a major improvement project on the main road to the $650 million V&M Star expansion facility.
Parella Punnunzio’s proposal is for $3,549,126.13, the lowest amount for the work among the four companies seeking the work.
The apparent second- lowest proposal came from A.P. O’Horo, $3,596,000.
The city’s board of control hired O’Horo of Liberty for $747,000 Thursday to demolish four tunnels along Roger Lindgren Way, the main access road to the expansion location.
The board of control may have a special meeting Thursday to hire Parella Pannunzio — if an engineer’s review deems it the best and lowest proposal, city officials said.
If not, the board of control would award that contract at its next regularly scheduled meeting, Sept. 16.
The project includes the installation of water and sewer lines and the reconstruction and expansion of Roger Lindgren Way, the former South Road.
The engineer’s estimate for the work to the 1.8-mile road was $4.1 million, said Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works.
The work should start in about 30 days and take no longer than 120 days to be done.
V&M will reimburse the city’s costs for this.
Meanwhile, the city will seek new proposals, probably by the end of the month, for a railroad-relocation project needed by V&M, Shasho said.
The city had estimated the cost of that work at $13.56 million, with the money coming from the federal stimulus package.
But when the city opened proposals for the work May 28, the amounts ranged from $18.18 million to $20.21 million.
V&M agreed to scale back the project by eliminating several rail switches and other items not essential to the company’s needs.
The changes also need the approval of the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, Shasho said. Approval from both is expected in about two weeks, he said.
If all goes well, the project would start in October or November.
The project will take 300 days to finish.
The V&M plant is to open in late 2011.