Niles bike trail hits bump; dispute heads to arbitration

February 27, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

NILES

A dispute over $493,000 between the city and general contractor on a still unfinished 4.5-mile bicycle trail is headed to arbitration.

“We are looking at arbitrators, and the mechanism is in place. ... I don’t expect this to drag out,” said Terry Dull, the city’s law director. No date has been set for the arbitration.

The $6.5 million bike trail will be one year behind schedule if it is completed in July, as now planned, according to Mark Hess, city engineering, grant and development coordinator. The Ohio Department of Transportation is funding the entire project.

At issue is work performed by the contractor, J. D. Williamson Construction Co. of Tallmadge, on a former railroad bridge over the Mahoning River near Walnut Street. The city’s plans called for the bridge to be reconstructed but, according to Hess, Williamson submitted a plan to tear down the bridge and replace it with a pre-cast structure.

“ODOT turned down the plan because of an environmental document that showed the reconstructed bridge will qualify as historic when completed,” Hess said. “ODOT is the final authority.”

The company submitted an “earthwork claim” to the city for nearly $493,000, which it said covered the costs of excavation it had done on the bridge as well as time lost preparing a revised proposal that ODOT eventually rejected. According to Mayor Ralph Infante, the city disagreed with the company’s contention that Williamson was forced into the change process.

Infante is a member of the city’s board of control, which rejected Williamson’s argument. In a letter to the company, the board said the construction firm “failed to provide adequate evidence” that it was forced into changing plans. The board used the same phrase to deny Williamson’s claim that the city and its consulting engineer “were aware of a design problem” that could not be resolved without submitting a changed proposal to ODOT.

Hess said the contractor eventually kept the bridge’s center truss, rebuilt the rest of the span and submitted the claim that the city rejected leading to the arbitration.

Steve Hermann, Williamson general manager, declined to comment.

Dull said arbitration will not result in more delays for the project. “Everyone is required to do their work even if there is a dispute,” Dull said.

The Niles bike trail is part of the 100-mile Great Ohio Lake to River Greenway project, which will run from Lake Erie in Ashtabula County to the Ohio River in Columbiana County.

When completed, the Niles trail will link on the south with the Mill Creek MetroParks bike path that runs from Austintown to Canfield. However, it may be nearly a decade before a 3.35-mile connection is built from Warren’s bike trail to Niles, according to Zachary Svette, project coordinator for Trumbull County MetroParks.

“We’re hoping for completion by 2020,” Svette said. “We have a preliminary plan, and we’re still working on options.”