During their caucus meeting Tuesday night, the Covington Board of Commissioners heard a request from the city’s Public Works Department to approve a sidewalk stabilization project contractor at the intersection of Western Avenue and 9th Street.
The project only received one bid, which came from JTM Smith Construction for the amount of $727,370. Approval of the bid was added to the consent agenda for the legislative meeting on June 13, meaning it’s likely to pass.
The project concerns a 500-foot stretch of road advancing northward at the intersection of 9th Street and Western Avenue.
Workers will also repair some nearby detention basins, which are used to collect stormwater and add stairs for a nearby house so that the residents can safely access the street after the construction.
“The road and sidewalk have been sliding for a number of years,” said Public Works Director Keith Bales. “The street’s actually slanted due to the slippage.”
JTM Smith will install three drilled shaft retaining walls to stabilize the area before rebuilding the sidewalk and road. JTM is currently engaged in a similar project at the Pointe Benton subdivision in Peaselburg, a project that the company also secured through a public bid.
Although Bales could not give an estimated timeline for when construction would begin, he did say that the project would likely take three to four months to complete once started.
“Probably the biggest concern is going to be how the parking’s handled in the short-term,” Bales said, as parking is only permitted on one side of the street.
“Are there any concerns at all that we only had one bidder on this?” asked Covington Commissioner Shannon Smith.
“We share the same concern,” Bales said.
Difficulty in attracting companies to bid on public projects is something that has occurred in other institutions in Covington, as well.
“As we move forward with some of the projects coming online, we actually started to reach out to some companies to try to get some more bids,” Bales added.
“This is really a series of really basic, fundamental repairs” to keep the sidewalk from sliding further or collapsing, Mayor Joe Meyer affirmed.
The next Covington Commission meeting will take place on June 13 at 7 p.m. at Covington City Hall on Pike Street.