The City of Covington awarded a contract Thursday to Radius Construct to perform the work of transforming a warehouse space into the new home of the city’s public works department.
A special meeting was called for Thursday to approve the $2.94 million contract.
A redesign of the existing building at 1730 Russell Street was already completed by Covington-based architecture firm Hub+Weber.
The building was previously home to Cincinnati Tag & Supply. It sits on 3.68 acres near the CSX Railroad tracks and takes up 68,000 square feet.
The city bought the building last year as part of a larger deal that saw the current public works facility on Boron Drive in Latonia sold to become the new regional headquarters for Rumpke Waste & Recycling where the city will also have a new transfer facility.
Rumpke purchased the property from the city for $8 million.
Radius, based in Covington, will begin its work immediately with an expected completion date of February 2022, according to interim City Manager Ken Smith.
“It can’t happen soon enough,” said Chris Warneford, Covington’s public works director. “We’re going to have a bigger building, be able to house all of our operations under one roof, have a better ventilation system, be away from the transfer station, and be more centrally located as related to the urban core of the city. We’re excited.”
The renovated building will be subdivided to hold offices, the mechanics’ bays for the department’s fleet management division, a sign-making operation, and storage for equipment, tools, supplies, and vehicles.
Among the work required will be the installation of more floor drains, a more sophisticated ventilation system, expanded electric capacity, and doors of various sizes, the city said.
Separately, public works employees are grading the site and building a slab that will serve as a foundation for the dome-shaped building that will house road salt for winter treatment. The salt dome will be built via a separate contract.
The public works department maintains the city’s streets and sidewalks, medians, parks, facilities and fleet, and urban tree canopy.
Operations include filling potholes; paving road surfaces; repairing sidewalks, curbs, and catch basins; sweeping streets; plowing snow; collecting leaves; cutting grass and weeds; pruning, removing and planting trees; fixing playground equipment; and repairing and maintaining police cruisers, fire trucks, and dump trucks.
It has 60-70 employees, depending upon the season.
The contract for Radius was approved in a special meeting because of a time constraint, and because there is no regular city commission meeting next week.
“Both Public Works and Rumpke want to be in their new homes, and we want to make that happen as soon as we can,” Smith said. “It’s a win for everybody.”
-Staff report
Photo provided