Engineering costs approved for Ironwood project

By RALPH ANSAMI

[email protected]

Ironwood — An amendment to a sewer-water contract approved by the city commission last Monday will net Coleman Engineering around $88,000 in additional engineering fees.

Coleman was awarded the engineering contract for the third phase of the 2014 water-sewer project carried out by Snow Country Contracting, of Bessemer.

After a presentation from Jeff Sjoquist, of Coleman, the commission voted 4-1 in favor of the amendment to the Coleman contract. Joe Cayer Jr. was opposed.

In a letter to the city commission, Coleman said Snow Country filed “a large number of unusually complicated claims through the Michigan Department of Transportation process.”

The letter points out that 17 claims were originally filed, and 13 remain.

Coleman is responsible for responding to the company’s claims regarding the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development project.

City manager Scott Erickson said it was a $7 million project before the claims, which would amount to about a 9 percent increase on top of that.

A Region Office Review before MDOT is pending for SCC, according to Coleman.

The letter from Coleman states nearly 1,000 extra hours have been spent in management and inspection time related to the claims.

Sjoquist told city commissioners several underground sewer mains and laterals were discovered in previously unknown locations.

Specifically, the letter points out the sewer line was found to run from four Lake Avenue homes under and through three homes along U.S. 2.

There was also an unknown sewer under a garage on Poplar Street and the location of the sewer laterals on the north end of Poplar and Shamrock streets had multiple houses hooked to a line in backyards, the letter states.

Also, Coleman noted the construction season extended to two seasons, instead of one.

Coleman said the original agreement called for 5,284 water and sewer hours of work, while Coleman employees actually spent 6,280 hours on the job through Aug. 1 of this year.

The city commission’s action authorized Mayor Kim Corcoran to sign all applicable documents regarding the amendment authorizing the additional payment to Coleman.

The city commission approved the project as companion work to the U.S. 2 (Cloverland Drive) reconstruction project.