KINGMAN – The City of Kingman will ante up about $5.1-million more for phase one construction of the Interstate 40 Rancho Santa Fe Traffic Interchange (TI) project. The Sept. 17 City Council vote was unanimous in support of digging deeper into the public treasury after construction bids for the TI opened Sept. 6 came in higher than expected.
Pulice Construction submitted the apparent low bid for the work at almost $44 million, but various engineering, contingency and project administration costs bring Kingman’s bill to nearly $53.4 million. The City previously paid $48.3 million, with $5.1 million more needed to cover the “overage.”
City Manager Tim Walsh told Council members that staff, after evaluating possible capital project cuts and other options, decided that pulling money from the Pavement Preservation program to cover the balance due is less painful and preferred.
Council member Marion Smiley Ward expressed regret over the street preservation program raid, but said Kingman is too far committed to the TI to change course, or allow delay at this point.
“We’ve got to have that exit. We’ve went (gone) too far and we’re too close to let it go. I guess the streets are the best place to take it from as bad as I hate to say that because of the neglect we’ve done over the years to the streets,” Ward said. “It just looks like we’re going backwards, but we go backwards a lot further if we don’t get that exit, so I’ll go along with it.”
Walsh explained the funds will be pulled from planned collector and arterial road expenditures, while the residential street improvements will not lose any revenue or steam.
“We’ll continue with the residential districts. We won’t change that program at all,” Walsh explained. “All of the residential streets will be completed by year four, both the crack and a chip seal, and really what we’re doing is we’re pushing out out arterials and collectors by a year.”
Vice Mayor Cherish Sammeli asked Anthony Brozich, Administrator for the Northwest District of the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), if Council approval of funding the overage will allow the Rancho TI construction contract to be awarded at the Sept. 20 meeting of the State Transportation Board.
“Yes, they are actually waiting this evening to hear what happens,” Brozich said.
Brozich also spent a few minutes detailing early construction progress for the West Kingman TI project that will better connect Interstate 40 and US 93 with a free flow traffic option for motorists between Phoenix and Las Vegas. He displayed slides of rock clearing and excavation and other activity.
“We do have cameras up and are working on a website that will allow you to dial up and look at the progress,” Brozich said. “I believe some of the cameras will actually have the function to manipulate where it’s looking. You may have to get in que depending on how many people (are looking), but you will be able to control them.”
Dave Hawkins
