Because of significantly lower oil prices and competitive bidding, Sherburne County will be saving more than $1.6 million on road projects in 2015.
Tuesday, Sherburne County Highway Engineer Rhonda Lewis opened sealed bids for four road projects slated for this year. All four low bids were well below the engineer’s estimate.
The biggest savings will come one of the county’s biggest projects - the bituminous overlay, turn lane construction and culvert replacement on six different county roads: Co. Rd. 14 from Hwy. 25 to east of Co. Rd. 30; Co. Rd. 16 from Co. Rd. 8 to Hwy. 10; Co. Rd. 33 from Co. Rd. 32 to Co. Rd. 1; Co. Rd. 61 from Hwy. 10 to Co. Rd. 20; Co. Rd. 10 from Co. Rd. 5 to Co. Rd. 15 and Co. Rd. 51 from Co. Rd. 11 to Co. Rd. 4.
The low bid of $3,956,433.72 by Knife River Corp. was more than $1.1 million lower than the engineer’s estimate of $5,128,210.97. The other bidder, Hardrives, Inc., was also well below the estimate at $4,146,554.45.
The county will save more than $400,000 on the Co. Rd. 15 reconstruction project from 211th Ave. to 233rd Ave.
The low bid of $1,864,333.35 was just over $400,000 lower than the engineer’s estimate of $2,265,754.92. Hardrives was second lowest bidder at $1,877,440.78 and North Valley Inc. bid $2,077,775.20.
The county will save about $70,000 on the bituminous sealcoat project on various county roads.
The low bid of $376,921.75 came from Asphalt Surface Technologies Corp. The engineer’s estimate was $447,943.63.
Other bidders included Allied Blacktop ($455,077.54); Caldwell Asphalt ($458,749.50) and Fahrner Asphalt Sealers ($620,961.75).
The county will save $20,000 more on pavement marking throughout the county.
The low bidder was AAA Striping Service Co. at $188,207.04, well below the engineer’s estimate of $209,553.90. Other bidders were Traffic Marking services ($198,822.42); Swanston Equipment Co. ($225,506.10); Sir Lines-A-Lot ($225,941.16) and Fahrner Asphalt ($278,148.36).
Safety System
The board approved an agreement to provide electrical energy for a new Intersection Conflict Warning System to be installed by MnDOT at the intersection of Hwy. 10 and Co. Rd. 23 in Becker.
A red light will flash on Hwy. 10 when a vehicle is stopped on Co. Rd. 23 attempting to enter the intersection.
“Right now there is a flashing red light,” said Lewis. “This will be more interactive. It will only flash when there is a possible conflict. They are putting these conflict warning lights on high-accident intersections.”
Gopher Bounties
The board passed a resolution allowing partial reimbursement to cities and townships, not to exceed $0.75, per gopher during calendar year 2015. Last year the county paid $2,791.13 in reimbursements.
Other Business
In other action the board:
• Approved the final payment of $163,422.28 to Knife River for overlay work completed on Co. Rd. 4 and Co. Rd. 16 in 2014;
• Approved budget carryover requests to various county departments and a transfer of $369,645 to the year-end savings account;
• Approved a transfer of $50,000 from the Unallocated Recorder’s Compliance Fund to public works for conversion of parcel mapping from AutoCad to GIS format;
• Renewed the Remote Electronic Alcohol Monitoring Grant with the MN Dept. of Corrections for 2016 and 2017 at $11,000 per year;
• Approved a gambling application for exempt permit for North East Sherburne Fire & Rescue for a raffle at the Baldwin Fire Dept. Sept. 19;
• Approved a request by the IT Dept. to use up to $30,000 in carryover funds to build a new audio/video storage server for law enforcement video files;
•Approved a request by the zoning department to allow environmental specialist David Kastner to attend an organics collection/composting training course in Maryland at a cost of $1,800 plus travel expenses;
* Approved advertising for bids to reclaim and overlay Co. Rd. 1 from the BNSF Railroad tracks to Co. Rd. 32.
