Some positive news emerged from Monday’s meeting of the Bartholomew County Commissioners.
The two lowest bids on 30 repaving projects covering 26 miles of rural roads came in lower than what was anticipated by county officials.
Milestone Contractors of Columbus is proposing to carry out the county’s 2024 overlay program for $2,698,800, while Dave O’Mara Contractors Inc. of North Vernon submitted a bid for $2,898,129.
For the first time in a number of years, county officials seemed to like the bids.
“I’m happy with (the prices quoted),” Hollander said. “I’ve been kind of sweating it.”
“The (bids) are in the ballpark of what we were expecting and hoping for,” commissioner’s Chairman Larry Kleinhenz said.
Last week, it was announced that the Indiana Department of Transportation had awarded Bartholomew County government the maximum $1.5 million for the overlay program, which was awarded through the Community Crossings matching grant program. For counties the size of Bartholomew, INDOT requires a 50/50 match. That’s how the maximum total funding of $3 million was established.
But the bids from Milestone and O’Mara were both less than $3 million. Commissioner Tony London said that means the county may now be able to request additional funding to repave more roads later this year.
Milestone and O’Mara have been the only overlay bidders in recent years. While two additional contractors submitted proposals, neither had bids that were competitive with Milestone and O’Mara. D.C. Construction Services of Pendleton provided a bid of $3,249,100, while All Star Paving of Seymour submitted a proposal of $3,331,858.
Up until last year, the highway department would award individual projects to multiple contractors. However, a change in state regulations now requires the county to only award a single contractor all the projects. Since contractors offer to do overlay work at a lower price than what they offer the private sector, the winning bidder is then given the rest of the year’s construction season to complete the work.
The 2024 overlay list includes multiple sections of streets and roads in four subdivisions: Hamor Heights, Zephyr Village, Harrison Lake and Grandview Lake. The largest projects include County Road 400W near the Jackson County line, Hartsville Road and Grandview Drive.
