Cheshire Postpone Sand Mill Road Bridge Project Bid
CHESHIRE, Mass. — The Selectmen agreed to push out the Sand Mill Road Bridge repair project bid date a few weeks to make sure they follow the procedure correctly.
The board agreed Tuesday not to go out to bid Dec.15 and to have the Conservation Commission approve the project first.
"It’s better to wait an extra week or two now instead of going through the whole process and having to start from square one again," Department of Public Works Director Peter LeFebvre said. "That would put us back at least a month."
The board agreed last month that it wanted to go out to bid as soon as possible and allow an open start time and an agreed-upon end time in hopes of attracting more bidders and perhaps allow for a quicker completion date.
Town Administrator Mark Webber said the engineer wanted to hold a pre-bid meeting Dec. 8 and go out to bid Dec. 15.
Selectwoman Carol Francesconi said the Conservation Commission has yet to even receive a notice of intent and the earliest it could hold a meeting is Dec. 8. She said the bid could change depending on the commission's ruling.
"This is backwards right now because we may require things that affect how they bid," she said. "…Why don't we do it right because it is late now anyways … we have been talking about this for a month and it is just coming to us now."
She added that there is no reason to rush because most likely the weather will not allow an early start. She said if it was warmer out there would be a reason to move quicker.
LeFebvre added that he had concerns about the state Department of Transportation, which needs to approve the final project estimate before the town can use the Chapter 90 road money for the project. He said traditionally projects do not go out to bid before this final approval.
Webber said he would contact the engineer with the board's request.
In other business, LeFebvre said Windsor Road has been paved but because of weather conditions crews were unable to pave Wells Road.
"There was rain for two days before hand and all the material when it goes through the plant takes twice as long to dry out so we weren't getting trucks in," he said. "They were hauling in blacktop from three different plants just to come up with the figure we needed."
He said if the weather does not cooperate the project will have to carry over to next season.
"We will just carry it over but we will see what happens," he said. "Stranger things have happened."
The Selectmen also agreed to add a preferred distance requirement to the DPW director's job description.
"There should be a distance of residence added to the job requirement … you don't really want someone that is 40 miles away for a position like this," Webber said. "You don’t need a residential requirement but you need someone that can get here."
Originally Webber suggested that the director should not live more than 15 to 20 miles away from the DPW garage, however, the board ultimately agreed to 25 miles because they were afraid 15 miles would limit applicants.
Tags: bridge project, DPW,
