(Posted Sept. 8, 2016)
By Kristy Zurbrick, Madison Editor
Bring on the asphalt.
Madison County Engineer Bryan Dhume is ready to award contracts for this year’s road paving and pavement marking projects. Bid openings and contract approvals took place Sept. 6. Work will begin soon, with Oct. 31 the completion date for all projects.
“I’m very pleased with the number of bids and the prices we got. They were very competitive,” Dhume said.
The work is divided into three sections: county paving projects, a county paving project partially funded by the Ohio Public Works Commission (OPWC), and pave-ment marking. Contracts went to the companies that submitted the lowest best bids.
For the county paving, four roads will be resurfaced: part of Converse Huff Road, part of Amity Pike, Price Hilliards Road from State Route 42 to the Franklin County line, and West Avenue. The cost estimate was $583,418. Four bids were submitted. The contract went to The Shelly Co. of Thornville, Ohio, which bid $399,863.
Canaan and Darby townships are sharing the cost of the Converse Huff and Amity Pike paving with the county.
“Without their participation, I wouldn’t be able to do both (roads),” Dhume said.
The village of Plain City is paying for the work on West Avenue.
The paving project partially funded by OPWC involves resurfacing Taylor Blair Road from U.S. Route 42 to the covered bridge just outside of West Jefferson. (This is part of a larger project that includes replacement of a bridge and box culvert already in progress.) The cost estimate was $391,455. Four bids were submitted. The contract went to Kokosing Construction Co. of Westerville, Ohio, which bid $277,441.
The marking project involves re-striping all roads in the county that have previously been striped. The cost estimate was $213,289. Three bids were submitted. The contract went to A&A Safety of Amelia, Ohio, which bid $143,034.
Dhume said he estimated each project conservatively, based on $85 per ton of asphalt. The low bids came in at an average of $63.50 per ton of asphalt. Dhume said this price is lower than what some other counties secured for their 2016 projects, citing $68 per ton for Logan County and $72 per ton for Union County.
He said several factors could have contributed to the lower bids, from the decreased cost of asphalt components to paving contractors’ need for work at this time of year.
