Four bidders for the construction of the extension of Industrial Way were within less than $20,000 of each other when bids were opened at Crothersville Town Hall last Thursday afternoon. While the bidding was close, the lowest bid was still more than $50,000 over the engineer’s estimate for the completion of the roadway to connect the town’s industrial park to South Kovener Street.
Sedam Construction of Hanover was the apparent low bidder at $578,992. The town’s engineer, FPBH, estimated the roadway construction at $528,342.
Other bidders for the project were Dave O’Mara Paving of North Vernon bid $587,397, King’s Trucking and Excavating of Seymour bid $595,432; and Temple & Temple of Salem at $598,800.
The roadway, done in conjunction with the recently announced Aisin Chemical IN expansion, will provide a second access to the town’s industrial park.
Brad Bender, CEO of FPBH, suggested that changing the street lighting from LED to conventional sodium vapor will result in some cost savings.
LED lighting would result in lower operating costs to the town. It was estimated that the town could save $45 a month per light by going with LED over sodium vapor.
Bender said changing the distance between the streetlights thus going with fewer lights could also result in savings.
The state of Indiana agreed to pay for up to 97% of the roadway, rail crossing and streetlights costs. The state agreed to pay for up to $534,721 of the road construction and lighting costs.
The town council is expected to take action on the bids at their Sept. 2 meeting.
“We will be looking for ways to trim the costs and to come up with additional funding to see that the ACIN project is not delayed,” said council president Ardell Mitchell.
