Augusta city council voted Oct. 1 to accept a revised city engineer's estimate and to award the site‑work contract for a new salt storage building at the Public Works campus.

City staff said bids for the site development were opened Sept. 30 and the one qualified bid from PSE Contractors came in $19,847 above the original engineer's estimate. State law cited by staff prevents awarding a contract that exceeds an engineer's estimate for some cities, so the engineer revised the estimate from $159,167.83 to $184,466.50 and the council first voted to accept that revised estimate.

After accepting the revised estimate, council voted to award the construction contract to PSE Contractors LLC in the amount of $179,015 to perform site preparation, drainage, grading and concrete pad construction. Public Works staff said the cost difference was largely due to higher concrete prices affecting the exterior pad and foundation pad.

Staff reported the phase 1 budget for the building, site work and engineering is $430,000. With the building contract, site work, estimated engineering and tariffs, staff projected total expenses of $386,205, leaving an estimated contingency of $43,795. Funding for the project was transferred from the electric utility as part of a larger plan for the Public Works campus; staff said a budget amendment will be required later to reflect that transfer.

Council approved the two separate motions — to accept the revised estimate and to award the contract — and staff later noted PSE is local and part of Allen's Excavating.