The Transportation Technical Advisory Committee recommended approval of additional funds Wednesday for a Bristol sidewalk and roadway project after the estimated construction cost rose to about $3.1 million from a previously approved $1.9 million.

Kevin Ellis, presenting the item for the project that the city of Bristol is leading, said the increase stems largely from added retaining walls intended to avoid significant right-of-way impacts. "The reason for this change is there's a lot of retaining walls that were added to the project, which really kicked the price up a lot, but it was necessary to prevent a lot of right-of-way impacts," Ellis said.

Ellis told the committee the city is eager to start construction next year. Committee members asked whether funds were available; a staff member replied that the funds are available. A motion to recommend the allocation of additional funds was made, seconded and approved by voice vote. The committee recorded the action as "all in favor," with no individual roll-call totals provided in the meeting transcript.

The committee did not discuss amendments to the scope; presenters said the retaining walls were added specifically to reduce right-of-way acquisitions and to enable the safe construction of a sidewalk. The item will advance to the next step of the regional funding and project delivery process as recommended by TTAC.

No statutory citations or ordinance numbers were provided during the discussion.