Lubbock council reassigns $1 million in impact fees to cover North Milwaukee bond shortfall

Lubbock City Council voted unanimously Oct. 14 to amend the North Milwaukee capital budget and direct $1 million in impact fee revenue from Service Area A to the North Milwaukee bond project, officials said.

Assistant City Manager Eric Carahino told the council the city received two bids for the North Milwaukee construction contract: Lone Star Durden Paving at $16,300,000 and West Texas Paving at $18,770,000. Carahino said staff’s recommended low bidder is Lone Star Durden and that the project’s total cost without contingency was now about $19,628,000 compared with the $17,000,000 currently appropriated for the project.

The shortfall of about $2,628,000, Carahino said, would be closed by a package of internal adjustments: $1,000,000 from Impact Fee Service Area A (the item before council), use of stormwater arterials funds because of drainage needs, $500,000 previously pulled from an earlier project, an additional $350,000 from another project, and $1,350,000 reallocated from the completed 140th Street project (Quaker to Indiana). That mix, he said, raises the project’s appropriation to roughly $20,700,000 and yields a contingency of about 6.6 percent.

“That million would, in essence, amend the budget, move that million into this capital project,” Carahino said during the briefing. He told council service Area A would be reduced from roughly $2.8 million available down to about $1.8 million after the transfer.

Councilmember David Collins and Mayor Pro Tem asked whether scope reductions — such as removal of a traffic signal tied to an adjacent county project — accounted for the change. Carahino said the elimination of a signal (about $250,000) and a redesign after the county decided not to continue its connecting segment reduced some usable lanes at the intersection, but that the principal drivers of the higher cost were increased construction and right-of-way acquisition costs, particularly associated with Loop 88 impacts.

Carahino said the city has additional North Milwaukee–area bond projects coming to bid (30th Street from Milwaukee to Upland; Upland from Fourth to 19th; and subsequent residential paving) and that two of those are in Impact Fee Service Area A.

Council approved the recommended budget amendment and direction of funds by voice vote; the motion passed unanimously.

The action authorizes staff to proceed with the low bidder recommendation and to return with the construction contract and a separate amendment for HDR construction-phase services, Carahino said. City staff said additional adjustments to consultant and staff-time budgets will be presented to the council in a future meeting.