Board approves $639,478 change order, raises Northeast Sanitary Sewer Extension Phase 2 contract to $1.63 million

The Kokomo Board of Public Works and Safety on Feb. 19 approved Contract Modification No. 1 for the Northeast Sanitary Sewer Extension Phase 2, increasing the contract by $639,478 to a new total of $1,627,598.

The change order was prompted by an unforeseen need to relocate a portion of the sanitary sewer into the street after designers and utilities identified conflicts that made the originally planned alignment unsafe or infeasible. A staff member told the board that “moving the sewer into the street was the only way to safely install the sewer and meet the deadline commitments to the developer,” language taken from the meeting record.

The board record shows the original contract amount as $988,120 and the modification as $639,478, producing a revised contract total of $1,627,598. A board member moved to approve the contract modification and another board member seconded; the chair called for a voice vote and the motion carried.

No further scheduling details or implementation dates were provided during the discussion. The staff member said the change was necessary after “extensive meetings with the designer, utility and the city of Kokomo” and cited the project’s accelerated timeline as a factor in the decision to relocate the main into the street.

The action on the contract modification was recorded as an approval; no amendments to the modification were reported at the meeting.

The board did not specify an updated construction schedule, construction contractor name in the meeting record, or additional funding sources for the change order during this agenda item.