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Council weighs Market Street resurfacing using CHIPS money, balances neighborhood needs
Summary
City Engineer Michael Clark told the Amsterdam Common Council that fully resurfacing the worst stretch of Market Street would cost roughly $1.37 million; councilors debated using one-time CHIPS funds, staging the work and whether to bond or use fund balance.
City Engineer Michael Clark told the Amsterdam Common Council during its April meeting that fully resurfacing the most-deteriorated stretch of Market Street would cost roughly $1.37 million and would require careful staging because of traffic and underground utilities.
The question before the council was whether to commit anticipated CHIPS funding toward a concentrated Market Street rebuild or spread the money across many neighborhood streets. Clark said Market Street carries far more traffic than other city streets and that the condition and utility work there make the project complex.
“We have almost 17,000 vehicles a day on Market compared to about 9 on Cherry Street and about 8,800 on West Main,” Michael Clark, city engineer, said. Clark provided a first‑pass estimate of about $1,368,000 to resurface and repair the lower portion of Market Street from Prospect to Van Dyke, including sidewalk and ADA ramp work, manhole adjustments and utility structure repairs. He said a larger scope, from above Van Dyke to the city line, would add roughly another $1 million.
Council members discussed a range of delivery options: split the work across two years, bid alternates so the city can “order off the menu” depending on final CHIPS receipts, or bond to cover remaining costs. Night paving was raised as a way to reduce daytime traffic disruption; Clark said contractors typically charge more for night work, and he had included contingency to reflect that.
Council members also debated trade‑offs. One member argued that Market Street’s high traffic volumes make it a priority for the entire city; others warned that concentrating CHIPS funds there would push neighborhood streets farther down the list. Councilors and staff said they expect approximately $2 million in CHIPS funding for the city this cycle but cautioned that final figures and the city’s audited fund balances were not yet available.
Options the council discussed included: - Make Market Street the base bid and treat other streets as alternates so the city can adjust after bids arrive. - Break Market Street into two bid packages (A and B) and prioritize the worst segments. - Use CHIPS funding as the down payment and use bonding or general fund balances only if necessary.
Clark said the state Department of Transportation will not take over Market Street unless the city replaces the aging water and sewer mains in that corridor, which would add substantial cost and complexity. That reality factored into the council’s consideration of whether to proceed now or wait for a more comprehensive (and more costly) overhaul that would likely require extensive utility work.
Council members asked staff to prepare a bid strategy and a prioritized alternate list and to return with a recommendation so they could decide quickly whether to commit CHIPS funds to Market Street or spread them across neighborhood projects.
The council did not take a final vote on a Market Street contract at the meeting; members directed staff to bring a formal bid/advertising package and a prioritized list of alternates for a future meeting.
