Commission approves final change order on Laneville Road, adds $75,698 to project

Rutherford County commissioners approved a final change order of $75,698.70 on the Laneville Road project, bringing the total reconciled project cost to $972,233.70 and authorizing final payment and closeout procedures.

County engineers told the committee that unit‑price bids and changing construction quantities led to the increase. Mark Lee (county engineering) said several items’ quantities varied from the bid, that some items were inadvertently omitted from the original design and that one past employee had under‑estimated quantities. He described three specific items missing from the bid—specialized pavement markers and other turn‑lane materials—and said state unit prices (TDOT 2024) corroborated the contractor’s pricing.

"When you total all those up, it comes to, at the bottom, $75,698.70," Lee said, and county staff explained that TDOT inspected the work and released the contractor’s bond earlier in the week. The contract work was performed by Hawkins and Price, the project manager said; the contractor submitted a final invoice and will remain subject to the 5% retainage until final walk-through and lien waivers are provided.

Commissioners asked whether funds were available. Staff said the project is part of a previously authorized $20 million bond package; the change order will be paid from that bond allocation and will not require new appropriation. Commissioner discussion included concern about disclosing contingency amounts to contractors; staff said the change order is reconciliatory and not the result of contractor claims for contingency funds.

A motion to approve the change order carried on a roll call with Commissioners Phillips, McAdoo, Johnson, Pete, Boyce, Gooch and Chairman Carr voting yes. Staff will pay the final invoice, hold retainage pending a final inspection and obtain lien waivers from the contractor’s suppliers as part of project closeout.