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Board approves deposits, inspectors for TDOT North Thompson Lane relocations totaling multi‑million estimate
Summary
The board approved contracting and depositing estimated relocation costs with TDOT for the North Thompson Lane widening — staff presented cost estimates of about $5 million for water and $7.6 million for sewer/repurified water and said TDOT controls the deposit account and bidding process.
The Resources Board voted July 22 to approve participation in TDOT’s North Thompson Lane widening project by placing the city’s utility relocations into TDOT’s contract and depositing estimated relocation costs with TDOT prior to bidding.
Staff said engineering (EOI) has designed the city’s water and sewer replacements where the roadway widening will conflict with utilities and prepared easement descriptions and offer amounts. TDOT requires utilities to place relocation work into TDOT’s contract so a single contractor coordinates road, drainage and utility work; TDOT also requires the city to deposit the relocation costs up front before the project is bid.
Staff presented cost estimates of a little over $5,000,000 for the water relocations (including repurified water) and about $7,600,000 for sewer relocations. Staff said the deposit account is controlled by TDOT and that staff is pursuing whether deposits can be placed in an interest‑bearing account; the city used a different TDOT office to arrange interest bearing treatment on a prior Broad/Memorial interchange project but had not yet received contact information for this project.
A board member asked how the deposits are controlled and how the city will access any interest; staff said the construction office and a separate state office handle deposits and that the department is working to place funds in an interest‑bearing account. Staff also said the city will place one of its inspectors on the TDOT project to certify monthly construction progress so TDOT can pay the contractor from the deposited funds.
A board member moved to approve the contracts and deposit process, specifying funds will come from the city’s working capital reserves and noting the project has been in the city’s CIP dashboard for several years. The motion passed by board vote.
Staff cautioned the board that the state’s two‑year project timeline may be optimistic given four miles of work and multiple utility relocations; staff estimated the full utility relocations could take a year or longer to construct and said the total project duration might extend to three or four years.
