Adams County details County Z reconstruction; bridge piles driving extra cost but change orders expected to be modest

Adams County staff told the Highway Committee on July 10 that reconstruction of County Z from State Highway 82 to Duck Creek Bridge has moved into construction and will generate change orders after pile driving exceeded initial depth estimates.

Highway staff said the project went out to bid in February, bids opened in March, contracts were executed later in March and work began June 12. AECOM is under a construction oversight agreement. "If you were to go back and look at my notes here, I provided a log of the activity that took place ... it went out to bid ... we opened the bids ... the contract was signed and executed," Pat, the highway department head, said.

Pat told the committee that the project’s estimated cost in staff materials shows construction costs plus oversight and admin fees have pushed the total to approximately $3,346,000. He summarized line items earlier in the meeting: "we had shown 2,300,000 ... construction oversight, 324,000. The Admin fees, 140,000. That puts us at 3,300,000 ... 3,346,000 is where the project come in." Those figures were described as rounded estimates and subject to final accounting.

Pat said a change order is already expected after pile installation on the north abutment exceeded the engineer’s estimate. "The first two piles ... went right past the engineers estimated depth. Went down to 75 feet," Pat said, while the design had anticipated about 55 feet. He said the deeper installation will create splice and linear-foot charges but "it's not going to be 75 or a $100,000 ... it will generate a small change order for us."

Staff emphasized the nature of change orders on construction sites: "Change orders have the potential to happen on County Z ... You can't say no. Don't pound that pile any deeper. The resistance factor is not there to support the structure, so it has to be driven down," Pat said.

Cynthia (administrator) and Pat also explained that project timing impacted budgeting: the project award occurred before 2024 books were closed, which pushed costs into the 2025 budget. Pat said project overruns from 2024 will affect the 2025 highway budget unless offsets are found. Staff described internal steps to identify funding sources, including transfers to the highway enterprise fund and potential use of LRIP allocations from other projects.

On materials and specification changes, staff said a change from 4-inch to 6-inch roadway paint was made on a separate county project when the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices recommended 6-inch lines; that change increased materials but the County Z change-order responsibility depends on funding type. "If it had been an STP project or a federally funded project, the answer would be yes" for federal participation, Pat said; for a county-funded project, the county covers the difference.

The county also passed a resolution at the meeting authorizing the highway department to accept LRIP grant funds for the County Z reconstruction project; the committee approved the resolution by voice vote (motion by Phil, second by Kenny). Staff said LRIP and other grant timing will influence which fiscal year funds are reflected in.

Staff did not provide a final, signed change-order amount at the meeting and said they will return with formal recommendations and updated numbers to the committee.