Southborough Trails Committee approves budget split to cover Beals engineering overage, OKs bench and signage purchases

The Town of Southborough Trails Committee voted June 5 to allocate its remaining fiscal-year funds and seek Community Preservation Committee (CPC)/Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds to cover an engineering change order for Phase 2 of the Peninsula Trail project.

The committee's chair, Kat McKee, told members that Beals (the project's engineering consultant) has asked for additional work because structural engineers raised concerns about the bridge height and asked for more testing, including water-velocity analysis. McKee said the firm is expected to request about $5,000 more under a change of scope and that the town procurement officer was consulting general counsel about allowing the overage beyond the usual 25% change-order limit. "I have asked Dave, from Beals to to to send me a scope so I can get that change order processed quickly, because we're gonna need him to send us an invoice that we're gonna have to pay out of our budget…