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Public works awards guardrail repair contract and approves federal grant supplement for roadside delineators
Summary
Cowlitz County public works awarded a $460,310.75 contract to Columbia River Contractors to repair guardrails countywide and approved a supplemental federal funding agreement for a roadside delineators project funded through the Highway Safety Improvement Program, with county match noted during discussion.
Cowlitz County public works on the board’s first regular meeting of 2025 secured a contract to repair damaged guardrail across the county and accepted a federal supplemental agreement to install roadside delineators on local roads aimed at preventing run-off-road crashes.
County Engineer Susan Eugenis presented two motion items. The first was a bid award for the 2024 unit-priced guardrail installation and repair project. Bids opened Dec. 3; the lowest responsive bidder was Columbia River Contractors with a bid of $460,310.75, about $160,000 below the engineer’s estimate, Eugenis said. The project is structured to address currently damaged guardrail and allow additional repairs through 2025 as needed; the contractor committed to the bid prices through the end of 2025. The board approved the bid award by voice vote.
A commissioner asked whether replacements are made “in kind” (wood posts versus steel). Eugenis said posts are generally replaced in kind so that a run behaves uniformly, but noncompliant end sections are upgraded to current standards when damaged.
The second motion was for Local Agency Agreement Supplement No. 1 for a countywide roadside delineator project funded by the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), a grant program for system-wide safety improvements. Eugenis said the county requested a supplemental $170,000 in federal funds to increase project funding; earlier work had authorized $15,000 for preliminary engineering. In clarifying comments, Eugenis summarized the funding as $15,000 previously authorized for PE, $170,000 for construction from federal sources and a County Road Fund contribution of $15,400; she said $185,400 is the engineer’s construction estimate and the County Road Fund will provide the local match. Commissioners asked for and received that breakdown before taking a voice vote to approve the supplemental agreement.
Both public- and commissioner-level discussion noted that guardrail damage is a recurring, high-cost maintenance item, often stemming from crashes in all weather conditions. Eugenis said the county can sometimes recoup costs when an accident is reported and a responsible party is identified, but many repairs are unrecoverable county expense.
The board approved the public works motion items by voice vote.
