Castle Valley opens bids for Castle Creek culvert; NRCS review will determine award timeline

Castle Valley opened construction bids on July 28 for the Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Castle Creek Culvert project and recorded multiple contractor offers; the council said it will forward the bids to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for design review before any award is made.

The council recorded bids from Strong Solutions, Harrison’s (Moab), Williams Construction and Day Brothers Construction. The meeting facilitator read the bid amounts into the record and said the town must separate the portions of the work that the town will pay from the portions that would be paid through the EWP grant before finalizing any award.

Why this matters: the culvert project is an EWP-funded infrastructure repair with costs that the town and NRCS must apportion. The review process and any required design changes by NRCS could change contract quantities and the town’s share of the project cost; the council said it hopes to be able to award a contract at its regular August meeting but may call a special meeting if necessary.

At the meeting the facilitator read the totals reported by each bidder. The facilitator said, “The total bid from Strong Solutions is at $1,261,980.” The facilitator read Harrison’s bid as $1,121,386.20 and Williams Construction’s bid as $1,185,131.28. A readout for Day Brothers Construction in the transcript appears garbled; the facilitator read a very large figure that does not appear consistent with the other bids and that amount is notated below as “reported in transcript; appears erroneous.”

The facilitator reminded the council that bids were submitted on a unit-price basis and said the town staff will separate the portions that are the town’s responsibility and the portions that would be covered by EWP. “We should be able to write that out based on the unit prices,” the facilitator said.

Council members and staff discussed the NRCS review timeline. The facilitator said the review could take “up to 30 days” and noted the project had been routed outside the usual state-level review because of the scope and cost. A staff member named Nicole was quoted by the facilitator as saying she hoped the NRCS review could be completed in about two weeks for a smaller project; the council recorded both time estimates in the discussion.

The council agreed to collect the paper bid packages and scan them for distribution. The facilitator said staff would double-check each submission and confirm that unit prices and required items are included before returning a recommendation for award. The facilitator said, if NRCS review and processing allow, the town hopes to consider an award at its regular August meeting; if timing does not work, staff will arrange a special meeting to vote on the award.

No contract award or motion to accept any bid was made at the July 28 meeting. The council formally opened bids and placed them on the record for staff and NRCS review.

Next steps: staff will scan and distribute the bid packages to council members, separate EWP-covered work from the town’s portion, and send the complete bid package to NRCS for design review. NRCS’s review timeline — reported at the meeting as between about two weeks (staff hope) and up to 30 days — will determine whether the council can award the contract at its August regular meeting or whether a special meeting will be scheduled to take the award action.

Votes at this meeting: none related to award; the bid opening was a procedural step only.