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Council awards nearly $9 million AHSC improvement contract to Griffith Company; project includes storm‑drain, transit station and bike facilities
Summary
The City awarded an $8,960,155 construction contract to Griffith Company for the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) improvement project, authorized a roughly $144,708 amendment for engineering, and approved contingency funding, with multiple funding sources including AHSC and TIRCP grants. Vote was 5-0.
The Ridgecrest City Council awarded a construction contract to Griffith Company for the city’s AHSC (Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities) improvement project and authorized related professional-service amendments and contingency funding.
City staff presented the project as a multi‑fund, multimodal improvement package concentrated north‑central in the city roughly between Drummond, Las Flores, Norma and China Lake Boulevard. The approved base construction contract is $8,960,155 and staff requested authority to amend a professional‑services agreement with Willdan/Wilden Engineering for $144,708 to provide construction engineering, inspection and project management support. Council also authorized up to $300,000 for a contingency, producing a maximum project authorization in the range presented in the staff report.
Project components include more than 1.5 miles of road repair and new road construction, full curb/gutter/sidewalk on Felspar between Norma and Sanders, a transit transfer station adjacent to the Mojave View apartment site, Class 2–4 bike facilities, ADA improvements along Drummond, Las Flores and Norma, solar street and pathway lighting, hawk crosswalk signals near Los Flores Elementary School, and a large sump and storm‑drain system sized to convey a 100‑year storm event and address flooding the city experienced during Tropical Storm Hillary.
Funding sources for the effort include an existing AHSC grant of approximately $4,010,000, a newly available AHSC allocation of about $1.1 million, Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP) funds to support the transit station, traffic impact fees for Norma improvements, and drainage impact fees for stormwater work. Reid (city staff) said the project was pared from an earlier, higher bid by removing “nice‑to‑have” work such as extensive block walls and replacing them with slotted chain‑link fencing, pursuing HSIP and other funding, and otherwise adjusting scope to bring the project within available grants and local match.
The council voted 5-0 to award the construction contract to Griffith Company, authorize the professional‑services amendment and approve the contingency. Reid requested an extended contract time (180 days) to allow the work to be completed with full time inspection and project management support.
The contract award directs staff to finalize construction documents, manage preconstruction coordination with funding agencies (including Caltrans for HSIP authorization where applicable), and return to council with notices as required if scope or cost changes exceed the authorized contingency.
