Sunrise Engineering to submit proposal for flood-damaged cemetery bridge; UDOT gave $350,000–$500,000 soft estimate

Sunrise Engineering told the Fountain Green City Council on March 20 that it will prepare a recommendation and cost estimate to replace a cemetery bridge damaged during last summer’s floods, after city officials said a Utah Department of Transportation estimate put replacement between $350,000 and $500,000.

The proposal came during a presentation by Sunrise representatives announcing a new Nephi office and offering a range of municipal engineering services. Blake Nielsen of Sunrise said the firm is preparing a second bid so the city has multiple estimates to compare with the UDOT figure. "We have that in the works or or have that in process," Nielsen said. "...we're excited to help, improve that situation for the future." (Blake Nielsen, Sunrise Engineering, presenter)

Why it matters: The cemetery bridge is a piece of local infrastructure damaged in an unusual series of storms and floods; replacing it will be a capital expense the city must budget or seek outside funding to cover. Sunrise and council members flagged both geotechnical uncertainty and grant-seeking as critical next steps.

What Sunrise proposed and what council asked for Sunrise said it will prepare a formal proposal that includes a scope, cost estimate and recommendations. Nielsen said his structural group recommends including a soil (geotechnical) study as a line item before designing a long-lived structure: "...they were rather insistent that we include a line item that would be a soil study, just to see what we're dealing with there." (Blake Nielsen)

Nielsen also described a practice the firm calls "value engineering," an approach to identify lower-cost ways to meet the town’s objectives without reducing long-term durability: "One of my favorite terms and also approaches for a long time is a term called value engineering...we look at the end objective and look at creative and cost saving approaches." (Blake Nielsen)

Officials noted the city has one other engineering bid and that UDOT provided a preliminary estimate. Mayor Mark Coombs told residents the UDOT figure is a "soft bid" and that Sunrise’s pricing will give the council an additional data point. "We do have 1 from another engineering company. We thought we just we always like to have at least 2 solid bids when we're doing projects like this. So that's why I asked Sunrise to give us to look at and give us another bid so we have something else to look at," the mayor said. (Mark Coombs, Mayor)

Funding, timing and public review Council members and staff emphasized funding constraints. The city indicated it will explore grants and state funding before asking residents for local revenue. Sunrise said its staff includes a specialist who helps rural communities locate grant dollars. Council members also stressed that some environmental and regulatory reviews must be completed before final plans are shared with the public. As the mayor put it in a separate discussion about another proposal, "It's just an environmental study to make sure, basically, there's nobody's dumped a lot of toxins out there on the property." (Mark Coombs)

Next steps Sunrise will complete and submit a written proposal and cost estimate for the cemetery bridge (including a suggested soil study). The council will compare that submission with the UDOT estimate and the other engineering bid already on file and decide how to fund the work. The council did not take a final vote on a contract at the March 20 meeting.

Provenance: Sunrise presentation and cemetery bridge discussion began when Sunrise representatives spoke to the council ("First off, I'd like to thank mayor and council... I'm here, with my cohort, Justin Atkinson. We represent Sunrise Engineering.") and concluded when Nielsen finished describing value-engineering and the city and firm agreed on next steps. Evidence spans: topicintro excerpt: "I'm here, with my cohort, Justin Atkinson. We represent Sunrise Engineering. We have recently opened up an office in Nephi," (transcript segment beginning at ~s=441.205). topfinish excerpt: "...we look at the end objective and, and look at a creative and cost saving approaches to doing that. And we'll call that value engineering." (transcript segment beginning at ~s=1107.695).

Speakers - Blake Nielsen — Representative, Sunrise Engineering (presenter) - Justin Atkinson — Representative, Sunrise Engineering (described as "funding finder") - Mark Coombs — Mayor, Fountain Green (government)

Authorities - UDOT (Utah Department of Transportation) — referenced by council as having provided a "soft bid" estimate of $350,000–$500,000 for the cemetery bridge (referenced_by: ["Sunrise Engineering presentation / cemetery bridge discussion"]). - "State environmental review requirement" — discussed in general terms by council as a legal/regulatory step requiring environmental studies before final siting/approval (referenced_by: ["Sunrise Engineering presentation / cemetery bridge discussion"]).

Clarifying details - UDOT soft bid: $350,000–$500,000 to replace the cemetery bridge (city staff reported the UDOT estimate as a "soft bid"). - Sunrise recommended including a soil/geotechnical study as part of design; the firm said that study is a necessary first step to determine subgrade conditions. - Sunrise said it has a local Nephi office intended to serve nearby towns and provides services including water/wastewater engineering, surveying, GIS and building inspection support.

Community relevance - Geographies: Fountain Green (city-owned cemetery and bridge); Nephi (Sunrise local office) - Impact groups: residents who use the cemetery access route; taxpayers if local funding is needed

Searchable tags: ["cemetery bridge","Sunrise Engineering","UDOT","infrastructure","soil study","value engineering","Fountain Green"]