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Cascade Charter Township approves $36,000 change order for Burton Street pedestrian bridge geotechnical work
Summary
The township board approved a $36,000 change order to fund additional soil borings required by state permit reviewers after the bridge alignment moved; the engineer said the work is necessary to complete MDOT permitting and keep the project on track for bidding next winter.
The Cascade Charter Township Board on Dec. 11 approved a $36,000 change order to pay for additional geotechnical soil borings for the Burton Street pedestrian bridge after state permitting requirements forced the project alignment to shift.
Engineer Eric Thorn told trustees that MDOT and EGLE reviewers required new borings once the bridge alignment was pushed south because earlier soil borings were no longer valid. "Effectively, what it did is it took geotechnical data we already had, and now we need to collect about twice as much as we thought," Thorn said. He described the additional borings as necessary for the MDOT right-of-way permit and continued permit processing.
A resident who spoke during public comment raised concerns about whether the project could still be completed with state grant funds after the redesign and noted the township has already spent significant sums on the earlier design. The resident said paperwork he read mentioned $66,000 for bore sampling; Thorn and staff presented the change-order amount to the board as an additional $36,000 to the previously discussed geotechnical budget.
Thorn said design changes were used to control costs (reducing span length from about 220 feet to about 210 feet and trimming width from 14 to 12 feet) and that the project estimate had been near $3.5 million. He said the team hopes to advertise the project in winter for a spring letting and to complete construction by the end of next year if permitting proceeds.
Trustee Shipley moved to approve the change order; Trustee Rizzi supported the motion and the board voted in favor. The board did not record a separate roll-call tally in the transcript beyond the motion carrying.
Next steps: the engineer said the additional geotechnical work will be completed to support the MDOT permit application and then the project will move toward bidding.
