Construction bids for the Maplecrest Road extension came in a third under estimates and are expected to free up property tax dollars for other bridge work.
Indiana Department of Transportation officials opened bids for the project Wednesday in Indianapolis. The new road will connect Lake Avenue with Indiana 930 in New Haven.
Local firm Primco Inc. offered the apparent low bid of $28.7 million. Engineers estimated the cost to build the four-lane road, with four bridges spanning the Maumee River and Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, would be $44 million, County Commissioner Linda Bloom said.
Relocating utilities, construction inspection and contingency funds will add an additional $9 million to the project for a total cost of about $38 million, Bloom said.
When the county commissioners asked the County Council to approve a bond for the project in 2008, the project was expected to max out at $53 million.
“I’m extremely pleased,” Bloom said of the bid results. “This gives a local company the bid. It’s great for the local economy.”
She said officials will have to research whether the county can pay off the $25 million bond early. The county issued the bond in mid-October to City Securities Corp. with a 4.32 percent interest rate.
Bloom said the county needed to have the money before the project was awarded. Any delays in borrowing or hiring a construction company would have made the project more expensive, Bloom said.
Allen County pledged a mix of funds to pay for the large project, which has been on transportation planning maps since the 1960s.
An existing property tax that pays for constructing and maintaining bridges will be used to repay the bond.
Any future property taxes generated from new or expanded industrial businesses in the area of Indiana 930 and Adams Center Road could eventually be used to supplement those bridge tax dollars. The county created a special taxing district in the area to capture those new tax dollars.
The county has $9 million currently available in the bridge fund plus another $9 million in federal dollars. New Haven, Fort Wayne and Norfolk Southern all agreed to chip in.
A less-expensive project means the revenue from the special taxing districts isn’t as crucial, County Council President Roy Buskirk said.
The county will spend the bond funds first and spend less money from the bridge fund. That will free up those bridge dollars for other projects, Auditor Lisa Blosser said.
“We can put the rest of that money to good use,” Blosser said.
The county maintains 368 bridges of various sizes countywide. A lack of funding has created a backlog of bridge-repair projects and spurred a two-year debate over how to pay for construction and maintenance.
A new state law allows Allen County to maintain all local bridges with the bridge fund. Because of a deal with local cities and towns, a portion of the countywide wheel tax and surtaxes will maintain bridges shorter than 200 feet through 2017. After that, those smaller spans will fall under the bridge tax.
Some preliminary construction work for the Maplecrest extension is set to begin this winter. The project is set to wrap up by the fall of 2012.
As the county finishes extending Maplecrest Road, Fort Wayne will begin widening the street north of Lake Avenue, said David Ross, city engineer.
The $4 million construction project will widen Maplecrest between Lake and State Boulevard, although Ross said it has not yet been determined whether the expansion will be two lanes in each direction – the street’s width at State. The area transportation plan for 2030 calls for Maplecrest to be four lanes for its entire length.
The Fort Wayne Board of Public Works on Wednesday approved a coordination contract with the state for project design, which will cost the city $105,000.
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Benjamin Lanka of The Journal Gazette contributed to this story.
