ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 19, 1996 TAG: 9601190044
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
The good news: the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors will be asked Monday to approve a contract that could get construction of the first three miles of the Huckleberry Trail extension rolling this spring.
The not-so-good news: the low bid is 6.8 percent, or $23,400, higher than expected. That and flawed cost estimates for the second phase mean there may not be enough grant money to pay for all of the remaining 2.25 miles, even with a new federal grant awarded late last year.
The Huckleberry Trail is a planned six-mile link between the New River Valley Mall in Christiansburg and downtown Blacksburg. It generally will follow the path of an old railway spur that once carried students to Virginia Tech and coal from Merrimac anthracite mines.
The bid-and-estimate situation means Huckleberry Trail supporters either will have to go back to the county and town governments for more money, or will have to launch a fund-raising drive to finish the job.
Longtime Huckleberry advocate Bill Ellenbogen said his nonprofit corporation, Friends of the Huckleberry Trail, would be there to raise more private money if necessary. "We're way too far into it now," he said. "I'm certain that we will find the funds needed to finish the project."
Lance Terpenny, head of the intergovernmental Huckleberry Engineering Committee, which is coordinating the construction, said it is too early to be overly concerned about second-phase estimates. "I'm confident that we'll find the money somehow, somewhere," said Terpenny, who is the assistant town manager in Christiansburg.
Montgomery County opened four bids Jan. 11 for construction of the first, 3.2-mile extension of the six-mile Huckleberry rails-to-trails project. The low bid, by L.H. Sawyer Paving Co. Inc., of Salem, was $366,576. The other bids were: C.R. Meador General Contractors of Pulaski, $472,805; H.T. Bowling Inc. of Radford, $527,488; DLB Inc. of Hillsville, $540,463.
On Wednesday, the Huckleberry Engineering Committee recommended the Board of Supervisors accept the Sawyer bid. The board will consider that at its 7 p.m. Monday meeting. If Montgomery approves the bid, then it would go to the Commonwealth Transportation Board next month for consideration.
Aside from the low bid coming in higher than expected, a flawed cost estimate included in the original, 1993 federal grant application may increase the cost of the second phase, which will reach from Merrimac Road to the New River Valley Mall.
The original cost estimate included construction costs only for bridges needed in the second part and omitted the cost of designing the bridges, said Jeff Rice, a Montgomery County planner. The difference could be as much as $30,000, he said.
Construction of the first phase, from near Margaret Beeks Elementary School in Blacksburg to Merrimac and Hightop roads near Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital, should be completed within six months after the contract is finally let, meaning late this summer.
Before the second phase can be put out to bid, the Huckleberry Engineering Committee must nail down acquisition of several pieces of right of way. That may be completed by late summer or early fall.
Federal alternative-transportation grants are being used to pay for the bulk of the $900,000 project, which already is being supplemented with private fund raising and money from the local governments.
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