ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 15, 1997 TAG: 9704150053
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS THE ROANOKE TIMES
The low bid was $800,000 to build the final two-mile section of the walking and biking path, but only $450,000 is available.
Work on the Huckleberry Trail's second phase has been knocked off course by construction bids that exceed available funds by almost 80 percent.
Planners have about $450,000 in grant money to complete the trail's remaining 2.2 miles from the intersection of Hightop and Merrimac roads, where it now ends, to the New River Valley Mall.
At a bid opening last week, however, the lowest cost estimate totaled nearly $800,000.
"It certainly looks grim as to whether we'll be able to move forward without some massive changes," said Bill Ellenbogen, president of Friends of the Huckleberry.
Members of the trail's engineering committee decided Monday to head back to the drawing board instead of accepting the bids.
Their alternatives are limited to asking for more public or private money to meet the bids, or rebidding the project later and hope for a lower cost.
Either way, it appears likely that the entire trail won't be completed by November as originally planned.
The trail's second phase will be about one mile shorter than the section already finished yet considerably more challenging to build.
A footbridge designed to stretch more than 100 feet across an active Norfolk Southern rail line will be the most costly construction feature of phase two.
Delays caused by land acquisition and environmental studies between the Merrimac area and the mall had already forced the trail project to be split into two phases. The first 3.2-mile section, from Blacksburg to the Merrimac-Hightop intersection, was completed and opened last year.
So far the Huckleberry Trail has been financed by a combination public and private money. Most of the revenue has come from the federal gas tax generated by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, which has been channeled through the Virginia Department of Transportation.
The trail has received some public money and in-kind services from Blacksburg, Christiansburg and Montgomery County. Local businesses such as Corning and Columbia Montgomery Regional Hospital have also donated funds.
In all, the rails-to-trails conversion project was originally estimated to cost about $1 million. But Ellenbogen said those costs were drawn up about four years ago, during less vigorous economic times.
"Now we're in a boom," he said, and contractors are less hungry for work. The original numbers also don't reflect the influence of inflation.
Phase two construction - which includes grading, paving and bridge construction - received bids from two businesses. H.T. Bowling Inc. of Fairlawn submitted the lowest bid of $793,568, about $50,000 less than the low bid submitted by the contractor that built phase one, L.H. Sawyer Paving Co. of Salem.
It all adds up to bad news for moving ahead with the trail, said Joe Powers, Montgomery County's planning director.
"This is way over what we thought," Ellenbogen said.
Any bid accepted for the project has to be approved by the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors - the trail's designated fiscal agent - and the Commonwealth Transportation Board. Anticipating a negative reaction to the higher bids, trail planners decided to try to rework the bid and to investigate other sources of income.
"If anybody wants to step forward and help us out, that would be great," Ellenbogen said.
It's likely that the bid will be redrawn, pared down and readvertised, although that decision won't be affirmed until the trail's Engineering Committee meets again in two weeks.
LENGTH: Medium: 72 linesby CNB