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WILKES-BARRE — The city administration chose Borton-Lawson to perform engineering and architectural work on the Solomon Creek wall reconstruction project and will seek council’s approval of a $266,500 contract with the firm.
Borton-Lawson, along with Quad3 of Wilkes-Barre, submitted proposals by the city’s June 6 deadline, said Joyce Morrash Zaykowski, the city’s capital projects program manager.
“We reviewed them. We scored them,” Morrash Zaykowski said Friday.
The contract will be on the agenda for city council’s June 19 public meeting. If it’s approved, Borton-Lawson will get the signed contract the next day, Morrash Zaykowski said. “I expect them to get working by the 21st,” she said.
Borton-Lawson, based in Plains Township, scored higher by 10 points in a review of the proposals, she said. It had previously done a cost analysis that the city included in the refinancing package for a bond issue approved last month by city council.
The new cost increased by $10,000 due to the addition of alternate solutions to do a more cost-effective wall, Morrash Zaykowski said. The other components of the scope of work are:
• Project management
• Design
• Surveying
• Construction drawings
• Utility engineering
• Permitting
• Geotechnical services
• Bid document services
• Construction inspection.
The engineering and architectural services contract will be paid out of the $500,000 Local Share Account grant awarded the city earlier this year from the state.
The goal is to get the bids ready by the end of the year in order for construction to begin next year, Morrash Zaykowski added.
The project, which has been a priority for Mayor Tony George, took on a greater sense of urgency when a portion of the Depression-era wall collapsed last December. He’s sought state and federal assistance for a full-scale reconstruction, but he’s been unable to come up with millions of dollars in funding from those sources and turned to a bond issue to pay for the project, which is estimated to cost $4.4 million.
The city hired a contractor to install a temporary patch on the wall and used a portion of a $125,000 state grant. Morrash Zaykowski said the remaining $99,646 of the grant can be applied to the planned reconstruction.
The project’s cost has dropped by more than $2 million since it was first proposed. The wall collapse last year helped to identify the location of underground utilities and the plans no longer include the acquisition of properties, Morrash Zaykowski said.
Additional studies done through the contract to be awarded could lead to further cost savings, Morrash Zaykowski said. “I’m hoping that the price goes down again.”
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