Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

Cost of replacing 2 bridges keeps going up Bayfield scrambles for street funding

Replacement costs for Bayfield's two bridges on Bayfield Parkway, shown here last spring, have risen sharply since the Town of Bayfield took over their ownership and maintenance in 2011.

Bayfield town trustees are proceeding with plans to replace the two 1930s-era green bridges on Bayfield Parkway despite complications and sharply increasing costs.

Coupled with voter rejection of a town sales tax increase to pay for street-related projects, it's putting a crimp in the town's long-term plans for road maintenance. The sales tax increase would have brought in an estimated additional $260,000 per year.

The cost estimate had been around $3 million to replace the two bridges. On Nov. 18, Town Manager Chris La May reported to the town board that the estimate is now up around $4.77 million, plus design, engineering, and other costs that bring it up to $5.2 million.

Even with a couple of large grants from Colorado Department of Transportation to help with the bridge project, there will be little remaining from the $6.8 million CDOT paid the town in 2011 to take over Highway 160B, now called Bayfield Parkway.

Earlier this fall, La May estimated that around $1.3 million would be left from the $6.8 million by the end of 2015.

But during his Nov. 18 budget presentation, he showed that fund drawn down to $66,000 at the end of 2015.

At the Nov. 18 meeting, town trustees reluctantly approved a request from Bechtolt Engineering for an additional $213,000 for additional design and engineering work, on top of the $536,919 approved in February for the bridge project.

"Bridge prices have gone up significantly in today's market," La May said of the overall project cost increase. "What we thought were conservative estimates were not conservative enough." The additional design work "is to keep the project moving, finalize it so it can go out to bid in July or September next year."

Mayor Rick Smith commented, "I don't see that we have a lot of wiggle room. Let's do it before the costs get any higher and the state finds something else that we have to do."

With voter rejection of the sales tax increase, trustees also discussed ideas for other places to pull money from for street maintenance in the 2015 and future budgets.

La May said, "Based on what's going on with the street fund, I think more discussion is needed on some line items" in the 2015 budget. Trustees are scheduled to approve the budget at their Dec. 2 meeting.

Defeat of the sales tax increase "has caused us to look at things a little differently," La May said, citing the estimated $260,000 that won't be coming in. "The board asked for a Plan B. It will get pretty complex. It will include raising fees and cutting services elsewhere if you want to maintain streets at that level."

The town spent around $200,000 in 2013 and $1.3 million this year on an identified road maintenance backlog, and La May had talked about spending another $800,000 in 2015 to finish off the backlog.

But on Nov. 18, he proposed spending $75,000, with much of that diverted from $58,000 that would otherwise be spent for landscaping in the Bayfield Center business park. La May expects the long-term discussion about road funding won't happen until after the 2015 budget is approved. The budget can be amended later.

La May proposed around $30,000 for crack sealing and $40,000 to $50,000 for sand sealing to prolong the life of some streets that are in relatively good shape.

Trustee Michelle Nelson objected to diverting all of the landscaping money. "I thought it was awesome to get the landscaping done in one year, but it may not be possible," she said. "This has been years and years. Those businesses are still paying on the SID (special improvement district) for landscaping that they should have gotten in the first place."

Property owners in the business park pay a special assessment to pay off the cost of business park infrastructure.

La May said, "It was fund balance that we were going to spend on the business park. We'd love to finish the landscaping and be done with it."

Trustee Ed Morlan commented, "Look at the entire organization (for street funding). We have a $10 million budget covering all kinds of things."

There was talk of cutting some contributions to community service entities such as the Bayfield Family Center and Roadrunner Transit. Funds for some entities are committed through inter-governmental agreements.

Morlan said, "If we commit to the non-profits, we can't reneg" in January after including them in the budget. "This isn't just for next year. It's year after year if we can't get the sales tax approved."

La May added, "If we're going to change structurally what we do, we'll probably have to look at a reduction in force. ... We can find $500 here, $2,000 here, try to accumulate enough for the street projects."

Nelson said, "Take some from the landscaping, but don't take it all."

Bridge complications have included sewer and gas lines attached to the bridges, federal environmental compliance issues, and a plan to include a pedestrian/ bike path extension to the project.

The additional bridge engineering work includes structural design for a bridge over the west overflow channel instead of a concrete box culvert.

Bechtolt said a bridge will be cheaper than a very long multi-cell culvert structure designed to handle 100 and 500 year flows. The original expectation was that the culvert would be cheaper.

Their additional cost also includes redesign for the sewer line so that it flows properly. This is needed because of raising the bridge surface.

The additional cost also includes design for the path itself, environmental mitigation and clearances for the bridges and path, and for an independent peer review of Bechtolt's work, which is not required but apparently improves prospects for state and federal agency approvals.

Bechtolt also provided the higher estimate for the overall project cost, La May said.