Columbus has approved what could be the last change orders for the west-side railroad overpass.
The Columbus Board of Works and Public Safety has approved three change orders for the overpass project. One was an additional $220,000 and one was a negative change order of about $1.23 million, with a third at zero cost. City Executive Director of Public Works and City Engineer Dave Hayward said that he believes these to be the final change orders for the project.
“As a total for the entire project, they are 0.79% above the original bid amount,” said Hayward. “… Anything less than 5% is very good.”
The $220,000 change order was for an incentive payment to Milestone Contractors, the Indiana Department of Transportation contractor for the overpass project. He explained that INDOT’s contract with Milestone was set up so that they would receive bonus payments if work was finished more quickly than usual and face penalties if deadlines were missed.
“In this case, Milestone, the contractor on the project, hit those dates and advanced beyond those,” he said. “So they are doing an incentive payment of $220,000 for the project in total.”
For the negative change order of about $1.23 million, Hayward said that INDOT itemizes contracts, balances out each bid item and sums the items up.
“They’re under contract by $1,230,887.85,” he said.
Hayward added that the next phase of the project, which is mostly landscaping, begins this year. INDOT will open bids next month, he said, and the hope is for landscaping to be done in the spring, though some of the work might also take place in the fall.
The overpass opening was celebrated in an official ribbon cutting ceremony this past fall. The project was jointly funded by INDOT, the city of Columbus, Bartholomew County, Cummins Inc. and the Louisville & Indiana and CSX railroads.
The project was developed in response to a projected increase in railroad traffic on the Louisville & Indiana Railroad tracks. Hayward has said in the past that most project costs are being shared 50-50. INDOT agreed to pick up half of the total cost, while the city, along with other partners, picked up the other half of the tab.
The city has partnered with Cummins, Bartholomew County and the Louisville & Indiana and CSX Railroads to defray around half of the local funding requirements in the interlocal agreement, city officials have said.
The railroad has leased its tracks running through Columbus to CSX, which is expected to result in an increase in train traffic, train speed and delays at intersections involving rail crossings through the city, with the State Road 46/State Road 11 intersection expected to have the most delayed local traffic.
