City awards Main Street Bridge project to Newton contractor

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

The Main Street Bridge has witnessed plenty of traffic cross its deck in the time it’s spanned the Cedar River in downtown Charles City.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, the 250-foot-long spandrel-arch bridge has been a fixture in the community for well over a century.

City leaders feel it is time the structure receives a bit of a facelift and possibly a fresh coat of paint.

The purpose of the project is to extend the life of the bridge without compromising the historic integrity, according to City Engineer John Fallis.

The City Council approved the final plans to fix cracks and lift the road surface of the 1910-built bridge at Monday’s regular meeting. Two bids were received on the project that will inject more than 10,000 pounds of polyurethane material into its concrete arches.

Borings have determined that the fill in the arches has settled and needs to be solidified. This process will lift the pavement to maintain drainage into the intakes.

The contract was awarded to Jasper Construction, Newton, for a base bid of $280,000.

Henkel Construction of Mason City bid $328,000.

Calhoun Burns, the engineer on the project, estimated the cost of the work to be $260,000 and $55,000 for cleaning, preparing and painting the bridge.

A separate add alternate bid to paint the bridge came in at almost $115,000 by Jasper Construction. Henkel’s bid for the paint job was $104,000.

Fallis said it was the city staff’s recommendation to not go ahead with the paint project as it was not worth the bid price to have that aesthetic work done.

Council member Phoebe Pittman suggested working with a company that specializes in painting such structures in order to receive a more reasonable bid in cost.

“I think that’s the way to proceed,” said Fallis.

Council member Jerry Joerger said while many who pass over the bridge do not notice the paint flaking off, the deterioration of its overall appearance is discernible from other vantage points.

“If you’re down by Bayou Bend and look down river at it, it looks ugly,” said Joerger. “I agree, this is an extreme amount of money. I think it’s something we might want to look at if we find a separate painter to do that.”

Repair work includes revetment stone being placed on the upstream side at the north pier and northwest wing wall to reduce erosion in those areas. Cracked concrete will be repaired and concrete joints in the storm sewer intakes will also be sealed.

“Those repairs are really needed for the continued service life of the bridge,” said Fallis.

Fallis said work on the bridge would begin sometime this summer and there is a provision in the contract for construction to not take place during the Fourth of July, when the bridge is used by the city for its fireworks display.

Council also approved preliminary plans and specs for the $1.1 million hot mix asphalt paving project that will involve overlaying and reconstructing pavement on Clinton, Cedar, South Jackson and Second streets in town.

That contract was awarded to Heartland Asphalt for a bid of $1,158,285. The engineer’s estimated probable cost of the paving project was $1.32 million.

“They’re a quality contractor. We’ve done a lot of work with them. They’ll be here time and again,” said Fallis.

The bid contained two separate add alternates that were also approved. Those two bids would reconstruct the parking lot at the Charles City Public Library ($94,000) and resurface the Sportsmen’s Park tennis courts ($115,000).

City Administrator Steve Diers said that the Charles City School District is planning on sharing the cost on the resurfacing of the tennis courts with the city at a 50/50 split.

Fallis said work on the street projects could start sometime early in the summer.

The city’s budget process is now complete after all council members voted to approve the approximately $30 million budget.

“Well, we made it,” said Diers. “It was a good process and we had a lot of tough decisions. We got a good budget put together.”

This year’s total list of expenditures is markedly lower than last year’s $40 million dollar budget because of the fiber-to-the-home project. The budget was passed for fiscal year 2020 at $40.25 million but was later re-estimated at $37.87 million.

“We budgeted the fiber-to-the-home project and that’s $13 million that would have been in last year’s budget that’s not in this year’s budget,” said Diers. “It’s a telecom project. It will be in the telecom expenditures and budget when that actual project happens.”

The city’s total revenues and other sources are $28.65 million and the total of all expenditures and transfers out amounted to $29.98 million.

The proposed city property tax levy rate increased 12 cents from $15.90 to $16.02 per $1,000 of taxable valuation.

The council also approved a resolution to approve the preliminary plans, contract documents and notice of hearing to bidders for the Housing Department’s parking lot and sidewalk improvement projects.

Proposed work would entail repair to sidewalks that would eliminate tripping hazards at South Cedar Terrace. Sidewalks would be ground down, poly-lifted and replaced. Some of the parking areas would also be improved with an overlay.

The project calls for 427 linear feet of concrete grinding and 361 square yards of removing and replacing concrete. According to plans, 1,835 square yards of asphalt milling and overlay work would be done.

The two new parking lots at North Cedar Terrace would be an add alternate bid and also include lot expansion.

The parking lot would add an additional 26 parking spaces. Currently there are about 38 parking spaces for off-street parking and that total would increase to 64 spots with construction of new lots. There are 52 apartments at North Cedar Terrace.

Council members renewed a lease agreement with T-Mobile so it could use the Corporate Drive Water Tower for the location of a cell phone antenna. The new contract is for 15 years and starts out with the city receiving $1,600 a month from the cell phone provider. That rate can be increased by 15% after the first five years and once again in the 10th year of the contract.