The New Hampshire Department of Transportation has authorized the town of Peterborough to write “letters” to the low bidder of its Main Street Bridge project, with the intent of awarding the firm the contract in January if the town’s proposed special town meeting approves extra funds.
Beck & Bellucci, a construction firm that specializes in bridges, is the low bidder, Town Administrator Rodney Bartlett told Peterborough Selectmen Tuesday night.
Bartlett said Beck & Bellucci are receptive and have extended their bid to accommodate the special town meeting. If the special town meeting goes as planned on Jan. 15 the bid could be approved by the end of the month, he said.
“It does push our schedule off a little bit as you can imagine, but they’re still hopeful to begin in May,” Bartlett said.
The two-year project was scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2021 and if started in May would be set to conclude by the end of 2021, he said.
Peterborough Selectmen discussed the proposed special town meeting to ask voters to increase spending on the Main Street Bridge reconstruction project by $1.4 million, from $6.6 million to $8 million, at a public hearing Tuesday night. Out of the $8 million total project costs, the town would be responsible for $1.6 million, Bartlett said.
May Town Meeting approved $6.6 for the project in a 270 to 14 vote in 2018. However, that amount needs to pay for both the construction costs and the administrative costs of the project, Bartlett said.
“Even into this summer the estimate of probable costs – the engineers, the construction estimate – was still at $5.5 million. So we felt pretty comfortable with a 20 percent buffer, but in fact that wasn’t enough,” Bartlett said. “The bids were opened on Oct. 30. The actual bid for the construction of the bridge was $6.596 million. And that number doesn’t include the construction administration that’s associated with the almost two-year project. So for us to move forward we needed a special town meeting. We need to prove that it’s an emergency. … And the article will fund construction administration and all the things that go with it and a contingency for a total request for $1.4 million.”
The requested $1.4 million includes a contingency to avoid having to ask voters for more money at another special town meeting if the project goes over budget again. The town is responsible for 20 percent or $240,000 of those additional funds.
“We’ve drafted a warrant article that has been reviewed by bond council. The gross appropriation we are looking for is $1.4 million,” Bartlett said. “Of that 80 percent is federal highway money, 20 percent is town money.”
While the special town meeting would cost the town between $1,000 and $1,500 to hold, according to Bartlett, securing the extra funds from voters is vital if the town doesn’t want to jeopardize the already authorized federal funds that are paying for 80 percent of the project. Bartlett said the special town meeting is proposed to be held on Jan. 15, but before setting the date the town needs approval from the Superior Court, which will hear the request in Manchester on Jan. 2 at 9 a.m.
“Hopefully, we’ll get an answer from the judge at that point,” Bartlett said.