Sat, Nov 21 2009
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It costs twice as much when private contractors do roadwork compared to the cost of state Department of Transportation workers, but at the height of construction season, there is no way state workers can get all the projects done, a PennDOT spokesman said Tuesday.
The federal stimulus program added $45 million to the $120 million budget for highway projects in the nine-county area in PennDOT's District 3, which includes the Central Susquehanna Valley, according to Rick Mason, spokesman at the district's Montoursville office.
"That's added about 45 new projects this year," Mason said.
That's an increase of about 33 percent over the usual number of projects in the region.
Fortunately, highway contractors were able to handle the extra work, offering competitive bids.
According to Mason, PennDOT county maintenance crews have been working hard as well. Recent night pavement repairs on Routes 11-15 in Hummels Wharf and Monroe Township were accomplished by county crews, for example, and the current paving projects on Driesbach Church Road and the New Berlin Mountain Road in Union County are also county crew projects.
PennDOT district officials determine whether a job will be done in-house or given to contractors, said Ken Klingerman, district contract management engineer at Montoursville.
PennDOT maintenance crews are not trained or equipped to build $50 million bridges or undertake $35 million interstate highway rehabilitations, for example.
According to Wayne Frey, district construction services engineer, "Our maintenance trucks are built to haul salt and plow snow. Our contractors' trucks are built to haul blacktop."
However, Klingerman said, maintenance crews do undertake resurfacing projects. They build smaller bridges, apply seal coats and perform shoulder cutting, crack sealing and pothole patching.
More extensive projects, such as the paving on Route 522 between Selinsgrove and Middleburg, paving on Route 45 west of Lewisburg, and the upcoming extensive rehabilitation of Park Road in Monroe Township are being handled by contractors.
Asked to compare the costs per mile, Mason said side-by-side comparisons are difficult due to several factors.
"There's one cost for seal coating, which is oil and chip, and another for more involved work, such as drainage improvements and guiderail repairs along with repaving," he said.
A typical seal-coat job costs about $10,000 per mile, Mason said, while a full-blown resurfacing project by a contractor may run as much as $180,000 to $250,000 per mile. Resurfacing by county maintenance forces runs from $119,000 to $138,000 per mile.
The Route 522 project, which will also include paving on Route 35 from Selinsgrove to Freeburg, cost about $2.4 million for the entire 9-plus miles, Mason said. That's about $267,000 per mile. On Route 45 in Union County, a 1.5 mile paving project cost $460,000, or about $271,000 per mile.
Among factors affecting the cost is whether the contract requires weekend or night work, Mason said. When the bid documents are prepared, the work parameters are laid out for the bidders, and it's up to them to factor those in the cost.
Sometimes, after a contract has been awarded, the contractor and PennDOT will agree to modify the work schedule.
The recently completed rehabilitation of the Route 11-Water Street underpass area in Northumberland is a good example.
The original document required the contractor to work six days a week, 12 hours a day for three weeks, but at a post-bid conference, in response to community concerns, the contractor proposed to work around the clock to complete the project as quickly as possible. That change was approved, and the work was completed in two weeks.
Neil Smith, general manager of the construction division of Eastern Industries in Winfield, said projects are bid by calculating the amount of time, materials and personnel necessary to complete a job.
"We refer to previous jobs of similar nature and scope," he said.
Smith said bid documents include a completion date, and it's up to the bidders to figure out a work schedule that will meet the completion date. If special conditions, like night or weekend work, are imposed, the contractors are aware of them going in.
According to Klingerman, projects are generally let to the lowest qualified bidder. However, if a contractor fails to submit disadvantaged/minority/women goals, the bid is deemed incomplete, or if the bid is too high and funds are not available to cover it, the bid may be rejected.
After the bid has been accepted, it is sometimes necessary to change some part of the project, and that is done through a change order process, although contractors are not allowed to make changes after the bids have been opened, Klingerman said.
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