Mason City council re-starts bidding process for Plymouth Road storm water project

MASON CITY — The City Council in Mason City at their meeting last night re-started the process of getting bids for the Plymouth Road Storm Water Mitigation Project after no bids were received.

City Engineer Mark Rahm says bids were due for the project on August 22nd ahead of a public hearing that was scheduled to be held at last night’s council meeting, but no bids were received. He says it’s apparent that the current demand for work around Mason City is resulting in fewer bidders and higher project costs.  “The biggest thing came down to is the timing and the schedule for the project. There’s a lot of work going on right now in Mason City, even though we have a lot of interest shown in our projects, we’re not getting the number of bids that we would typically see.”

The project was scheduled to be completed by November 8th, but that now will have to be extended to May of next year, with a substantial completion date in March prior to the spring thaw and rains. Rahm says they consulted with one contractor about what some of the issues were in the proposal.  “We did have one contractor who asked a series of questions, so we knew there was interest there. After not receiving a bid, which was a little bit of a surprise from that contractor, we went back and talked to them and they explained some of the reasons why they didn’t submit a bid.”

Rahm says the city redirected WHKS to modify the plans and contract documents extending the project contract completion date. The council approved the new schedule, with bids being due on September 24th with a public hearing to be held at the council’s October 1st meeting. The engineer’s opinion of probable cost is $236,350.