Contract
awarded
for Andrews
project
Last Updated on 12/4/2008
Published on 9/4/2008
By Meredith Carter
mcarter@gtowntimes.com
"Let's get this started."
That was the consensus at Wednesday's special meeting in Andrews, when four Andrews Town Council members and Mayor Rodney Giles voted to award a $178,041 contract to FBi Construction, Inc., based in Florence, to complete phase one of the Downtown Improvement Project.
Negotiations will be finalized Friday when the formal contract is notarized.
Due to Hurricane Hanna, construction work is scheduled tentatively to begin Monday, and FBi Construction should be finished within two weeks, according to Surfside site planner Reese Boyd, who has trimmed the project budget to $178,041 (including an $18,500 contingency), down significantly from FBi's original $291,753 bid.
"We've tried to massage the numbers so we can come in under budget," Boyd said, who proposed postponing work on two areas along Main Street -- Site C (west of the Main Street/S.C. Highway 41 intersection) and Site E (east of the Main Street/Rosemary Avenue intersection) -- for future grants to cut costs.
Phase one, funded by a $200,000 S.C. Department of Transportation grant and a $50,000 town match, will include extending curb space at the town's major intersections -- S.C. Highway 41 and Rosemary Avenue -- as well as running electrical wires underground, installing new decorative lighting fixtures, traffic and pedestrian crossing signals and handicap ramps and replacing concrete in alleyways with grass strips. The work will encompass a one-block section of Main Street and will require removal of all existing curbs, gutters and sidewalks along this section of Main Street.
The town is working against a tight Sept. 15 deadline, Boyd said, because Andrews cannot apply for a second SCDOT grant until work from the first grant is 50 percent complete.
However, Mike Tyler, project manager with FBi Construction, said he and his men will be able to finish the work by that time.
"I know we are running against the clock," he said, "and we can have it finished."
Tyler also said FBi will offer a one-year guarantee of all work the firm completes, and he added that FBi will work quickly to avoid inconveniencing merchants.
"If the merchants aren't happy, no one's happy," he said, adding that shop owners will be able to park as well as enter/exit their stores during construction.
The extended curbing at the two intersections will cut Main Street's four lanes down to three 12-foot-wide lanes, including a left turn-only lane. This will create a larger pedestrian space and additional parking, Boyd said. DOT must approve these plans, since the roads fall under that agency's jurisdiction.
The town can receive up to three SCDOT grants to complete this project, and all work must be complete by December 2008.
