Government Way project will wait

COEUR d’ALENE — A robust work environment this spring has resulted in back-burner status for a major city road project.

Widening the north-to-south Government Way thoroughfare in the northeast portion of Coeur d’Alene, near Dalton Gardens, will have to wait until next year, the city announced this week.

The work to add two lanes in the Government Way corridor from Hanley Avenue to Prairie Avenue near the Silver Lake Mall was put on hold after the city learned it had only received one bid to do the work, and the bid was $1.4 million higher than the projected cost of $4,236,248.

City officials said a vigorous construction season is partly to blame for the delay.

“Contractors aren’t hurting for work, business is booming for them,” said Sam Taylor, Coeur d’Alene assistant city administrator. “That’s fantastic news for them, but it does increase the prices that local contractors need to get the project done.”

Contractors had a 30-day window to bid on the work that included two travel lanes in each direction as well as a center turn lane, the addition of sidewalks, bike lanes, new sewer lines, improvements to the Dalton Water Association system and stormwater improvements, Taylor said.

The contract required having the bulk of the work done during this season that usually ends in November.

“That’s a pretty fast schedule,” he said.

Odo Grandi of the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council, which administers the federal funding for the work, said few bidders translates into a surplus of work.

“Usually when you don’t see a lot of (bids) it’s an indicator that people do have work,” Grandi said.

An increase in construction is also evident in the building trades, said Larry Jeffries of the Division of Building Safety, which inspects and certifies builders and projects.

“It’s as busy or busier than last year,” Jeffries said. “Last year was the biggest increase from the last five years.”

The lone bidder, T. LaRiviere, Inc. of Coeur d’Alene, is already working on the Seltice Way project, another major city improvement that started more than a month ago. Another contractor submitted a bid that came in after the deadline, city engineer Chris Bosley said. He attributed the lack of bidders to the vibrant season and the belatedness of the call for bids. By late May, most contractors had already filled their calendars.

The project will be rebid this fall, Bosley said, allowing contractors more time to plan the project for 2018.

“Contractors will be looking to load up work for next summer, so we will probably get better bids,” he said.

And the work could potentially proceed as soon as weather permits in the spring, he said.

In the mean time, Avista and Frontier will continue work in the right of way, moving power poles and laying a gas line, Bosley said.