County Community Crossings bid comes in well over budget

It was bad enough news that the Putnam County Highway Department received only one bid for asphalt work for this summer.

When the county commissioners opened the bid Monday morning, the news got even worse.

The lone bid from Wabash Valley Asphalt of Terre Haute came in at $1.62 million for the five approved Community Crossings projects.

That’s $290,000 over the $1.33 million estimate on which the application for state funding was based.

Community Crossings is a program through which the Indiana Department of Transportation will fund 75 percent of the estimated cost of pre-approved projects for a county the size of Putnam.

With Putnam County approved for the cap figure of $1 million, the $1,621,945.34 bid from Wabash Valley would leave the county on the hook for $621,945.34, rather than the $333,333.33 of the original estimate.

It was clear things were headed in the wrong direction when the first project, repaving Albin Pond/Rangeline/Right-of-Way roads from Greencastle to Fillmore, came in at $619,558.16, far exceeding Highway Supervisor Mike Ricketts’ estimate of $487,000.

Wabash Valley’s bids for the various Community Crossings projects are as follows:

• Right-of-Way Road: $619,558.16

• Shortcut Road/500 North (Monroe Township): $385,790.65

• Poland Road (500 and 550 West in Washington Township): $303,706.31

• County Road 475 East (Marion Township) : $111,317.39

• Broad Park Road (1000 East in Jefferson Township): $201,572.83

The Community Crossings roads are only a part of the county’s paving plans for the year.

Other estimates submitted by Wabash Valley — again, the only bidder — included Butler Road (Washington), $133,411.19; Russellville Road (Russell), $38,955.27; Groveland Road (Floyd), $124,309.02; Reelsville School Road (Washington), $119,904.76; Houck Covered Bridge Road (Washington), $131,186.93; and Bridge 305 (1050 North in Jackson), $29,675.25.

All told, that would be just shy of $2.2 million spent just on paving about 15 miles of roadway, leaving limited money for roads that need maintenance besides complete repaving.

“We were shooting for spending about $2.3 million to do all the work, chipping and sealing included,” Commissioner Rick Woodall told the Banner Graphic.

What comes next is unclear. The county could choose to accept the bids but that means either paving fewer roads or getting money from some other source within the county budget.

“If it’s too high, we can always re-bid it,” Ricketts offered during the meeting.

What’s perplexing about the original bid process, though, is why Wabash Valley was the only bidder.

In 2018, Dave O’Mara Contractor, based in North Vernon but with a plant in Brazil, did much of the county’s paving work. O’Mara’s asphalt bid was lower than that of Wabash Valley, and county officials spoke highly of the quality of the paving.

Although O’Mara did not bid specifically on the Community Crossings projects, that does not preclude the county from using the company for other paving jobs in 2019.