Bids were opened for the upcoming Pioneer Drive project in Plymouth during Tuesday night’s Plymouth Redevelopment Commission meeting.
The purpose of the project is to widen a portion of Pioneer Drive in Plymouth to three lanes to accommodate an increase in truck traffic in that area north of U.S. 30 to 7B Road.
Five companies bid on the project with prices ranging from $644,333.05 to $847,199.00 with an alternate bid to deal with dust control. The engineer’s estimate for the project was $872,866.85.
City Engineer Rick Gaul asked that the lowest responsible bidder be given the bid award following his review and when the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is signed between the City of Plymouth and Marshall County. City Attorney Sean Surrisi said the MOU outlines an agreement to use a detour on 7B Road from Pioneer Drive to Oak Road for the project.
“We’ll be detouring onto county roads and how we will cooperate with them and make sure everything is fine and we’re not damaging the road and assess the road ahead of time to see what life it has left in it and things like that,” explained Surrisi.
The board approved a motion to allow Gaul’s bid recommendation to go before the Plymouth Board of Public Works and Safety members for approval next week.
In addition, an agreement was approved with Lochmueller Group for $52,800 for a full-time inspector for the two-month project. The inspector will also look at the detour route on 7B Road to monitor wear and tear on the road with the increase in traffic, especially semi truck traffic.
The project is anticipated to begin in July with substantial completion in September.
