[A] tricky Burlington intersection that forces bagel buyers to squeeze into oncoming traffic will soon get a makeover.
The Board of Finance this week approved a proposal to improve an intersection in the South End, even though the lowest bid was nearly $100,000 above the city’s estimate.
The board determined it was more beneficial to begin the work than to wait for another construction season and the potentially lower bids that might come with it.
The $287,000 project will add a fourth access point to the three-way intersection. Currently, there is no traffic signal facing drivers as they exit Feldman’s Bagels at Pine Street and Lakeside Avenue. Drivers are stuck waiting to exit or pull directly into oncoming traffic, creating an accident hazard, city officials say.
Two private concerns that stand to benefit from the reconstructed intersection and new traffic light are kicking in enough to shave off some of the unexpected overages: Pomerleau Real Estate and Champlain College.
City figures pegged the project at $189,000 initially, before it went out to bid two weeks ago.
Only two contractors sent in bids in the short turnaround time since then, and the high bidder’s quote was nearly $200,000 above the city’s estimate. But because the project has been listed as high priority by the Public Works Department, it will go ahead immediately. If approved by the City Council next week the contract will go to All Seasons Excavating, which expects the intersection to be finished by Jan. 8.
Construction could start as soon as this month, once awards and notices are filed, the site is insured and crews are put to work, city engineer Norman Baldwin told the Board of Finance.
The city consultant who submitted the $200,000 estimate, may have underestimated the cost of the project because of unique issues with the site, Baldwin said.
“With Feldman’s – where you have an actual structure that’s right in the middle of where you’re putting a new structure, and it’s a fairly substantial structure – it adds complications to how the project would advance and how it would be phased,” said Baldwin, referring to the mast arm that will support the new traffic signal. Pedestrians further complicate the site’s demands, he said.
“You have a sidewalk that’s kind of bisecting the project along the east side of the corridor, and you have students walking to school. So there’s a significant amount of traffic control that probably the estimator didn’t take into consideration in the complexity of the project,” he said.
Pomerleau and Champlain are kicking in a combined $66,206 – or 23 percent – toward the cost. Champlain’s portion of $10,000 was held in escrow as a condition of the college’s building at 175 Lakeside Ave.
City Council President Jane Knodell asked the Public Works representatives Monday how they managed to glean private funds for a public-private project.
Pomerleau first contacted the city about fixing the approach, then, “We worked cooperatively, together,” Baldwin said.
“So how do we, as Board of Finance, know it’s the right number?” she said, citing the amount Pomerleau had agreed to contribute.
Baldwin said a city engineer had developed the figure of Pomerleau’s contribution by looking at line items that benefit the bagel shop site.
“They shouldn’t be just like, ‘This is what we worked out,’ I mean, it needs to be based on some objectives,” Knodell said. Baldwin assured her it was.
Karen Paul, a councilor for Ward 6, said she’s glad the private money was pulled together.
“I’m delighted as you are,” she told Baldwin at the meeting. “Congratulations to whomever was able to do that. I’ve been at that intersection a number of times. I don’t even know if you can call it an intersection, because it’s so … weird,” she said. “It’s very weird, it’s very awful, and it’s very hard to get out of that parking lot.”
Mayor Miro Weinberger, who spoke little during the hearing, said he was impressed by the design that was being planned.
“There’s one complication sort of implied in that description,” he said, citing the final memo on the project. “You were able to do some really creative things with the abutting Parks and Recreation land, to allow an improvement in the alignment,” he said, describing a ball park near the intersection, running north to Locust Street.
“At this point I’m inclined to think we should move forward,” he said.
