Under-budget bid received for Rolling Hills intersection project in Peters Township
Peters Township Council plans to vote March 9 on awarding a contract to address a major infrastructural factor at the site of the former Rolling Hills Country Club.
According to township manager Paul Lauer, a low bid of $2.379 million has been received for what officially is known as Rolling Hills Transportation Improvements – Phase 2, the construction of a new road and signalized intersection allowing access from East McMurray Road. The cost is split between the municipality and Peters Township School District, which has a new high school under construction at the site.
The bid amount, submitted by A. Liberoni Inc. of Plum Borough, is substantially below the $4 million budgeted for the project, Lauer said at council’s Feb. 24 meeting. The company worked on the first phase of Rolling Hills Drive, the new road bisecting the site, of which a substantial portion has been completed.
Township officials have been working with various agencies, including the state Department of Environmental Protection, on receiving permits for Phase 2.
“Based upon our meeting last week with DEP, we are confident that the design this price represents is, in fact, what we’re going to be able to build,” Lauer told council. “I do believe that we’re going to be able to get the permits in place in time enough to get this project under way and hopefully have the project completed as the school opens.”
The school district plans to move from the current high school in January.
Also regarding the Rolling Hills Drive project, council voted to approve an additional payment of $42,900 to HRG, a Harrisburg-based firm that is providing the design and working on securing permitting.
“HRG is not asking for additional funds because of voluminous review comments from regulatory agencies,” Mark Zemaitis, township director of engineering, wrote in a memo to Lauer, as the firm is addressing those issues at no extra cost. “What HRG is contending is that they have done work tasks outside of the original scope of the contract tasks, and they would like to be compensated for this out-of-scope work.”
Total compensation now stands at $353,000, representing 7.7% of the construction cost of $4.6 million, “which is consistent with industry standards,” according to Zemaitis. Again, the cost is split between the school district and township.
The beyond-scope work started in November 2018, with HRG preparing a subdivision plan because the school district needed to show the property had been subdivided to satisfy certain state requirements
Several other facets of work also addressed issues raised by governmental agencies, including $14,500 for a comprehensive environmental assessment that represented the first of its kind in the area under the auspices of the DEP’s Southwest Regional Office.
Also, the original scope of the HRG contract included the design of curb ramps to be in compliance with the Americans With Disability Act. The state Department of Transportation later approved the task being taken out of the scope, but PennDOT’s traffic signal unit later required it be reinserted.