West Burlington Officials say that a mishandled bid process may have been the reason that a low project bid came in at almost twice the amount estimated by engineers.
The five lots that the City of West Burlington carved out of the space formerly occupied by the Old Public Works Building have been sold with the promise that the City would install water and sewer systems on the property. Engineers with French, Reneker Associates of Fairfield originally came in at $34,500 for the project, but the low bid came in at $64,275.
French, Reneker Associates Engineer Matt Walker told the West Burlington City Council that one of the reasons the bid came in so high is because the Council listed the bids for Water and Sewer Services separately, and the companies were taking into account having to work around other crews and included methods not originally in the engineer’s estimate.
City Administrator Dan Giffords says that the City will re-bid the project.
