By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
A $50,000 supplement is expected to be added to the engineering design for the North Vine Street Corridor roundabout project.
Hays city commissioners Thursday night reviewed the addition to the May 25, 2018 contract for a little more than $396,000 with WSP engineers, Lenexa.
“Due to the uncertainty of the requirements for right of way and easement acquisition at the time, the original scope and fee did not include services related to right of way acquisition,” explained John Braun, the city’s project engineer. “Now that design has progressed to a point where the necessary right-of-way and easements have been defined, WSP has provided a supplement to the original agreement.”
Under the supplement agreement, WSP, assisted by Driggs Design, Hays, will provide an temporary and permanent overview maps, individual tract maps and legal description for each of the 35 tracts, temporary field staking of tracts and permanent monumentation of each, certificates of title, and any plan design changes that may result following right-of-way negotiations.
“This is not an unplanned supplement,” pointed out Commissioner James Meier. “This was planned and done so to save money in the long run.”
“We would have paid significantly more if we had done it upfront before the entire scope of the project was known,” confirmed Toby Dougherty, city manager.
According to Jacob Wood, assistant city manager, some of the right-of-way property acquisitions will be a few feet, while some will be a little larger. “It’s kind of everything around the edges of each roundabout that’s not included in the current right-of-way,” Wood explained.
Commissioners will vote on the supplemental engineering contract at their April 25 meeting.
The city received 30% of the roundabouts design plan last month and research is underway by an appraiser for the property that will be required.
In August, the city will have 90% of the design plan. By November, Braun expects the right-of-way acquisitions to be “all wrapped up with utility clearances out of the way.”
By the end of this year, the entire completed plan is scheduled to be submitted to the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) for an anticipated April 2020 KDOT bid letting, allowing for construction to begin in June or July 2020.
Plans are to build two-lane traffic roundabouts on Vine Street at 32nd/33rd, 37th, and 41st Streets, plus a teardrop roundabout at the eastbound Interstate 70 exit ramp.
The total project is an estimated $9 million. Early last December, the city was awarded a $6 million federal grant for construction.
The remainder of the project cost will be paid through a two percent increase in the Transient Guest Tax (TGT). It went into effect Oct. 1, 2018, and is projected to raise $6.2 million over 20 years.