By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post

Construction on the western portion of Old U.S. 40 in Ellis County took another step forward Monday night when the county commission approved bids for phase one and two of the project.

The first phase of the project from Yocemento to Ellis is mostly considered safety improvements – widening culverts and installing more guard fence, according to Tom Bennet, vice president of BG Consultants. That contract was awarded to Sporer Land Development of Oakley for $609,000.

Phase 2 was awarded to APAC-Kansas for $1.13 million. Bennett said the majority of phase 2 is hot-mix asphalt surfacing.

Both bids came in below the engineer’s estimate, and Bennett said they hope to use the savings from phase 1 to determine the thickness of the asphalt in phase two. The saving from the first two phases would go to pay for three additional alternates.

The major alternate would be a 1-inch asphalt leveling course. Because the cost to mill the current road is expensive, they will instead use the asphalt surfacing and the leveling course to improve the road surface. The leveling course is expected to cost $458,298. It will be approved, by the commission as a change order if funds are available.

The other alternates would be to extend asphalt on side roads to the railroad tracks north, to keep mud from dirt roads being tracked onto the highway. The contractor did the same thing with side roads on the eastern portion of the project, from Toulon to Victoria.

BG Consultants will present the commission with the official contracts to sign later this month. Once they are approved, construction could begin later this year.

In other business, the commission:

• Heard a request from Treasurer Ann Pfeifer to fill two full-time and one part-time positions.

• Met in an executive session with Randal Allen from the Kansas Associations of Counties to discuss non-elected personnel issues. No action was taken.