Bid schedule set for West Buchanan Street project

The bid schedule for the West Buchanan Street project has been set.

At Tuesday’s Washington City Council meeting, City Administrator Brent Hinson outlined the bid schedule for the project.

The Iowa Department of Transportation will receive, open and announce the bids on June 15 in Ames.

The DOT is receiving the bids because they are funding the bulk of the project with a $1.8 million surface transportation block grant.

The City Council will review the bids and award the project at is July 6 meeting.

The contractor who wins the bid will have 90 working days to complete the project once work begins.

Hinson said that work could begin as early as fall, but the contractor will have the option of selecting a late start date of May 1, 2022, rather than starting work in the fall.

In the meantime, the council set a 6 p.m., June 1 public hearing on the project, where the public will have an opportunity to weigh in on the plans and specifications of the project.

Plans call for an extension of West Buchanan Street from Elm Grove Cemetery to Highway 1.

“This has been an important and carefully planned project for the future of Washington,” Hinson said.

The current business park, off Highway 1, has a 31-foot-wide curb-and-gutter concrete street. That will be extended east from the wastewater plant road.

“We are curving the road,” Hinson said in an interview last month. “That will allow us to have industrial lots on the south side of the roadway. Another reason we put the curve in was that it would not be a straight shot that would be a speed problem.”

Hinson said that part of the vision of the overall project is a nine-acre expansion of Elm Grove Cemetery.

“At the point from where it hits that expansion of Elm Grove, it will go from being a 31-foot-wide curb-and-gutter street to a 38-foot-wide boulevard with a median strip to Avenue E,” he said. “It will be an aesthetic enhancement for Elm Grove.

“With this project, we know we’re making a new front door to Elm Grove. We want to make that beautiful and respectful.”

Speed control is a consideration, Hinson added.

“We’re coming into a residential neighborhood as we get further east,” he said. “It’s going to look great; it’s going to function great; and it’s going to slow traffic down.”

He said the connection will serve people in the southwest part of the city who are traveling to Hy-Vee, Brighton, Fairfield or other parts west.

It will create better access to the high school.

"We think it’ll cut down on speeding and traffic in town, and create and reinforce better traffic patterns around the high school,” Hinson said.