BERLIN – Plans for improvements to Gay Street moved ahead this week as town officials selected a contractor for the project.
On Monday the Berlin Town Council agreed to approve a contract with Goody Hill Groundwork Inc. for the Gay Street watermain project.
“We’re going to try to get it finished as early in the summer months as we possibly can,” Town Administrator Laura Allen said.
Planning for improvements to Gay Street has been underway for several months. As town officials prepared to connect utilities to the new mixed-use building on Gay Street, they realized the street’s watermain needed to be replaced. Because the watermain replacement entails digging a trench down the road, officials decided to incorporate street and sidewalk repairs into the project.
The overall cost was estimated at slightly more than $200,000. Josh Taylor of Davis Bowen & Friedel said the town received three bids for the work.
“Two of the bids came in over that, one bid came under that,” he said. “We were lucky that the bid was from a local trusted contractor we were comfortable with.”
The low bid of $178,550, submitted by Goody Hill Groundwork, was the bid Taylor recommended the town accept.
“It’s a good solid number,” Taylor said, adding that he’d walked the site with the contractor. “I know they are aware of what it’s going to take to do it.”
Councilman Zack Tyndall asked whether the work would include widening the street where possible, something suggested by residents at a meeting about the project last month. Taylor said that the street would be widened where possible, in some areas by just a few inches but in other areas by as much as a few feet. He said that once the work was complete the entire street would be a minimum of 20 feet wide.
Councilman Thom Gulyas asked how much the work would impact the businesses on Gay Street.
“We’re going to schedule it around their schedules,” Taylor said.
He added that the bulk of the work would involve a two-foot trench along one edge of the street.
“It’s not like we’re digging a big hole down the middle of the road,” he said.
Construction is expected to begin in May and should take five weeks to complete.
