By Jim Bloch
The city of St. Clair recently approved building a new section of bike trail that will lead riders from the main trail along Carney Drive into the city’s downtown along the north side of Clinton Ave.
At its regular meeting June 19, the city council approved a $635,473 contract with the Michigan Department of Transportation for the hot mix asphalt trail. The project includes station grading, aggregate base, storm sewer work and sidewalk and ramp replacement.
The new trail extension will close one of the gaps in the 54-mile Bridge to Bay Trail System identified by the regional trail board.
The project has been a long time coming.
“This has been a project that … started in the early months of 2021 when the Community Foundation contributed $50,000 for some engineering and design work to be completed,” said City Superintendent Quentin Bishop, as heard on the recording of the meeting posted on YouTube. “Since that time, it has been bid, it was put into a holding pattern, it was recently re-bid… The total project cost is to reach $985,242 of which the MDOT grant has increased from about $475,000 to $635,473, leaving a match requirement of just under $350,000. Of that, the Ralph Wilson Foundation and the community foundation has contributed $352,000, leaving a carryover balance of $2,231.”
The city’s match will be about $87,000, which will pay for construction administration to see that the work is completed, inspected and that quality control measures are put into place.
“That $87,000 is coming from the general fund?” asked council member Mitch Kuffa.
“Yes,” said Bishop. “It’s been set aside since 2021 and re-budgeted every year.”
Council member Kris Paul asked if the contract contained a contingency amount.
“MDOT jobs are a little bit different the way they’re bid,” said Ryan Kern, an engineer with Anderson, Epstein and Westrick. “The local jobs we have, we usually put a 10 percent contingency on those projects. MDOT doesn’t allow that. But we do put fluff into the quantities … That’s kind of the contingency in the project — there’s extra quantities in there.”
“Is your fluff going to be enough to cover (the cost) if we go over?” asked Mayor Pro Tem Mike LaPorte.
“I believe it will be,” said Kern.
“About what percentage of fluff do we have?” asked Kuffa.
“It’s from five to 10 percent on each quantity,” said Kern.
“Hopefully, we’ll have some fluff left over,” said Paul.
The resolution passed 6-1. Council member Jon Watt voted against the project.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.