By Jim Bloch
The city of Port Huron will spend $73,775 for pavement striping and marking. At its regular meeting June 26, the city council unanimously approved contracts with two companies to do the work.
Lone bidder PK Services, LLC, of Troy, won the $26, 260 contract to stripe the roads. Royalty Pavement Markings, of Carsonville, significantly underbid PK Services to win the marking contract. Royalty submitted a bid of $47,515; PK came in at $99,422.
“The City of Port Huron operates and maintains approximately 43 miles of major streets and 90 miles of local streets,” said City Manager James Freed in his memo to Mayor Pauline Repp and the council. “This service (bid) consists of the painting of 58,344 linear feet of double yellow, 87,912 linear feet of skip yellow, 93,508 linear feet of skip white and 11,088 linear feet of solid white on major streets. Pavement striping is required by law as well as to improve vehicular safety. The bid documents were advertised on the City’s website as well as on the Michigan Inter-governmental Trade Network.”
The city budgeted $45,000 for the striping.
The marking contract is more complicated.
“This service consists of the painting of 27,000 linear feet of crosswalk, 6,240 linear feet of stop bar, 22 each of ‘SCHOOL’, 73 each of arrow, 28 each of combination arrow and 30 each of railroad crossing on both major and local streets,” said Freed in his memo to Repp and the council. “Pavement marking is required by law as well as to improve vehicular and pedestrian safety.”
The city budgeted $75,000 for the work.
Mayor Repp asked how the new contracts compared to past contracts.
“The quantities are relatively the same,” said Eric Witter, head of the department of public works, as heard on the recording of the meeting posted on the city’s website.
The city spent $15,000 for striping in 2022, $10,510 in 2020 and $8,108 in 2018. The city spent $40,000 for marking in 2022; about the same in 2020; and $57,000 in 2018.
Freed noted that city did not bid out the contracts for pavement striping and marking in 2019 and 2021
“2019 was in an effort to move the pavement marking (and striping) from the fall back to spring to get the most longevity out of the markings,” Freed said. “2021 was a result of further evaluation of locations and quantities resulting in a delay of producing bid documents which did not allow enough time for installation.”
Council member Bob Mosurak asked if the downtown parking lots would be painted.
“It’s just streets,” said Witter.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.