County ponders options as Dale Drive blows budget

Published 2:00 pm Monday, June 5, 2023

The Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors is weighing its options after a highly anticipated bridge replacement project along Dale Drive came in over budget.

In a meeting Monday, Road Manager Rush Mayatt said Joe McGee Construction is the only bidder on the project at a cost of more than $1.7 million. That figure well exceeds the engineering estimate of $1.2 million, he said.

The Dale Drive project, which includes replacing the bridge just south of the Hamasa Temple Shrine in Marion and three-laning Dale Drive from the bridge to the four-way stop at the intersection with Lindley Road, is being funded by the Mississippi Department of Transportation through the Emergency Road and Bridge Repair program. The county was notified last fall it was awarded $1.1 million in ERBR funds for the work.

An alternate project was also included in the bid documents that will restructure the four-way stop in Marion into a roundabout. That cost is not included in the $1.7 million bid.

One of the biggest drivers of the cost is asphalt pricing, Mayatt said. The bridge itself came in at a reasonable $683,000, but the asphalt is more than $400 per ton, Mayatt said.

“That’s the highest number I’ve ever heard in my life,” he said.

Under normal circumstances, the county could take a step back and look for more funding to make up the difference, Mayatt said, but in this case, there isn’t a lot of time. The original purpose of the project is to address the bridge, which is deteriorating rapidly and won’t last much longer.

“Long story short, you don’t have time to wait. The bridge is failing,” he said. “It’s in bad shape, and it needs to be replaced. If you have to set aside the three-lane and all that other stuff, that’s what you’ve got to do.”

Mayatt said the next step for the county will be to write a letter to MDOT explaining materials and other costs have risen above what the county has budgeted and recommending things to take out of the project to bring the cost down.

It will be up to MDOT to decide whether or not to allow the county to change the project or if the level of funding should be reduced along with the project.

Supervisor Wayman Newell said he hoped MDOT would take the rising costs of materials into consideration when deciding whether or not to allow changes to the project.

Of course, Mayatt said, there is also the possibility the contractor will back out if the project is cut too much as reducing the overall size of the project also reduces its profitability. The county’s contract, which is included in the bid paperwork, does give the county the right to reduce the project, but that doesn’t mean the contractor has to agree.

Supervisor Jonathan Wells said the county had hoped to see more competition for the Dale Drive project after hearing on Thursday a total of 14 contractors had picked up bid packets. State and local governments, however, are inundated with federal dollars from COVID-19 stimulus spending, he said, and contractors have no shortage of work.