VBT DDA approves $165,200 for district sidewalk repairs

The exceptionally low bid of Merlo Contruction to repair all the sidewalks in the Van Buren Township Downtown Development Authority district was accepted by the DDA on Jan. 26 at its regular meeting via Zoom.
The announced goal for the project is to make the township more walkable.
On Jan. 14, four bids were received for the sidewalk repair/replacement project:
• Merlo Construction, $134,710;
• Audia Concrete Construction, $183,710;
• Lacaria Concrete Construction, $187,855; and
• Davenport Brothers Construction, $215,920.
The project was originally estimated to total about $250,000. After studying the bids received, Wade Trim engineering consultants and DDA Executive Director Susan Ireland recommended the contract be awarded to low-bidder Merlo Construction.
The board also approved a contingency of $13,500 plus $17,000 for Wade Trim professional services for construction engineering, making the total cost not to exceed $165,200.
In her memo to the DDA, Ireland said Wade Trim has extensive experience working with Merlo Construction and Merlo is a well-known contractor in southeast Michigan.
She said Merlo is currently doing the Union Lake Road Sidewalk Project in Harrison Township and the township seems to be pleased with their work. The contractor has the equipment, labor force, and financial capability and can complete the project to the DDA’s satisfaction, Ireland said.
Carmelle Tremblay of Wade Trim said of the four bids one was quite a bit higher. She said they checked the Merlo figures and nothing was out of line. It was very competitive, she said. It was a high-priority bid for them, Tremblay said of Merlo.
DDA Secretary Chris Brown said Merlo gave an “aggressive quote” and they are one of his competitors. “They’re a good competitor,” he said. He noted the three other bidders had their unit prices inflated.
Barbara Miller asked from the Zoom audience about who supervises the work and Ireland said, “That’s what ‘construction engineering’ is.”
Dave Nummer of Wade Trim said the construction engineering they will do includes inspections, field engineering, interacting with residents or businesses along the corridor, estimates for contractors, coordination with the DDA, and a small amount of field staking.
Secretary Brown asked if there is concrete testing and Nummer said Wade Trim has contracted with a concrete tester.
Supervisor Kevin McNamara asked if Wayne County inspects and Nummer said they do if they have time, performing periodic test inspections.
Supervisor McNamara asked, in a related matter, if in such a project they kill the tree when it pushes up a sidewalk. McNamara said sometimes they cut the root and kill the tree when replacing sidewalks and it makes the tree unstable.
Nummer said they don’t want to kill trees. Sometimes they can just trim back the roots. It’s on a case-by-case basis, he said.
The DDA also approved for next season the holiday lights at Harris Park and Belleville/Quirk roads as they were done in 2020 by Grosse Ile Lawn. The DDA paid $9,429 and Grosse Ile was the bidder that came in with the most lights and service, Ireland said. Grosse Ile is offering to give the DDA a 10% discount for next season if they sign up now.
Decorating light poles?
Ireland said she also got some comments on putting decorations on the light poles along the streetscape but, “I can’t imagine how much it would cost to do 76 poles.” She said it’s not as simple as the decorations they had this year.
“I don’t like leasing things that you will be using every year,” McNamara said after that was suggested for the light pole decorations. “Leasing for two miles of roadway scares the heck out of me.”
He said owning some of the stuff is an option and, again, “Leasing drives me nuts.
“I’m not against talking about it,” he said, noting the holiday lights this year were very pretty.