Missouri Bottom Road Project Costs Hazelwood More Money, Still Under Orig. Estimate

What could have been a $1.9 million  project for the City of Hazelwood to reconstruct Missouri Bottom Road resulted in the city saving close to $700,000 after completing the project for $1.2 when it reopened on October 22 of last year.

Still, the project that took quite a while to complete because of the importance of repairing the roads infrastructure, will not cost the city a little bit more as it will have to pay a few additional funds to the project's construction and engineering firms.

"There was a lot of complexity with this project," Hazelwood City Manager Edwin Carlstrom said "When we got through looking at all of the additions, subtractions and changes to the original contract, the change order (for construction work) has come to an amount of $106,190.97."

Missouri Bottom Road gives local residents access to a shortcut to Route 370 and St. Louis Outlet Mall, formerly known as and had been inaccessible since a portion of the street between Tulip Tree Lane and Taussig Road had to be shut down on December 22, 2009, due to its infrastructure collapsing causing large holes in the road.

"Again, I'd like to historically reiterate that the original estimate for the project was around 1.9 million so we are still way below (that) for the project," Carlstrom said.

Federal funds provided $600,000 worth of matching grants used towards covering the $1.2 million in construction costs.  As part of the evaluation process, time was spent testing the slope stability, deciding on the best course of action and getting right-of-way acquisitions.

In January 2010, the Hazelwood City Council approved $141,000 for a contract with EDM Incorporated, a structural engineering firm, to do a preliminary study on the road.  After the problems were identified, J.H. Berra Construction was hired to fix the infrastructure and reconstruction the road.

Along with the additional $106,000 Hazelwood will have to pay the construction company, Carlstrom said the city needs to pay EDM $47,150 in additional services.

"There was a lot of extra work that had to be done by not only the contractor but also by engineers that were involved in this project," Carlstrom said. "We have negotiated a price to be approved as a supplemental agreement to the original contract for DBM for."

Work completed on Missouri Bottom Road involved installing a drainage system throughout the hillside to make it more stable.  The construction crews also removed the existing roadway and poured concrete for the new pavement, which included widening and sub-grading the lanes as well as adding pavement lugs to prevent street creep.  Other features such as guard rails, retaining walls, and sidewalks for pedestrian use were added for safety purposes.

The road still is not designed for tractor-trailer trucks in excess of 12,000 pounds.

After a second reading and final vote, the contractor and engineering firm will be paid to settle the project tab.

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To read more about the Missouri Bottom Road Project see:

• The 'Mills' Shortcut Returns: MO Bottom Road Reopened Monday
• Missouri Bottom Road to Remain Closed Through 2012
• City of Hazelwood Aims to Complete Missouri Bottom Road Project in 2012