Neal Embry
Ken Upchurch, center, with TCU Consulting, center, speaks to the Vestavia Hills City Council at a July 19 work session.
Vestavia Hills residents could see more renovation work begin at Wald Park during the first week of August if the low bid for the project, announced during a July 19 work session, is approved by the Vestavia Hills City Council on July 22.
Bids were received during the month of July, and the low base bid came in at $16,297,429, from Taylor Miree Construction. The council is expected to vote on the bid at the July 22 meeting.
The base bid is about $300,000 more than what the city and its project manager for Community Spaces, TCU Consulting, anticipated for the bid, said Ken Upchurch with TCU. City Manager Jeff Downes said while the original anticipated cost of the project was about $15.4 million, the scope of the project changed, leading to an anticipated cost of about $16 million as bids opened.
However, Upchurch said once the base bid is approved, TCU should be able to present a change order quickly as a result of roughly $800,000 worth of value engineering, which will lower the total cost and get it closer to original projections, Upchurch said.
Examples of value engineering include using the leftover topsoil from the mass grading at the park in construction, as well as changing what materials will be used in building certain aspects of the park, Upchurch said.
The bid also includes about $700,000 in allowances for unforeseen circumstances, Upchurch said.
The base bid with alternates came in at $20,462,501, also from Taylor Miree. The alternates include a maintenance building, a dog park and trails, a tennis facility, two batting cage pavilions and annual turf and landscape maintenance. Those projects are not time-sensitive, Downes said, so further work will be done by TCU to evaluate the cost and how and when to build them, but they will not be built as part of the base package introduced at the July 19 work session.
Raynor Boles with TCU said the notice to proceed is dated July 25, so if the council approves the bid on July 22, construction could get started soon.
