Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Thursday, May 15, 2008
Preliminary jail bids in
La Crosse County officials were a little disappointed this week with the first wave of bids for preliminary work on the $29.5 million jail expansion project.
Before taking bids for the main project in August, the county needs to get a few things out of the way, such as building a new garage and a utility island that includes a generator because they're being displaced by the new addition.
Bids came in this week at $1.1 million, which was about $100,000 over estimates, County Administrator Steve O'Malley said. Architects and engineers will work to reduce the cost by $100,000 to stay within budget, he said.
The county has hired a construction manager and acting as its own general contractor to save money on the project. So instead of one large bid, the county took many small bids from subcontractors. With architectural, construction management and contingency costs, the total package will be $1.27 million.
The work covers a new garage and a utility island. The garage, which will be north of the jail in a county parking lot near Dee’s Car Care, will replace an underground garage in the current building that will become inaccessible when the addition goes in. The utility island relocates an emergency standby generator and other utilities which are also in the way of the addition.
The disappointment came when the county didn't receive complete bids on another aspect of the project they'd hoped to get an early start on: remodeling of the existing men’s jail to make room for women inmates, before the rest of the jail addition project started.
O’Malley said the jail remodeling work wasn’t a big enough job to attract many competitive bids. As a result, that work will be included in the overall project, he said.
The county board is scheduled to vote on the bids when it meets at 6 p.m. today.
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