Hamiltonban rejects road bids

(7/3) The Hamiltonban Township Board of Supervisors voted at their July reject bids received regarding a proposed road improvement project when the bids received were thousands of dollars over estimate.

One of the two bids received was for more than twice the estimated cost of the project. While the second bid was some $16,000 above estimated.

According to township Open Records Officer Deborah Feiler, the bids were solicited in order to replace a section of pipe on Cold Springs Road.

The proposed project would entail the cost of the pipe section, and the expense of excavating, installing, and trench restoration, and is intended to address part of stormwater management for the road.

“Every single storm we have, there's been a lot of erosion because the water runs over the road,” the open records officer stated. “The ditches don't work.”

C.S. Davidson, a Gettysburg engineering firm which provides engineering services to the township, estimated the projected cost of the project to be around $19,000.

However, the bids came-in well in excess of the anticipated costs.

Hobbs Excavating, LLC placed a bid of $35,480 to do the job, while Brett Bishard General Excavating placed a bid of $44,650.

Feiler said the work was not put out to bid because, under the township code, the project was estimated to cost under $20,000, and the supervisors were able to merely solicit bids from prospective construction operations.

Had the project been expected to come-in over that amount, the code would have mandated that bids would have to have been solicited through public advertisements.

“We didn't think the project was going to be over $20,000,” Feiler stated, “(but) the bids came way over $20,000. Because we thought it was going to be less than that, we didn’t advertise it.”

As a result, she said, the board of supervisors decided not to accept any of the bids received.

Further, she said, “We're not going to re-bid it. We’ll work on it over the fall in-house (using township equipment and staff.)”

The township installed a new cross pipe in the 900 block of Cold Springs Road in 2013, and completed several other road improvement projects on the road.
The pipe section which was the subject of the rejected bids was to have been the second pipe section replacement.