Bridge painting bid comes in higher than expected
Written by jrood
February 14, 2001 The new method to paint the railroad bridge across Alabama's Coosa River was cheaper than the other proposed method, but just not cheap enough, local media report. Gadsden Associate Planner Shane Ellison said the city received only one bid for the CSX Transportation railroad bridge coating project, and it was much higher than the grant funds the city has for the project.
In 2005, the city
received a grant for $500,000 from the Federal Railroad Administration to paint
the bridge, but the Federal Highway Administration reduced the appropriation
because of across-the-board cuts. In recent months, the grant was extended for
the third time and now expires on Sept. 9. Also extended until Sept. 9 is the
city’s right-of-entry agreement with the Alabama and Tennessee Railway LandRail
LLC, which leased the track from Guntersville to Birmingham and the bridge from
CSXT in 2004 for 30 years.
The original plans for
the bridge included sand blasting the structure and a three-coat painting
system. When the project was put out for bids in 2008, bids came in at more
than $250,000 higher than the grant amount.
Ellison said the new
method the city wants to use is one-coat, surface-tolerant polyurethane.
"It requires a lot less
surface preparations, so that’s where a lot of your cost savings come in," he
said. "It also provides for an expedient time schedule and less interference
with both rail and automobile traffic."
The city specified that
it would only accept bids from companies that would use the rust-strip product
or a similar product that could be applied over a rusty surface with minimum
preparation.
The only bidder at the
end of bidding Tuesday was Avalotis Corp., which has headquarters in Verona,
Pa., with branch offices in Florida, Philadelphia and Illinois. Avalotis
submitted a bid of $598,000 for the project.
Ellison said the city’s
next step is to look into its "limited" options.
"There are limited
options on what you can do to a rusted, metal structure," he said. "We’ve tried
two different approaches now, so there are limited – if any – options left.
Rebidding is not beneficial."
Ellison said he plans to
contact the Federal Railroad Administration to discuss possible
recommendations.
