By Bill Short
The Millington Board of Mayor and Aldermen has unanimously awarded a bid for construction of Phase 2 of the Navy Road Streetscape Project.
Board members took the action during their April 13 regular monthly meeting on a motion offered by Alderman Thomas McGhee and seconded by Alderman Don Lowry.
The city advertised for bids on the project, and two were received on March 27.
After reviewing the bids and qualifications of the contractors, the city’s design consultant Kimley-Horn & Associates of Memphis recommended that a contract be awarded to Enscor LLC at a lump sum not to exceed $1,357,090.85.
But City Finance Director John Trusty noted that, prior to executing a contract, the bid award is subject to approval by City Attorney Gerald Lawson and concurrence by the Tennessee Department of Transportation, which has awarded the city a grant for the project.
In a related action, on a motion offered by Alderman Al Bell and seconded by Alderman Larry Dagen, the board unanimously selected a professional consulting firm to provide “construction engineering inspection services” for the project.
After issuing a Request for Qualifications, the city’s Consultant Selection Review Committee recommended that a contract be awarded to the Fisher & Arnold engineering firm. But that contract is also subject to approval by Lawson and concurrence by TDOT.
During a telephone interview last week, City Engineer Jason Dixon said Phase 1 of the Streetscape Project was completed in 2010, when raised medians with landscaping, irrigation and lighting were constructed on Navy Road from Highway 51 to Veterans Parkway.
Although Phase 2 is designed to put Navy entirely in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, Dixon said the work has actually been divided into two projects.
Because no right of way had to be acquired from Highway 51 to Church Street, TDOT has allowed the city to begin construction on that section. But Dixon noted that right of way must
be purchased from Church to Veterans.
Phase 2 will include the installation of black mast-arm traffic signals, as well as construction of sidewalks, curbs, gutters, driveway aprons and handicapped ramps.
Dixon said the drainage grates in the roadway will be removed and replaced with ones that are “at grade” and that a bicycle can drive over without getting stuck in them.
Then, Navy will be “milled” and re-paved to tie into all the side streets and make them ADA-compliant.
In the past, Dixon recalled, Navy has just been “overlaid,” with new asphalt placed over the old, because it was a less expensive process.
“That’s been done way too much,” he said, “and it’s put asphalt into the curbs and gutters.”
He said the side streets have also been overlaid so much that they have “humps or ridges” in them, which is not ADA-compliant.
Because additional right of way must be acquired during the construction, Dixon said completion of both parts of Phase 2 will probably take two and a half years.
