2025 8 11 Work Session Packet website

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PUBLIC WORKS 
 
 
Staff are currently working with the architect to identify options to reduce the overall cost of the project 
which could provide us with additional contingency in the event it is needed .  If additional savings are 
realized and not needed for additional contingency, the savings will be returned to the fund balance.  
 
Summary 
In addition to the costs discussed above, the city will also incur costs associated with Construction 
Engineering Inspection services provided by the project architect, Lose Design.  This amount is estimated 
to be $25,000 but will be based upon the actual number of hours required to provide these services.  
There will also be additional costs associated with specialized testing service s for items such as 
compaction testing, materials sampling, and Head Injury Criterion testing of the playground safety 
surface.  The estimated cost of the specialized inspections is $15,000.  The city will procure these services 
directly from a vendor and the cost will be based upon the total number of trips and tests required for the 
scope of work.   In addition to the original scope o f work requested in the grant application, the FY26 
budget include s $75,000 to pave the remainder of the parking lot,  which is outside the limits of 
disturbance.   
 
The total estimated cost to comple te the project is $1,728,336.99.  This amount includes site amenities 
from Bluegrass  Recreation, lump sum construction bid from the General Contractor, estimated site 
amenity installation costs based upon unit prices from the General Contra ctor, estimated cost for CEI , 
estimated costs for specialized testing, and estimated cost for additional paving.   
 
Budgeted funds available for this project are $1,175,000, including $587,500 in LPRF Grant funding.  The 
required grant match from the city is also $587,500 and as mentioned the city also budgeted $75,000 for 
additional paving.  Based upon these estimated revenues and expenditures, the project is approximately 
$553,336.99 over budget.   
 
Approximately $55,000 of the budget overage is due to the decision to add the removal and replacement 
of the playground to the project scope while offsetting a portion of these costs by reusing four of the six 
ballfield light poles.  However, the exact amount cannot be determined because portions of this work are 
included in the contractor’s lump sum bid.  Originally, the city planned to  replace the playground using 
grant funds from a Blue Cross grant, but after not being funded in two consecutive years the decision was 
made to add this to the LPRF grant project scope of work.   
 
Because the initial budget was prepared in 2020 and the intervening years have had historically high levels 
of inflation, it isn’t surprising the bids are greater than the original budget.  However, the architect 
provided an Opinion of Probable Cost in September 2024  which was $1,157,616.  While I am sure there 
have been some price increases during the past year, inflation alone would not account for the differential 
between the bid/proposal amount and the Opinion of Probable Cost,  so I asked the architect to provide 
insight as to why they believe the differential is so large.  Their response was as follows: 
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