With only two agenda items of any substance on the Mesquite City Council Agenda for Tuesday evening, it could be a very short meeting – or a very long one.
Bill Tanner, City Director of Public Works will present three construction firms who bid on the I-15 Exit 118 interchange contract for the Council to consider. Tanner is recommending the Council award the project to Meadow Valley Contractors, Inc. over Gerber Construction, Inc and Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction Company, LLC.
Twenty-five people reviewed the extensive bid packages submitted by the contractors including 11 from the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), 11 from Horrocks Engineering and Associates, two from the City of Mesquite, and one from the Southern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission (RTC).
Meadow Valley’s operations are concentrated in the Las Vegas, NV and Phoenix, AZ areas with additional offices in Utah. The company has constructed more than 275 bridges throughout the southwest. They have also done work on the Spaghetti Bowl in Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Wash Channel in North Las Vegas.
The project is classified as a ‘design-build’ construction program that generally is completed more quickly than tradition projects. Indeed, the background material supplied with the Council agenda targets June 24, 2016 as the expected completion date for the entire project.
RTC has allotted up to $20 million dollars, primarily from the Indexed Fuel Tax Revenues, for the project. The City of Mesquite is off the hook for any substantial portion of the costs.
Meadow Valley pegged their construction cost at $14,747,824 besting the next closest competitor, Gerber, by close to a million dollars. Wadsworth bid the project $2.3 million higher.
Close to $1.5 million has already been spent grading the land on the north side of the interstate near the intersection of W. Pioneer Blvd and Lower Flat Top Mesa Drive.
Other than routine administrative items for approving liquor licenses and conditional use permits, the Council’s only other substantial agenda item is a Memo of Agreement with Partners in Conservation (PIC) to implement conservation projects within the City of Mesquite.
The agreement calls for PIC to receive up to $150,000 per year for environmental mitigation issues primarily along the Virgin River. Over the last few years, the City has requested $157,000 worth of work and PIC has provided $362,304 in matching contributions.
The Mesquite City Council meeting begins at 5 p.m. Tuesday, at the City Council Chambers.
