Reconstruction Of Hwy 71 Through Lakes Corridor Being Pushed Back A Year
Reconstruction Of Hwy 71 Through Lakes Corridor Being Pushed Back A Year
May 03, 2022Steve Schwaller
(Arnolds Park)– Reconstruction of Highway 71 through the Iowa Great Lakes Corridor is being pushed back a year. That word late today (Tues.) from Dakin Schultz of the Iowa Department of Transportation’s District 3 office in Sioux City…
“We had a contract letting April 19th and after a review of the bid it was determined that the inflation in the price over the program amount was too great that the bid was rejected. And so now the Iowa D.O.T will go back through the comments received from the contractors that pulled plans and we will also do a review of the plans, the project staging, and see if there’s things that we can do to improve it as far as a constructability standpoint and make it, maybe take some of the risk out of the project. That doesn’t mean that the approach is going to change but there may be small things that we can to improve on the project.”
Schultz says one factor in particular came into play with the higher cost and lack of interest among bidders…
“We had after Labor Day and before winter shut down and then they could come back in and work before Memorial Day but then, you know, the prime construction season in Iowa is that Memorial Day to Labor Day, or April til end of October, and we took a majority of that timeframe out of this because of the nature of the lakes area being a vacation spot and certainly the Memorial to Labor Day timeframe is crucial for the lakes. Is that timeline something you’re going to have to re-visit through all this, then? We’ll still, that will still be a controlling part of this project. We will still prohibit the work on ’71 during that peak season of Memorial Day to Labor Day. We’re going to look at other things to see if there’s improvement.”
Schultz says the plan as of now is to make some revisions and go back out for bids this coming fall. He says the D.O.T will be getting in contact soon with city officials in Okoboji, Arnolds Park and West Okoboji regarding the matter.
Work on Highway 71 through the Lakes Corridor was originally scheduled to begin following this coming Labor Day.
