Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
County officials recently renewed contracts with three construction companies that perform minor road maintenance and repair work on demand.
The approved contracts were for the continued services of C.W. Roberts, Capital Asphalt and Peavy & Sons, all of which have been providing road work to the county for several years.
Per the contract, the three companies will continue to do minor road maintenance services on county roads, including providing all materials, permitting, labor, supervision, equipment, supplies, fees, and expertise, as well as other necessary or incidental services.
The contracts are designed to allow the county the ability and flexibility to choose the best suited of the three companies for any given emergency road repair project and to do so quickly, as well as to undertake multiple projects simultaneously if necessary.
In short, the continuing minor road maintenance services contracts allow for ongoing, on-demand work for small-scale upkeep of roads absent the arduous bidding process, making for a streamlined and efficient way of accomplishing routine road maintenance work.
“By keeping the companies on retainer, the county avoids the delays of bidding, bidder selection and other inconveniences that go with the bidding process,” is the way that County Attorney Evan Rosenthal explained it.
Such contracts typically run for a set period of years, may include renewal options, and call for contractors to provide specified services on an as-needed basis, thereby eliminating the need for separate procurement processes.
The contracts also outline the types of minor work that is permitted, which typically includes patching asphalt, repairing curbs and sidewalks, clearing ditches, installing or repairing guardrails and signs and doing emergency minor repairs.
The contracts also set maximum project limits in terms of costs to ensure that the work is indeed minor. Projects that exceed the set limit may be subject to a separate bidding process.