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Ken Smith/Turnagain Times About 40 volunteers participated in the reconstruction of the Bike Path bridge in Girdwood. Thanks to the volunteer effort, the cost of the project was only $40.000. |
By John Gallup
Special to the Turnagain Times
The accounting is finally complete for the Bike Path Bridge re-decking, which was completed in May. While it is tempting to say that we “saved a lot of money” on this project, it is more appropriate to say that we “avoided spending” a lot of money on this project, and most importantly, we got a safety hazard on one of our most heavily used Parks and Rec facilities repaired in a timely manner.
Problems with the bridge deck were noted several years ago in 2005, and the engineering firm USKH looked over the bridge and prepared a “construction estimate” for the replacement of the deck and the painting of the bridge. It came in at about $302,000. Since nobody had this kind of money at the time, the job was never bid.
Meanwhile, the Trails Committee received a $100,000 grant to do some repairs on the bike path, and we decided in 2007 that the bridge deck was in the worst shape and presented the biggest hazard, and that we would focus our efforts there.
We were able to get the deck replaced exactly as drawn in the construction estimate for about $40,000 using volunteer labor for organization and construction. This avoided the single biggest chunk of the $302,000 by avoiding the administrative costs, railroad closures, and some expensive equipment rentals. Just the supervisor’s job, which was done by a volunteer, was valued at over $31,000, and contractor profit of $38,000 was also saved. In all, about $170,000 of the administrative costs in the construction doing the job ourselves saved estimates.
Savings were also found in the demolition and removal of the old deck, and the $27,000 budgeted for labor to re-deck the bridge was also saved.
So with painting not included, we avoided spending through our efforts approximately $200,000, most of that being avoided administrative costs. The “savings”, of course, are to the people of Alaska, not Girdwood. There were no local monies at all invested in this effort. What we got is a safe bridge.
With the money remaining in the grant we are looking at patching the worst of the frost heaves and bad culverts. This work will hopefully be completed this summer.
John Gallup is a member of the Girdwood Board of Supervisors and oversaw the bridge re-decking project.