The Richland Avenue Pedestrian Passageway project is further delayed due to a lost bid by the City of Athens.
On Thursday morning, bids opened for the Richland project. That bid was lost, Athens Mayor Steve Patterson said during Monday’s City Council meeting. That was the second attempted bid the city has lost for the Richland project. As a result, the Richland project will be delayed again.
“The project will not be done in 2019,” Patterson said. “We will be exploring options with ODOT.”
Collaboration with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) and Ohio University may help make a more successful bid, Patterson said. The city already has a more than $8 million grant from ODOT to fund the Richland project. Ohio University will also contribute to the Richland project.
The increased price has already drawn concern from council members over city overspending, according to a previous Post report.
Patterson said there are benefits to moving the project to 2020. Contractors will have fewer projects to work on and more time to sort out the logistics. That does, however, leave safety in the meantime as a concern.
Councilman Pat McGee, I-At Large, said the idea for the Richland project came to council about a year ago. When the project was introduced, there seemed to be a sense of urgency to ensure student safety. Now, with another lull in construction, McGee calls for council to do something in order to prevent an accident from occurring.
“I had suggested early on to have some sort of traffic guard or police,” McGee said. “Can you have something set up so that there’s actually something done during this time period?”
McGee said a traffic cop is a more efficient way to deal with Richland’s heavy traffic flow.
Currently, progress from the Richland project has included going through the design process and hearing input from residents. OU has also put input into the design. Patterson wants people to know that progress is still being made on the project despite the bid being lost.
“We haven’t been sitting on our hands, just know that.” Patterson said. “Trust me that we’re exploring every possible thing that we can moving forward.”
Patterson said he would bring up the Richland project at his next monthly meeting with OU President Duane Nellis. He also hopes to discuss it with the Ohio University Police Department.
The Richland project, a pedestrian pathway connecting West Green and Baker Center, was originally slated to begin this summer. Now, Patterson estimates that it may take up to a semester to complete. Director of Public Works Bob Heady approached City Council and asked for $3 million to complete the project. That price has increased, with the city now estimated to pay about $3.4 million, according to a previous Post report.
McGee was never a proponent of the project. He said it was an example of how the city tends to underestimate project costs and then have to move around money to pay for projects. Councilwoman Sarah Grace, D-At Large, shared the same concern, but still supported the Richland project.
Despite the project being stalled, councilman Peter Kotses, D-At Large, wants to thank the city engineers for their hard work so far. It was hard for the city to make a comprehensive design that balanced both safety and traffic concerns, he said.
“The timeline, the space itself … there are some variables that are out of our control,” Kotses said.
