Signal Project on Valley Mall Pkwy Requires Extra Funds

A recent paving and improvement project at the intersection of Valley Mall Parkway and 9^th Street Northeast in East Wenatchee will cost more than originally expected.

A change order for an additional $125,000 was introduced and approved at the East Wenatchee's City Council meeting this week.

The City’s Public Works Manager, Garren Melton, says part of the cost overruns were out of his department’s control.

“When we started tearing out the old road at 9^th and Valley Mall, we found an even older concrete road that used to run from the highway into downtown East Wenatchee. With the way asphalt paving works, if you leave a concrete road too close to an asphalt layer you’ll start to see the concrete road reflect through with cracks in the asphalt. So we had to dig the whole thing down a bit deeper.”

The other fix that led to an increase in the project’s costs was by design.

Melton says the bid of project contractor Selland Construction came in below the amount of a grant the City was awarded for the work, prompting a decision to repave 80 percent more of the intersection and adjacent roadway than originally planned.

“Even though this is a $125,000 change order, the city ended up getting $125,000 more work out of Selland, so what we’re paying out of pocket is only about a $17,000 match portion of the grant. Even after the change order, we still have somewhere in the $40,000 to $50,000 range remaining in our grant. So I’m confident that we’ll be able to complete this project and stay under our maximum threshold.”

The work is part of a larger project that will see the installation of four-way traffic signals that will replace a longstanding, static stop signal at the intersection.