Street bids come in $200K under budget

By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

The city of Shawano will have roughly $200,000 extra to work with after bids for 2023 street and utility reconstruction work came in under budget.

The Shawano Common Council unanimously approved Jan. 11 the bid of $893,968.76 from David Tenor Construction for the streets project, which was the lowest of 10 bids offered. The city had budgeted almost $1.1 million for the project.

The work that David Tenor will be doing includes work on Weed Street between Richmond and Danks streets, River Street between Picnic and Pine streets, Pine Street between River and Bartlett streets and Danks Street between Weed and Bartlett streets. Most of the work is sanitary sewer and water main lines coupled with street repaving, but a new sidewalk will also be built on Pine Street between River and Weed streets.

“We got fantastic numbers from David Tenor,” public works director Scott Kroening said to the council.

Kroening noted that the higher number of bids came as a result of the city allowing contractors to bid online for the first time. Previously, bids had to be mailed to the city.

“We thought it was an avenue where we could entice more bidders, and we did,” Kroening said. “Normally, we get seven. We got 10 bidders.”

Tenor has worked on previous street projects for the city, and Kroening said the work is excellent.

“He left quite a bit of money on the table,” Kroening said. “That indicates he really wanted to do this project. He really enjoys working here with our crew.”

The city anticipated bids to come in under budget and had set the sidewalk project and the Pine and Danks streets as alternatives in the bid, according to Kroening.

“I’m really happy that I’m not here saying, ‘Oh, I’m sorry that I’m way over (budget),’” he said. “I’m just ecstatic that we got the numbers we did, and we’ve got a little extra money to work with in case we come up with any issues.”

Kroening said the savings could be utilized to seal more cracks on existing roads or possibly do another block or two of roads not budgeted for 2023.


lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com