Adopt Resolution #25-099 Accepting Bids and Awarding Contract for Dickenson’s Mississippi Estate Street Reconstructions, Improvement Project #25-04

Purpose:
The purpose of this case is to adopt Resolution #25-099 accepting bids and awarding contract for Dickenson’s Mississippi Estate Street Reconstructions, Improvement Project #25-04.
 
Background:
The 2025 – 2034 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) identifies the streets within the Dickenson’s Mississippi Estate subdivision for street reconstruction in 2025. A street segment summary for this project is attached to this case.
 
Project History

• May 28, 2024, the Ramsey City Council adopted Resolution #24-138, ordering request for proposals for topographic surveys, geotechnical evaluations and utility testing for 2025 capital improvement program projects
• July 23, 2024, the Ramsey City Council adopted Resolution #24-196, accepting the proposal from Bolton & Menk, Inc. to prepare plans and specifications for Dickenson’s Mississippi Estates Street Reconstructions, Improvement Project #25-04.
• October 22, 2024, the Ramsey City Council adopted Resolution #24-302, accepting the amended proposal from Bolton & Menk, Inc. to prepare plans and specifications for said improvements.
• November 12, 2024, the Ramsey City Council adopted Resolution #24-311, accepting the proposal from Hydro-Klean, LLC for cleaning and televising the sanitary and storm sewer within the project area.
• March 13, 2025, Ramsey staff held a public open house for said improvements.
• March 18, 2025, the Ramsey Public Works Committee reviewed the project, recommending City Council approve the plans and specifications and authorize advertisement for bids for said improvements, including the alternative bid.
• May 1, 2025, bids were publicly opened.

 
Existing Conditions
This project proposes to reconstruct Tungsten Street between Riverdale Drive and Rivlyn Avenue, as well as Rivlyn Avenue between the western cul-de-sac and the eastern edge of plat. The streets are 31-foot wide urban section with concrete curb and gutter. Tungsten Street has commercial uses on both sides, while Rivlyn Avenue is residential, with single-family homes. Though only marked by signage rather than pavement markings or off-street trail facilities, the streets are part of the Mississippi River Trail Bikeway. The streets total 0.26 miles in length.
 
Municipal sewer, watermain and storm sewer exist within the project area. The watermain and sanitary sewer were installed in 1990 so they will be 35 years old when the street reconstruction occurs, and 95 years old by the end of the street's 60-year design life.
 
During the Ramsey Gateway Highway 10 Improvements, it was found that the watermain gate valves under Riverdale Drive and Tungsten Street were built with mild steel bolts rather than stainless steel as is used today. This has resulted in premature eroding of the valve bolts, which in recent years have resulted in valves separating when exercised, requiring emergency repairs to replace the valves and repair the streets.

The sanitary sewer and storm sewer were televised to determine the condition of the pipes and structures. The sanitary sewer was found to be in good condition. The storm sewer under the streets was also found to be in good condition. The storm sewer outlet pipe to the Mississippi River was found to have some minor damage, which is not proposed to be addressed with this street reconstruction project, but will be addressed under a separate project in the future.
 
The CIP included costs for addressing stormwater runoff from 6140 Highway 10 (the Lano property) as part of this project. During the project design process, an analysis of stormwater runoff from 6140 Highway 10 was performed.  It was determined that a connection to the existing city storm sewer system under Tungsten Street, as well as on-site stormwater detention improvements on the 6140 Highway 10 property, will be required to treat stormwater runoff from this property to today's stormwater management design standards.  This project includes a new storm sewer manhole with an adequately sized storm sewer stub to allow for the future connection of private stormwater improvements constructed on the 6140 Highway 10 property.
 
Pavement History
The streets within Dickenson’s Mississippi Estates were constructed in 1990. Crackseal/sealcoat treatments were received in 1996, 2003, and 2013. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) was performed on the streets in 2020. At the time, the streets averaged 2.7 to 3.4 inches of bituminous over 3.7 inches of aggregate base.
 
Staff review of the geotechnical report found clean sands, ideal for pavement and utility support within the project area. Additionally, groundwater is not anticipated to be a concern for the street reconstruction.
 
Proposed Improvements
Due to the age and condition of the existing watermain, this project includes replacing the existing watermain and water service lines up to and including the curb stops and fire hydrants. During construction, temporary water will be looped through the project and connected to the houses.
 
The original project anticipated only spot curb and gutter replacements. However, by replacing the watermain, the majority of the existing concrete curb and gutter is impacted so the project calls for replacing all curb and gutters. Also, valley gutters will be placed along Tungsten Street to separate Tungsten Street from the private parking lots / drives on both sides of Tungsten Street.
 
Because Tungsten Street handles frequent commercial vehicle traffic, it will be built to a 10-ton design including 4-inches of bituminous over 6-inches aggregate base. Rivlyn Avenue will be built to a standard neighborhood section of 3.5-inches bituminous over 6-inches aggregate base. The cul-de-sac at the west end of Rivlyn Avenue is partially within City-owned right of way and a roadway easement. Due mainly to the location of the existing houses and driveways, it was not deemed feasible to expand the cul-de-sac, and it will be constructed back to its current dimensions.
 
The storm sewer at the intersection of Rivlyn Avenue and Tungsten Street will be required to be replaced due to the watermain replacement. Additionally, a hydrodynamic separator structure is being placed in the storm sewer outfall line to the Mississippi River. This structure, which will be located in the boulevard south of Rivlyn Avenue, is a cost-effective storm water quality retrofit solution that will serve to remove pollutants from the stormwater runoff before it is discharged into the Mississippi river.  Similar structures have been added to storm sewer outfall lines that discharge runoff directly to the Mississippi and Rum Rivers. 
 
City staff has discussed, and is continuing discussions with Lano, to address stormwater runoff concerns from their property at 6140 Highway 10. Bolton & Menk performed stormwater analysis of the site and determined a combination of on-site rate control and connection to the city storm sewer system is required to fully address the concerns. After discussions with Lano, they prefer an underground stormwater storage system versus an above ground pond, as vehicle storage space is already limited on their site. This project includes placing a storm sewer manhole in the Tungsten Street right of way and a 12-inch storm sewer pipe stubbed to the right-of-way for a future connection from Lano’s site. To fully make the connection, the storm sewer stub would cross the south end of Global Gloves’ property at 13601 Tungsten Street. Global Glove informed city staff they are supportive of allowing a future storm sewer connection across the south end of their property and providing the required permanent drainage and utility easement. In the meantime, Lano will continue working with their engineer to design their private on-site stormwater improvements for potential future construction and connection to the 12-inch stub provided as part of this project.
 
Alternate Bid
Watermain and sanitary sewer extend through 4 private properties from the west end of Rivlyn Avenue to Riverdale Drive, generally under green space and a shared driveway.  As an alternate bid, this watermain is proposed to be replaced in the same manner as the watermain under Rivlyn Avenue and Tungsten Street. The private shared driveway is proposed to be replaced to match existing materials, a combination of gravel and bituminous.
 
These public utilities are located under an existing drainage & utility easement.  However, while designing the alternate bid, Bolton & Menk indicated additional temporary construction easements would be needed to perform construction. In total, 5,364 square feet of easement spread across the 4 properties will be required, as shown in the attached temporary easement exhibit.
 
During the project design process, staff sent a total of 5 letters to the 4 properties within the alternate bid area, in addition to holding a public open house. Two of the letters, the latest hand-delivered to these properties on April 10^th, requested a meeting to discuss the necessary construction easements. To date, staff have been contacted by 3 of the 4 property owners, only one of whom is agreeable to providing the required temporary easements to allow the proposed construction to occur.
 
Because the alternate bid work is not located under Rivlyn Avenue, this work could be completed in the future, either in coordination with another watermain improvement project or as a separate project, to avoid delaying the delivery of this project.  Staff anticipate minimal to no cost increase to construct these improvements as part of a future project. If the alternate bid is not awarded, staff will add a future watermain replacement project to the Capital Improvement Program and inform the impacted residents of this action. 
 
Preliminary Schedule Remaining

• Council Awards Contract to the Lowest Responsible Bidder (base bid or base + alternate bid)
  • May 13, 2025
• Contractor Begins Construction
  • June / July 2025
• Contractor Substantially Completes Construction
  • New watermain in-service, new bituminous in-place, topsoil and seed in-place
  • September 30, 2025
• Contractor Final Completion
  • Verify final restoration; punch list created
  • October 31, 2025

If the Council accepts the bids and awards a contract for construction, letters will be mailed to property owners with updates on the project status. Engineering staff maintain City Improvement project web pages with the most current project information.

Timeframe:
Staff estimates up to 15 minutes will be needed to present this case and respond to questions.
 
Observations:
As of the time this case was published, only 1 of the 4 property owners impacted by the alternate bid had confirmed they are agreeable to providing the required temporary easements, and no easement documents had been signed. The process for drafting the easement documents, meeting with residents to reach agreeable terms, obtaining all required signatures on the documents, then recording the documents with Anoka County, will take at least several weeks from the time the residents agree to provide the easements. Continuing to pursue the easements needed to construct the alternate bid would therefore likely delay the project, which has a substantial completion date of September 30, 2025. Additional costs may also be incurred by the City if the alternate bid is awarded but is not able to be constructed due to a lack of necessary recorded easements.  For these reasons, staff recommend not awarding the alternate bid and instead adding a project to the CIP to complete this work in the future when the necessary easements have been obtained. 
 
Alternatives:
Alternative #1 – Motion to adopt Resolution #25-099 Accepting Bids and Awarding a contract for Dickenson’s Mississippi Estate Street Reconstructions to Dave Perkins Contracting, Inc. for the base bid total of $672,350.11.
 
Alternative #2 – Motion to adopt Resolution #25-099 Accepting Bids and Awarding a contract for Dickenson’s Mississippi Estate Street Reconstructions to Dave Perkins Contracting, Inc. for the base and alternate bids totaling $799,532.78.
 
Alternative #3 – Motion of other.

Funding for this improvement is proposed to come from Pavement Management Funds, Storm Water Utility Funds, Sanitary Sewer Utility Funds, and Water Utility Funds.
 
Bids were advertised in the Anoka Union Herald on March 28 and April 4, 2025. On May 1, 2025, a total of six (6) bids were received, opened, and tabulated, and the following bids were found to comply with the advertisement for bids.
 

CONTRACTOR	BASE BID	ALTERNATE BID	TOTAL BID
Dave Perkins Contracting, Inc.	$672,350.11	$127,182.67	$799,532.78
Douglas-Kerr Underground, L.L.C.	$706,559.01	$105,533.80	$812,092.81
North Valley, Inc.	$804,326.05	$134,139.30	$938,465.35
Dressel Contracting, Inc.	$822,879.21	$146,600.41	$969,479.62
Northdale Construction Company, Inc.	$899,026.81	$152,989.57	$1,052,016.38
Meyer Contracting, Inc.	$937,087.18	$154,413.65	$1,091,500.83
Engineer’s Estimate	$867,414.00	$141,157.75	$1,008,571.75

 
Dave Perkins Contracting, Inc. of Nowthen, Minnesota, submitted the lowest responsible bid in the amount of $672,350.11 for the base bid of said improvements in accordance with the approved plans and specifications and advertisement for bids. Adding indirect costs in the amount of 23-percent brings the total project costs to $826,990.64.
 
The low base bid is 22-percent less than the engineer’s estimate, primarily due to lower than anticipated removal and excavation costs.
 
Funding Source Breakdown:

Funding Source	Construction Costs	Indirect Costs	Total Costs
Pavement Management Funds	$341,319.11	$78,503.40	$419,822.51
Storm Water Utility Funds	$75,334.00	$17,326.82	$92,660.82
Sanitary Sewer Utility Funds	$15,039.00	$3,458.97	$18,497.97
Water Utility Funds	$240,658.00	$55,351.34	$296,009.34
Base Bid Total	$672,350.11	$154,640.53	$826,990.64
Alt Bid (Water Utility Funds)	$127,182.67	$29,252.01	$156,434.68
Total Base & Alt	$799,532.78	$183,892.54	$983,425.32

 
The CIP level estimate had a total estimated project cost of $934,866 including street costs of $306,722, stormwater costs of $378,144, and water costs of $250,000.  As always, final project costs may change depending upon actual construction quantities.
 
Bolton & Menk submitted a proposal for construction-related services including construction staking and as-built survey of the proposed improvements for a total not-to-exceed amount of $33,940.00. These services are included in the indirect project costs.
 
City staff proposes to administer and inspect construction. Plans and specifications were prepared by Bolton & Menk.

City staff recommends alternative #1.

Motion to adopt Resolution #25-099 Accepting Bids and Awarding a contract for Dickenson’s Mississippi Estate Street Reconstructions to Dave Perkins Contracting, Inc. for the base bid total of $672,350.11.