Story - The Meade County Messenger


Vol. 115, No. 08	February 20, 2008

$1.85 million for Riverport Road
Who pays the bill?

By LARRY SEE JR.
Messenger Staff

Road construction plans are progressing, but the costs raised the eyebrows of one citizen.

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet representative Gary Valentine said construction plans are completed and students from the University of Kentucky will complete an archaeological study of the area.

The total project cost is $1.85 million, Valentine said, which he said could be paid in one of two ways.

The first option is entering into an agreement with the state whereby the Riverport would reimburse up to $600,000 of the cost.

The second option, according to Valentine, is the state does the work and the Riverport reimburses for any costs over $600,000.

Valentine also said the right-of-way can’t be completed until the environmental process was completed, and indicated he had read there might be a new owner in the area.

“There is something in the works right now,” county Industrial Development Authority Chairman David Pace said. “But we will still own the property.”

Pace thought drawings for the road were similar to what was sent to the district transportation office in Elizabethtown, adding he hadn’t seen any revised drawings.

Valentine gave him the new plans, which showed a slightly modified drawing, and added he would e-mail him the legal description.

Consultant Mike Flint asked if the county used federal funds if they would have to follow federal guidelines, to which Valentine replied they would.

If there was only one owner for the right-of-way, the transfer could take place within a week’s time, Valentine said. He also said the right-of-way and the utility relocations could be handled concurrently.

Valentine stopped short of indicating when the utility relocation would be completed, adding he couldn’t speak for the utility’s timeframe.

Valentine said advertising needed to be completed, causing Flint to estimate it might be two to three months before work could commence.

Pace said the phase one environmental work had been done on the entire site, which Valentine agreed with, but added some deep trenching was required.

“We need to spend about $6,000 on the archaeology work and get the necessary approvals from the Kentucky Heritage Council,” Valentine said. “The numbers could be less or more though.”

“Until you have the funding how are you going to do this,” Pace asked. He thought there would be enough project funding and now it looks like the Riverport is short about $400,000.

“I’m sort of shocked right now,” Pace said. “I thought there was a way to pay for the roadwork. I don’t know where we are going to get the rest of the money to pay for the roadway.”

“We do have 10 percent of the costs in there for contingency,” Valentine said. “If the county oversees this construction, we probably won’t use all of these funds.”

“That could maybe be about $200,000,” Flint said.

Valentine said there could be some savings on the bid price, adding it was hard for the cabinet to predict the actual costs.

Board chairman Joe Wright wondered if the utility relocation costs could be reduced further, indicating he thought there might have been a change at the firm.

“The same gentleman who made the original deal is still there,” Pace said.

Using a best-case scenario, Flint estimated it might be mid-summer before the project could be ready for bidding.

“By the time we meet in April we should have the results of the archaeological study,” Valentine said. “The cabinet is handling that aspect. After that we would be able to handle the right-of-way at that time.”

In a related matter, Flint reported the GeoTech engineers have been secured to do a spring survey.

An exact date couldn’t be determined, Flint said, as a lot depended on the river level and the weather.

Flint expressed relief the firm was on board, indicating earlier they might be hard to acquire due to their busy schedule.

“We have got GeoTech ready to go and that is critical,” he said.

Click Here to Go Back