Published 7/17/2007

By RACHEL DAVIS
rdavis@gctelegram.com

The road construction project stretching from the intersection of Campus Drive to the bypass along Kansas Avenue has been stalled because the contractor assigned to it is on another job, city officials said this morning.

Steve Cottrell, Garden City engineer, said the contractor, Dobson Brothers Co. out of Lincoln, Neb., stopped work in Garden City to finish up the Wyatt Earp Boulevard project in Dodge City and is expected back at the end of the week to finish the Campus Drive/Kansas Avenue project.

The Garden City project began May 14.

Cottrell said he is trying to stay optimistic and hopes the contractor can finish the project by the mid-November deadline.

He said the project is part of a partnership between the city and the Kansas Department of Transportation.

Cottrell said the city's share of the project is $889,000 and KDOT funded $1,448,600 for the construction. The total cost of the project is $2,337,600.

Kirk Hutchinson, public affairs manager for KDOT's southwest region, said if the contractor fails to meet the deadline set forth in the bid, the company will be penalized $1,375 per day for each day it goes past the deadline.

He said the contractor has 120 working days to finish the Garden City project.

However, the contractor is not penalized for not working on days of bad weather or weather-related conditions like the dirt work turning into mud.

The full scope of the project begins at the intersection of Campus Drive and Kansas Avenue.

Cottrell said concrete pavement, five lanes wide, will start from East Campus Drive and end near the Target/Burger King driveway. From that area another stretch of concrete pavement five lanes wide will continue to the bypass. The rest of Kansas Avenue will be resurfaced with asphalt and curbs and gutters replaced where needed. He also said the avenue will be marked for five lanes of traffic.

Matt Allen, assistant Garden City manager, said his office has received complaints about the construction and is frustrated with the delay.

"The project started and now it just sits there for weeds to grow in the dirt work," he said.

The project manager for Dobson Brothers Co. could not be reached for comment this morning.

Cottrell said the contractor did not mention the Dodge City job in its bid for Garden City.

However, Cottrell said even if he had known about the Dodge City job, he still would have hired the company.

"I thought they were a big enough company with enough employees to cover both jobs," Cottrell said. "I guess that isn't the case."

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I was thinking that you fine people in Dodge City would like to know what is happening to us over here in Garden City.