Jefferson Street to see sidewalk improvements

Jefferson Street sidewalks, gutters and curbs will be getting an upgrade soon. During the Feb. 11 Fulton City Council meeting, council members voted to approve a bid on the project.
Jefferson Street sidewalks, gutters and curbs will be getting an upgrade soon. During the Feb. 11 Fulton City Council meeting, council members voted to approve a bid on the project.

Jefferson Street will soon be a friendlier place for pedestrians.

During the Feb. 11 Fulton City Council meeting, council members voted unanimously to award a bid to Montgomery City-based Ecton Construction for a curb and gutter renewal project and a sidewalk project.

"We were pleased with the bids that came in, or at least the one we accepted," Fulton Mayor Lowe Cannell said.

This project will be funded through the city's stormwater tax and aided by labor from city employees.

Ecton's base bid of $89,095.50 covers installation of curbs, guttering and driveway approaches on Jefferson Street between Second and Seventh streets. The company's alternate bid of $64,285 covers sidewalk installation along the same stretch of land.

Ecton's base bid is about $37,000 lower than the next-lowest bid, submitted by S&A in Fulton, though the company's alternate bid is about $1,000 higher than the lowest bid. The pricing difference caused some concern for City Council members.

"At $37,000 cheaper, have we done our homework?" Ward 3 councilmember John Braun asked. "Have we used these folks before?"

Interim City Engineer Kyle Bruemmer said Ecton is reliable and comes with good references.

"These guys constructed the Nichols Street parking lot behind Beks for us several years ago," he said. "My staff worked closely with them and had good comments."

Bruemmer said he spoke with Ecton representatives after seeing the low bid and confirmed the amount was correct. Ecton has slipform concrete equipment they believe will help keep costs down, he added.

During the course of the project, Ecton will install about 2,900 feet of concrete curb and gutter with concrete infill, and about 334 square yards of reinforced concrete driveway approach. They'll also install about 11,500 square feet of 5-foot-wide, reinforced concrete sidewalk.

A short walk along Jefferson Street shows the need for this project: Sidewalks are cracked, muddied and uneven in several spots, and curbs are absent in others.

Fulton city employees will remove existing curb, asphalt pavement, sidewalks and driveway approaches and will install the compacted rock base for the construction. (Ecton will have to remove temporary rock entrances to driveways, however.) The city will also provide curb alignment, grade stakeout, traffic control and finish grading.