Cookeville has approved a change to the engineering contract to relocate utilities as part of finishing up T-DOT’s Jefferson Avenue Widening Project.
The amendment will add an estimated $47,750 to the city’s contract with T-DOT. City Manager James Mills said the amendment is to continue the engineering inspection services for the relocation of utilities, as the project is still not completed.
“It’s just gone longer than anybody anticipated, including T-DOT and, for sure, the contractor has gone way over what everybody expected,” Mills said. “But we can’t close down our engineering until the project is shut down.”
Cookeville Water Quality Control Director Barry Turner said the city would need to negotiate with T-DOT to cover some of the additional cost, as the amendment would exceed the contract amount.
“We would have to negotiate with T-DOT to get them to cover some of this additional,” Turner said. “But we’ve got to keep going on the project and get across the finish line, and we gotta get some as-built drawings and such, so we anticipate getting some additional money from T-DOT.”
Turner said the contract that the city has with T-DOT is paying 100 percent of the engineering amount and 80 percent of the inspection cost. Turner said the original contract with T-DOT was agreed upon in 2018 and featured a cost-plus agreement for engineering and inspection services. Turner said the first amendment to the contract was made in 2021.
The contractor finished installing water lines last month. The contractor still needs to adjust the elevation of several water meters and fire hydrants. The Cookeville City Council approved the amendment at its recent council meeting.
