KINGSTON >> The date for contracts to submit their bids for an ambitious soil stabilization project at the Washington Avenue sinkhole site has been pushed back.
City Engineer Ralph Swenson said the city will accept bids on March 18, two weeks later than the original date.
Swenson said that, during recent meetings, would-be contractors asked for additional information about the project. He said that information has been obtained and sent.
Swenson said the later bid date is not likely to delay the actual start of work.
In late January, the city announced it would accept bids March 4 for the soil-stabilization project at the sinkhole as well as piping work at the nearby Tannery Brook.
The sinkhole work is to include the construction of a 10,000-ton underground archway above a 100-year-old leaky stormwater tunnel that has been blamed for creating the sinkhole in the spring of 2011. Several blocks of Washington Avenue have been closed to all but local traffic ever since.
Swenson still expects the Common Council to take up the issue of borrowing money for the two projects at its April 7 meeting, allowing the work to start in May.
The most recent cost estimate for the sinkhole archway project is about $2.6 million. The piping project is expected to cost about $943,000.
The total cost of work related to the sinkhole, which is near the Washington Avenue intersection with Linderman Avenue, has risen to more than $7 million, an amount that includes the upcoming projects.
The U.S. Economic Development Administration has allocated $1.2 million for work related to the sinkhole.
Swenson said the archway project is a “specialized contract” and that he expects “at least three” companies to bid on it. The piping project is likely to draw “quite a few” bidders, he said.
The underground archway is to be 50 feet high and 175 feet long. It was recommended by Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers of New York City.
The archway is to be built beneath the surface of Washington Avenue and above the stormwater tunnel, with the goal of stabilizing the soil at the site.
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