– The St. Martin Parish Council approved a resolution for a change order extending the bulkhead work on Box Car Road another 180 feet to further shore up and stabilize the land adjacent to the Vermilion River and the roadway.
That decision followed a lengthy discussion about whether the work could be approved as a change order to the current project that was to be voted substantially complete at the council meeting, or if the additional work needed to be let out for bids as a separate project.
Delcambre said that on Feb. 26 a crack that the initial work was supposed to have taken care of had widened by the next day and by the following Monday, the shelf of the embankment had sunk 15 inches.
Delcambre said that since the contract was in substantial completion but had not be officially deemed complete, the parish had the opportunity to make a change order to the contract. The cost would be roughly half of what the previous section of work had been, because it was about half the size of the initial linear footage.
Box Car
The original project was budgeted at $1.5 million and the extension was budgeted at $750,000.
Delcambre said the parish has funds available from the Herman Dupuis Road project and from the initial Box Car Road project that would allow the construction fund to be able to take care of the project.
Councilwoman Carla JeanBatiste asked parish attorney Lee Durio if it would be legal for the work to be approved as a change order rather than having bids sought as a new project.
Durio said state law says that a change order within the scope of a project is any alteration, deviation, addition or omission related to an existing public works contract, that does not alter the nature of the thing being constructed and is an integral part of the project.
A change order outside the scope is one that alters the nature of the project being constructed and is not an integral part.
He said the engineers for the project indicated it was within the scope of the project, which is road stabilization and repair.
Council Chairman Chris Tauzin asked if opening the project to bids would possibly bring in a lower bid, and what the delay would be if it went out to bid.
Delcambre said the procedure and materials would be exactly the same as the first part of the project. Durio added that if the unit price is the same, it would not change the scope of the project. If the unit price changed, it would likely mean the project would have to be rebid.
Delcambre said that it would take about two months for the current contractor to receive the materials and would be able to begin work at that point.
No injection wells
The council approved a resolution opposing Class VI injection wells designed for long-term sequestration of carbon dioxide gases in the parish.
The council had heard from the public at its February committee meetings, with two speakers opposing carbon capture and the injection of the CO underground.
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