By KEVIN NEVERS

Walsh & Kelly Inc. of Griffith—which just completed the re-surfacing of Indian Boundary Road between Ind. 49 and North Calumet Road—has been awarded the contract for Phase I of the South Calumet Business District project.

At its meeting Monday night, the Chesterton Town Council voted 5-0, on the recommendation of the Redevelopment Commission, to award the contract for Phase I to Walsh & Kelly, whose bid of $512,086.10 was around $7,000 less than that of the next lowest bidder, Rieth-Riley Construction of Gary, which submitted a bid of $519,352.84.

Grimmer Construction Inc. of Highland submitted a bid of $563,019.10 and Haas Construction of Calumet City, Ill., one of $611,949.

As Town Attorney Chuck Lukmann noted, Walsh & Kelly’s bid was nearly $90,000 less than the $600,000 at which the contracted project engineer, DLZ of South Bend, had previously estimated the hard construction costs of Phase I.

Phase I consists chiefly of the construction of a connector road between 100E and South Calumet Road, to be aligned with the entrance to Round the Clock; the construction of the intersection of 100E and Beverly Drive Extended; and the installation of a stormsewer link to an existing detention basin on Beverly Drive.

Phase II—scheduled for completion in 2009—consists of improvements to 1100N, 100E, and South Calumet Road, including the installation of a traffic signal at the intersection of 1100N and 100E; roadway lighting; street- and landscaping; and the installation of a detention basin west of South Calumet Road.

Paving

In other business, Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg told the council that, aside from some striping and the replacement of loops, the re-surfacing of Indian Boundary Road is finished. To the Chesterton Police Department and Street Department employees, Schnadenberg gave the credit for maintaining smooth traffic patterns over the duration of the project.

But he did have a question. Sometime in June the other major paving project of the season will commence: the re-surfacing of Broadway between Eighth and 19th streets, to be funded with CEDIT moneys. A bit of cash should be left when that project is complete, and Schnadenberg wanted to know whether to apply that money to an overlay cap for the badly degraded Eighth Street between Broadway and West Morgan Ave. or to sidewalk replacement.

The consensus of the council: cap Eighth Street. It’s in bad shape and, as Member Jeff Trout, R-2nd, remarked, now that WiseWay Foods is gone and truck traffic on Eighth Street much reduced, a cap should last much longer on that stretch of road than it would have, say, 10 years ago.

Members accordingly voted 5-0 to instruct Schnadenberg to plan for the cap.

Brush Collection

Meanwhile, the spiking cost of fuel is prompting Schnadenberg to ask all residents with brush in need of collection to call the Street Department at 926-2222 and arrange for a pickup. Gas, he said, is just too expensive now for a crew to make rounds in town “just looking for brush.”

Residents’ cooperation and patience are appreciated, Schnadenberg emphasized.

50/50 Program

Schnadenberg also told the council that the Street Department’s 50/50 sidewalk program continues to get takers. Most recently, he said, Hopkins Ace Hardware took advantage of the program, under which the Street Department demolishes and removes the old sidewalk and the property owner pays for the new concrete.

Able Disposal also got in on it, after requesting the Street Department to widen the corners at the intersection of North Calumet Road and Wabash Ave., where garbage trucks were having trouble making the sharp turn.

Posted 5/28/2008