Some Detroit Lakes road and utility projects put on hold after bid rejection by city council

Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – Some potholed roadways around Detroit Lakes received a temporary reprieve from summer road crews after the Detroit Lakes city council rejected the sole bid for three road projects that were expected to get underway this summer and fall.

Roads and utility projects that are receiving a temporary furlough include: the Willow Springs street improvements; the Southwood Shores Estates utilities installation on South Shore Drive; and the entire Detroit Lakes 2023 street rehabilitation project, which included portions of Randolph Road, White Clover Road, 8th Street, 11th Avenue and Burroughs Road.

During a July 11 meeting of the city council, City Engineer Jon Pratt told councilmembers the city only received a single bid for the grouped projects, which was about 40% higher than their project estimates, so city staff recommended rejecting the bid and re-bidding over the winter.

“Unfortunately, we received only one bid on that project,” said Pratt. “I think it’s fairly indicative of the bidding climate right now. Contractors are very full, particularly, paving contractors.”

He also said, by re-bidding the project in the winter, the city could also group a couple more road projects into the current bidding package to make it a more attractive to contractors.

“One option is re-bidding the exact same project,” he said. “Another option would be to potentially combine it with some additional like-work that we have tentatively placed in the capital improvement plan and bid a larger project. But, in either case, we’ll do that this winter when the bidding climate is probably a little bit more favorable.”

Shaun Carlson, alderman for Ward 1 and a Willow Springs resident, said he was disappointed that he and his neighbors will have to go another 9 months with their residential gravel road, but the price tag was just too high and much of that burden would’ve been passed onto the Willow Springs property owners.