BAC Expansion

As the Co. Rd. 24 trail project is coming to a close another project is just about to get started. The Becker Athletic Complex (BAC), otherwise know as the ball fields; will see an expansion of an additional green area for youth sports. This area contemplates 3 playing fields but can be used in a number of different ways.

The project contains almost 7 acres of land directly south of the existing parking area which is presently an open field of scrub grass and small trees. These multi-use fields can be used for any outside sport. They can be used for football, soccer, lacrosse, small field softball and tee ball and other activities as needed.

The project included a number of pieces to accomplish and meet other goals of the city. The first part of the project was a directional boring component which brought pipe from the golf course to the ball field area. This was done to get water from the golf course water source and wells to the ball field area. By bringing this water into the area we were able to connect the ball fields irrigation system to this water source. By removing the present connection to the domestic water supply we eliminated some costs as we don’t need to use treated water for irrigation and we reduce the quantity of water used from the domestic system. The benefit of this may be obvious but having increased capacity in the domestic system not only supports household use it also reduces the use of the existing water wells we use for drinking water. This reduction is 200,000 to 400,000 gallons per month in the summer months. This new water source will also serve the new green areas in the BAC. Running the water from the golf course used existing capacity there while saving a new well from being installed at the BAC. Over all this was a cheaper option while providing for some added goals.

Our estimate for this work was $37,500 and the quotes came in far less than that at $20,855.48. The low quote was received was from R.P. Schroeder Construction of Big Lake.

The actual excavation and utility pipe work at the site was a larger project that needed bids to accomplish. The original estimate for the dirt work, storm sewer and sanitary sewer was estimated at $283,625. After some discussion and review of the existing soils the topsoil borrow was reduced by $54,275. Prior to bidding this topsoil was again reduced to project in exchange for a soil amendment of peat to be incorporated into the existing soil at the site. With the estimate of $230,891.10 the city went out for bids.

Bids were received on Monday July 14, 2008 from 13 bidders. Bids ranged from a high of $215,594.35 to the low bid of $139,932.15, with the majority of the bidders in the range of $170,000. The low bidder was RL Larson Excavating from St. Cloud. This bid was almost $27,000 under the next bidder. Having the project come in almost $90,000 under the estimate was amazing.

To finish up this was the final addition of the irrigation equipment for the new fields. The estimate for this was $37,500. This quote came in at $26,680 from Rocky Mountain Construction of Zimmerman. An additional controller will be added to this at $2500 bringing the total to $31,180.

Overall the city was able to reduce the cost from the original estimate by $112,906. Total project costs are at $255,944. It is expected that the project will be installed and seeded by this fall. Grass growth will be needed to occur next year with the possibility of play in the fall of 2009 or spring of 2010. This soft economy does provide for some bargains.