"The cost of construction has gone up significantly.”
2001 county bond work estimates up $12.7 million
Feb 01, 2006
By BRAD ROLLINS
San Marcos Daily Record
Copyright 2006
County road improvements approved by voters five years ago will cost at least $12.7 million more than originally projected, forcing officials to cut projects and juggle priorities to make ends meet.
Roughly half of the $47 million package authorized in a 2001 election - about $26 million - was budgeted for widening and straightening 37.8 miles of county roads. The remaining $21 million was supposed to go toward paying part of improvements to state highways, including Ranch Road 12 and Texas 21, and constructing the San Marcos loop.
Now the county road portion alone is projected to cost at least $34.3 million despite a scaled-down program of 26.4 miles of improvements, five miles of which have been completed.
Three projects - Satterwhite, Fischer Store and Mount Gainor roads - have been cut from the package alltogether though officials say they will be improved at some point with non-bond money.
“Clearly costs and services have increased beyond what anyone expected,” said Commissioner Will Conley, the only commissioner not in office at the time the packaged passed. “...It's extremely difficult to grab a crystal ball and see what construction costs are going to do in the next five or 10 years. But this is definitely a lesson for future bond elections.”
In a court workshop on Tuesday called to examine the overruns, a consultant overseeing the program said the cost of construction materials and right-of-way comprise most of the increases.
Market rates for oil, steel, concrete and earthworks have all increased significantly in the last five years while massive projects in the region, such as the Texas 130 toll road, have increased demand for contractors, said Bob Sutton of Turner Collie and Braden.
“Ultimately, contractors are the ones that determine the cost of a road,” said Sutton said. “...These big contracts are keeping contractors busy so the cost of construction has gone up significantly.”
Original estimates for buying right-of-way were calculated based on an estimated $4,000 per acre. The actual average cost so far has been $16,000 per acre and ranges as high as $26,000, Sutton said. The cost of relocating utilities and modify railroad crossings have been about $2.2 million more than expected.
Another cost went unmentioned. Turner Collie and Braden's management fees have increased from $449,809 to about $1.2 million so far. Another $1.2 million has been spent managing bond financing.
The discussion that followed Sutton's update quickly erupted in fireworks, coming little more than a month before the March 7 primary in which Commissioners Susie Carter and Russ Molenaar and County Judge Jim Powers face challengers from their own parties.
Carter took exception with priorities for state road funding, an issue separate from the county road overruns. She blasted suggestions that another bond election may be necessary to complete roads included in the first one.
“I think taxpayers have a reason to complain. ...I don't see how we can ask them to trust us to do what's right if we haven't done the best we could this time around,” she said.
Powers said afterwards that the construction cost increases on the county portion of the bond package are justified by market rates.
“I definitely understand the overruns,” Powers said. “There's no question why the costs have done what they've done. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that everything is costing more.”
© 2006, San Marcos Daily Record www.sanmarcosrecord.com
Feb 01, 2006
By BRAD ROLLINS
San Marcos Daily Record
Copyright 2006
County road improvements approved by voters five years ago will cost at least $12.7 million more than originally projected, forcing officials to cut projects and juggle priorities to make ends meet.
Roughly half of the $47 million package authorized in a 2001 election - about $26 million - was budgeted for widening and straightening 37.8 miles of county roads. The remaining $21 million was supposed to go toward paying part of improvements to state highways, including Ranch Road 12 and Texas 21, and constructing the San Marcos loop.
Now the county road portion alone is projected to cost at least $34.3 million despite a scaled-down program of 26.4 miles of improvements, five miles of which have been completed.
Three projects - Satterwhite, Fischer Store and Mount Gainor roads - have been cut from the package alltogether though officials say they will be improved at some point with non-bond money.
“Clearly costs and services have increased beyond what anyone expected,” said Commissioner Will Conley, the only commissioner not in office at the time the packaged passed. “...It's extremely difficult to grab a crystal ball and see what construction costs are going to do in the next five or 10 years. But this is definitely a lesson for future bond elections.”
In a court workshop on Tuesday called to examine the overruns, a consultant overseeing the program said the cost of construction materials and right-of-way comprise most of the increases.
Market rates for oil, steel, concrete and earthworks have all increased significantly in the last five years while massive projects in the region, such as the Texas 130 toll road, have increased demand for contractors, said Bob Sutton of Turner Collie and Braden.
“Ultimately, contractors are the ones that determine the cost of a road,” said Sutton said. “...These big contracts are keeping contractors busy so the cost of construction has gone up significantly.”
Original estimates for buying right-of-way were calculated based on an estimated $4,000 per acre. The actual average cost so far has been $16,000 per acre and ranges as high as $26,000, Sutton said. The cost of relocating utilities and modify railroad crossings have been about $2.2 million more than expected.
Another cost went unmentioned. Turner Collie and Braden's management fees have increased from $449,809 to about $1.2 million so far. Another $1.2 million has been spent managing bond financing.
The discussion that followed Sutton's update quickly erupted in fireworks, coming little more than a month before the March 7 primary in which Commissioners Susie Carter and Russ Molenaar and County Judge Jim Powers face challengers from their own parties.
Carter took exception with priorities for state road funding, an issue separate from the county road overruns. She blasted suggestions that another bond election may be necessary to complete roads included in the first one.
“I think taxpayers have a reason to complain. ...I don't see how we can ask them to trust us to do what's right if we haven't done the best we could this time around,” she said.
Powers said afterwards that the construction cost increases on the county portion of the bond package are justified by market rates.
“I definitely understand the overruns,” Powers said. “There's no question why the costs have done what they've done. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that everything is costing more.”
© 2006, San Marcos Daily Record
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Wednesday, February 01, 2006
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