Work begins on county stream bank projects
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
A heavy equipment operator using a track-hoe dumps riprap on the steeply sloping east bank of Norvey Creek at Liberty Road southeast of Hopkins. The anti-erosion work is one of four stream bank stabilization projects to be carried out over the next three months under a federal grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Work began last week on the first of four county bridge sites approved for stream bank stabilization work largely funded through a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant administered through USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Young General Contracting of Poplar Bluff dispatched two large track-hoes to a bridge spanning Norvey Creel on Liberty Road southeast of Hopkins. The big machines were used to cover sloping banks with tons of riprap just east and west of the bridge in an effort to stop fast-flowing water from undermining the span following heavy rains.
Other eroded banks targeted by the project include three locations along the One Hundred and Two River north of Maryville near bridges east of Highway 148 on 220th, 190th, and 180th streets.
Though the federal funding, which carries a requirement for a 25 percent local match, was approved earlier this year, the project was briefly delayed last month after contractor bids came in higher than estimates provided by NRCS staff.
The Nodaway County Commission worked with NRCS over the summer to move the stream bank stabilization project forward and at first feared the high bids would push the effort into spring 2016.
During the proposal’s initial stages, NRCS proposed providing nearly $900,000 in federal funds for riprapping banks near as many as a dozen bridges in various parts of the county in exchange for a $224,000 local match.
Due both to the size of the match and an Oct. 15 project deadline, the commission decided to accept funding for only four locations.
In order to keep the project alive, NRCS pushed back the deadline, and the commission now expects work at all four sites to be completed by early in the new year.
The original low bid of $710,000 from Young was set aside because it exceeded NRCS’ $602,000 estimate, a total that included a $150,000 local match.
But after the bid was placed on hold, the agency subsequently determined the offer was justified by actual project costs.
That decision allowed funds to be shifted from the original $896,000 allocated for all 12 bridge sites in order to provide more dollars for the four stream bank locations identified by the commission.
The new local match — 25 percent of $710,000 — comes to approximately $177,000.
