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Gallup Council approves $470K Allison bridge construction contract

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Estimated completion date: Sept. 2017

The Gallup City Council unanimously approved a construction management agreement on June 14 that moves the bigger Allison Corridor Project closer to reality. The vote took place at the regular city meeting and none of the council members rejected the replacement initiative.

The vote calls for Bohannan Huston, Inc. — an Albuquerque-based engineering firm — to provide daily oversight services for the building of a new bridge to replace one that was originally built in 1940.

“This is a construction agreement that is part of the actual bridge replacement,” Gallup Public Works Executive Director Stan Henderson told council members. “This is not the actual construction, but it is obviously related to the bridge construction.”

Henderson said the contract covers such things as assistance with boilerplates, construction advertisement, bid tabulation, and award documentation – each in accordance with New Mexico Department of Transportation requirements. Henderson said the contract includes observation, testing, and review and approval of shop drawings and compliance requirements, among other administrative matters.

“If you start in January what is your completion date?” City Councilor Yogash Kumar queried. “That’s what a lot of people want to know.”

Mayor Jackie McKinney asked Henderson, accompanied by BHI transportation engineer Kurt Thorsen and construction engineer Matt Santiesteban, if the overall completion date could be moved back, suggesting that speed is of the essence. The bridge and the bigger $40-million Allison Corridor Project have been talked about in city council circles for the better part of a decade, to no avail. The project is currently one of the biggest in New Mexico to move through its proper channels.

Thorsen replied that a month or two could be “shaved off” if a right-of-way matter could be rectified soon.

“That depends on at least two things,” he said, adding that utility certification was a factor in a faster timeline, too.

The Allison Road bridge is a timber-frame-styled structure and runs north and south over the Puerco River. It has been rated as structurally deficient, garnering a 43.8 rating out of 100. Henderson has told council members in past city council meetings about the bridge.

The exact cost to replace the bridge is $470,345.10, according to Henderson. The construction cost is covered by a series of 2015 funding grants administered by Gov. Susana Martinez.

Those grants total around $4.5 million, Henderson said, and the rest of the funds would go toward construction costs. In past council meetings, the bridge has been estimated to cost around $3 million. The new bridge will be completed in September 2017, barring unforeseen circumstances such as bad weather, according to Henderson.

City Councilor Fran Palochak noted that the bridge is on the same side of town where there is a major exit from Interstate 40; Exit 16 leads to a truck stop and a number of hotels and motels.

The bridge is the first legally required component of the bigger $40-million Allison Corridor Project that, when completed, stands to bring more commercial development to Gallup’s west side, as well as alleviate automobile traffic coming off of US 491 as it spills into Gallup from Window Rock and other locales north along the federal road.

By Bernie Dotson
Sun Correspondent

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