Whether or not the Fall Creek Road Extension will survive the current budget stress the city of Branson is working through remains in limbo. At its Sep. 8 meeting the Branson Board of Aldermen postponed a bill accepting the bid of Emery Sapp & Sons d/b/a/ ESS Contractors, subject to a change work order, until no later than Oct. 28. The original bid for the whole project was $4,545,681.
As originally bid, the project would have been the final phase of construction on a new main north south artery on the east end of the strip between the intersection of Fall Creek Road and Highway 76 and Fall Creek’s eventual intersection with Roark Valley Road to the north at its current intersection with Epps Road. Epps Road provides direct access to and from Highway 248. The original bid also covered the realignment and straightening of the “s” jog of Fall Creek Road slightly south of its intersection with Highway 76.
The change order bill, designed to be more fiscally in tune with Branson’s current budget situation was for a revised amount of $3,116,728. This would have resulted in a reduction of $1,428, 953 from the original bid of $4,545, 681 by deleting the paving from the project north of Highway 76. It had been prepared and placed on the agenda prior to receiving additional financial information from the city’s financial consultants, Office Direct, LLC, on Friday of last week.
Branson City Administrator Dean Kruithof said after receiving that information he was going to recommend the rejection of the bid even with the change order and a rebid just for the south side realignment of Fall Creek Road to eliminate the “s” jog. He also pointed out that earlier in the day the contractor had offered to keep the bid open until Oct. 28 so that additional financial options could be explored. Kruithof, pointing out that the bid was an excellent bid, recommended that issue be postponed so that all options could be examined more fully and the city’s Capital Improvement Committee could be more involved in the decision.
During the discussion of the motion, prior to its postponement Mark Weiss pointed out that the citizens of Branson had been promised the road during two previous transportation tax votes. Both Branson Aldermen Rick Davis and Stephen Marshall said they had heard from their constituents about their displeasure with the “s” jog and expect, at a minimum, it will be eliminated.
City Engineer David Miller was asked how the “s” jog came about. Miller replied originally there was no “s” jog in the first phase of the project but as the project got closer to bidding he was directed to cut it to the bone and to those items necessary to complete only the intersection. He did as directed and approximately $200,000 was saved. No one asked who issued the direction.
A motion to postpone consideration of the Fall Creek Road Extension to no later than Oct. 28 was approved unanimously.
