The main portions of Lake City’s downtown street project are now finished after the city council approved a certificate of substantial completion at their meeting Monday evening. The contractor, Caliber Concrete, got to work in May and finished pouring the last pieces of concrete in October. Administrator, Eric Wood, says only a few minor items remain before they can consider the project finished.
Officials went into the project with an initial cost estimate of $900,000, and Wood says they nearly hit the mark, going over by only $30,000 due to a single change order. Sidewalks surrounding city square were removed and replaced along with areas of North Center Street. Thanks to the dry summer, contractors were able to finish well in advance of the original Nov. 15 deadline. Wood notes they have a similar but separate project ongoing on South Street.
Wood credits the delay to issues with having underground utility services and above ground power and telephone lines moved to allow for the work to proceed. The project engineers, ISG of Storm Lake, informed city officials the soonest those conduits could be moved would be June 30, 2021. According to Wood, Caliber Concrete will be back on site after that date to finish the remainder of the project.
