MARSHALL — The Marshall Public School District school board this week approved one of the four bids for the reconstruction of the middle school parking lot.

The project calls for redesigning the lot, due to deterioration and improving pedestrian safety. The board accepted the bid from Joe Riley Construction, based in Morris. A contract is to be presented to the board at the next June 1 meeting.

Marshall Public Schools partnered with ORB Management, a partner of the district’s on past projects, to help provide leadership and management of the parking lot project. Ryan Melchert, project manager with ORB, attended Monday’s meeting virtually to discuss the bid results and its recommendation to the board to approve Joe Riley Construction for the project.

“What our RFP (Request for Proposal) did, was our RFP (asked for) a base bid with value engineering deducts. So, the goal was to have everyone on a level playing field, but encourage the contractors to think of ways the district could save dollars,” Melchert said. “The RFP suggested to all contractors to consider reusing the existing asphalt as the new base for the parking lot, so long as it met or exceeded specifications of the new class high-gravel base.”

The district and ORB also received bids from D & G Excavating, R & G Construction and Duininck.

R & G and Duininck are both based in Marshall, as is D & G in Lynd.

Regarding original base bids, Duininck was listed for $657,613, R & G Construction for $665,881.85, Joe Riley Construction for $668,731.53 and D & G Excavating for $647,841.75.

“Both D & G and Joe Riley did include that value engineering deduct, and when we take that deduct into account, Joe Riley Construction is the lowest by about $14,000,” Melchert detailed. “This does align with our project budget that was created early on based on the dollars that were budgeted for the project through long-term facilities maintenance.”

Detailed by ORB, the total bid from Joe Riley Construction following the value engineering deduct, while reclaiming the existing asphalt to use as the new base, is $600,931.53. D & G was listed at a total bid of $614,848.75.

“With that low bid, we are right where we were hoping to be to bring this project in on budget. So, with those results, we would offer the recommendation to proceed with contract discussions with Joe Riley Construction, that does follow Minnesota state statutes of awarding to the lowest bidder,” Melchert said. “I have had discussions with them already on their value engineering deduct, and they are prepared to write that in the contract and write a contract based on that amount.”

The district and ORB also partnered with Hagstrom Engineering to help create the new project plan, who have begun taking a look at the area.

“What we’ve done to date, is we’ve on-boarded Hangstrom Engineering, that’s the civil engineer. We’ve completed a survey of the project area, we’ve advanced drawings from conceptual through construction documents with estimates, we’ve created an RFP that went out,” Melchert said. “We had a sealed bid opening last Tuesday, and since then, we’ve compiled the results, and reviewed them for accuracy and completeness.”

“It’s (Hagstrom Engineering) a smaller firm, ORB has worked with them before. We knew we would be able to get a good response and attention from them to keep this project moving without delay,” Melchert added. “One of the main things that they do is parking lots, and they have very relevant experience with doing this with other school parking lots, very similar to the middle school.”

After the board’s approval to accept the bid from Joe Riley Construction, Melchert noted that they will now enter contract negotiations, obtain the necessary permits and get started on the construction.

The project aims to begin late June or early July, with a hope to be completed by the middle to end of July, according to Melchert, in time to welcome staff back in August.

MPS Director of Operations Tricia Stelter presented to the board on April 20 a report about a need to replace and redesign the middle school’s parking lot due to rapid deterioration, improving safety and bettering traffic flow. The parking lot was originally designed to serve a high school.

Notably about the new parking lot design, it will include a one-way entrance and exit, a wraparound drive line, an added bike path and a defined pedestrian walkway. The new design will also improve drainage.

Different from the original parking lot design, detailed by Melchert, is that the bike path will now be over on the side of the track, and will directly enter toward the middle school. The change was made to better keep bikers away from traffic, and it also doesn’t require the trees along part of the entrance to be cut down, where the original bike path was illustrated to be.

The parking lot redesign also just applies to the main area of the parking lot — There will not be any changes made to the bus lanes or the playground area.

The parking lot project will be used entirely with long-term facilities maintenance funds, which does not dip into operational funds. It’s a separate fund that school districts use to pay for maintenance and accessibility-based improvement projects.