UPDATE: With Still a Year to Go, Additional Costs Hit Red Gate Bridge Project

Updated 11/30:

Less than a year remains before the Thanksgiving 2012 expected completion date for the Red Gate Bridge project.

After announcing earlier this month that the was expected to be completed by this past Thanksgiving, the is looking tack more than $66,000 in additional costs before moving into the second phase of the $30-million bridge project.

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The project change orders presented to a City Council committee Monday night include the following:

• $7,797.37 for the removal of dumped materials discovered on the Route 31 side of the project
• $4,834.27 to remove additional dumped materials found on the Route 25 side
• $13,769.62 for a build an under drain system to catch groundwater seeping through granular fill used in an embankment
• $42,528 to increase the length of driven pile lengths and additional pile splicing because of unknown field conditions

City staff also are looking to get ahead of the second leg of construction, which will include the bulk of the main bridge work, and also are asking for $205,000 to build a temporary peninsula on the Fox River. Building this causeway now or, rather, after the expected approval of these change orders by the City Council next month, would give the city a jump on what’s called a Environmental Quiet Period, running from March 1 to the middle of June, for the river.

“It will give us a jump on maintaining the original schedule,” said St. Charles Mayor Don DeWitte. Building of the causeway would begin shortly after its approval.

The cost of these change orders is on top of the $1.6 million bid for the first phase of the project.

DeWitte was quick to point out after the Government Services committee meeting that, even with the additional costs, the first stage of the project remains under the original budgeted cost of $2.3 million.