Spencer board approves soil testing for Park Street, paving by American Asphalt

By Valorie Brecht The Spencer Village Board of Trustees held a special meeting July 8 to get a jump on summer projects for which time was of the essence, namely soil testing and compaction evaluations for Park Street, and new pavement and patching on a couple of village streets.

The village opted to employ American Engineering Testing for the soil testing and compaction evaluations.

“So this is not something we usually do for street projects, but I’ve always thought we should do it,” said Chris Helgestad, village administrator/clerk-treasurer. “And this year especially with it being so wet on Park Street, I thought it was especially appropriate to do it. The engineers vetted the testing companies they usually work with, and there again, Engineering Testing submitted a proposal for just under $18,000.”

American Engineering Testing will visit the project, which was just getting underway the day of the meeting, up to 30 times to take soil samples and test compaction of the road base. Helgestad said the company would take samples of the material being put back into the road to determine how much water content it is allowed to have to meet the compaction requirements.

“Then they’ll be able to come back out with their equipment to make sure the product, as installed, meets those requirements, so the contractor can cover stuff up with confidence, that the product will meet the compaction requirements and not have to dig it up later,” said Helgestad. “With everything being as wet as it is, this is an especially good year to do that type of testing to make sure we don’t have any delays.”

One of the board members asked if this was written into the contract already. Helgestad said no, the contract only included proof testing, which meant driving a loaded dump truck across the road and checking for deflection and seepage. So this contract will go beyond that. Board member Al Jicinsky asked if the village were to go to concrete, would that require a different type of testing? Helgestad said no, it would be the same compaction as for asphalt.

Helgestad said the $18,000 was beyond the amount the board already approved for the contractor; hence, he was coming to the board for approval.

“It will be payable with the funds we borrow for the project,” he said.

Helgestad said the engineers did not include this as part of the initial bid because they did not want the contractor to pick the testing company. However, if the material doesn’t test up to standards, the contractor will be responsible for rectifying the problem. Helgestad said they would be looking to find a place to dry the material they take out, before putting it back in. However, the contractor will be responsible for bringing in virgin material if that’s necessary.

Helgestad said this became an issue after the project in 2016 when the village had Truman and Hickory streets redone.

“That was where we had a lot of wet areas that the contractor had to come back and dig out. And then there was a bit of an argument about if it really needed to be dug out or not, because the contractor said it passed the proofing test with the truck; well, it didn’t because the next time we took a truck out there we could see it, because it had gotten wet since they did the first proof,” said Helgestad.

The village was able to negotiate with the construction company to have most of the areas dug out and the company paid for that, but Helgestad said he would like to avoid going down that path again.

This contract will include 120 hours of personnel time and 2,700 miles of travel time.

Board member Bill Hoes asked if the village skipped the soil testing and compaction evaluations and the street were to fail, wouldn’t the contractor have to come back in and fix it anyway? Helgestad said yes, but it was only a one-year warranty, so if it failed after one year, the contractor would not be responsible. He said this extra step was essentially insurance, or quality control testing to make sure the material going back in was appropriate.

Helgestad said there were some instances where this testing may not be necessary, such as if you were building a road on virgin material that’s never been disturbed before or doing a small-scale project like one or two blocks, but for this scale of a project he recommended it.

“If it wasn’t for all the truck traffic (on Park Street), I’d probably roll the dice with this one,” said board member Tom Schafer.

“I think we almost have to, because all the truck traffic is going to be going down it. At least this way we’re not going to be digging it up in a year,” board member Jeremy Carolfi agreed.

The board voted unanimously to approve the contract for soil testing and compaction evaluations by American Engineering Testing for $17,856.

Park Street is being completely replaced from Willow Drive all the way to Highway 98, including water, sewer and storm sewer lines. The plan is for construction to run through October this year, with it being finished up next spring.

New pavement The village board also approved spending $35,000 for American Asphalt to pave the portions of Elm and Haslow streets that are currently gravel, on the back side of the ball diamond behind the school. This was budgeted for. The original estimate was $36,500, so it came in under budget.

Additionally, the board approved the village spending $14,000 for patching in four locations where the village had to do water main break repairs over the last year and a half.

“The section of Pine Street over by the school forest, that corner just is in extremely rough shape. Even though they did a really good job on the water main break, they disturbed a lot of asphalt because it just kept falling apart,” said Helgestad.

This will come out of the water department budget. American Asphalt plans to use the portable mill they have set up for Highway 13, which if they are able to use, will result in a savings of $5 per ton. The village will also ask to make sure they complete the project before school starts.

“It will take a few days this week to prep the sites… it could theoretically be done next week (the week of July 15),” Helgestad said.

The paving projects were approved unanimously.