WESTOVER — The estimated cost of Westover’s Holland Avenue project has ballooned to nearly $4 million.
During a Monday update to Westover City Council, Doug Smith, of The Thrasher Group, said the working estimate currently sits at $3.8 million.
That’s up from an earlier projection of $2.6 million.
“I don’t know about the rest of council, but this shocked me,” Councilor Steve Andryzcik said. “I was just starting to digest the little over $2 million, and here we are well over $3 million.”
Smith said the new price estimate is based on projects being bid across the state.
“The numbers have just been outrageous. Pipe prices have been 100% higher in some cases than what they were two years ago,” Smith said. “I don’t see anything that tells me in the next one or two years that trend is going to get any better.”
The project will address about 2,000 feet of Holland Avenue, including destroyed sanitary sewer and stormwater lines beneath the street’s surface. It will also address the large retaining wall that runs along lower Holland Avenue.
City officials have already indicated all of Westover’s $1.7 million in American Rescue Plan dollars will go toward the project.
Smith said a big part of his task going forward will be identifying the balance. The remaining funds, he said, will likely come as a combination of grants and loans. It will also come from customers of Westover’s sanitary sewer system.
“I’m struggling to see anywhere where we’re going to see 100% grant funding for this project,” Smith said. “The other side of this, the sanitary, yeah, you should be anticipating a rate increase of some type. Without getting deep into your finances and knowing what those are, my anticipation is that you will be needing to do a rate increase to come up with some portion of this.”
According to Smith, an upcoming meeting with the West Virginia Division of Highways will help determine if the DOH’s planned paving project on Holland can be put on hold until the work is complete, removing some of the surface work from the project cost.
“My job is to get this project funded, one way or another, and to give you the options to do that,” Smith said. “That is on my shoulders.”
