The PCTI project, also known as the Wood Street-Derstine Avenue Connector Project, has ended up with a $289,000 shortfall that the borough—and taxpayers—will have to meet to complete the project.

At a recent Public Works Committee meeting, public works director Jake Ziegler said a contract for the project came in with the lowest bidder of Marino Corp. for $3,089,420.

The last job Marino Corp. did for the borough was the widening of Lansdale Avenue and Church Road in front of St. Stanislaus.

Ziegler said the bid was close to the engineer’s estimate for the project. The next lowest, he said, was near $3.5 million. The highest bid was around $4.5 million.

“In addition to that, we got a supplemental grant of $47,308,” Ziegler said.

All in all, the borough has $3,547,308  in grant money for the project.

However, that is not enough to cover the rising costs accumulating even before the project breaks ground.

“We had a preliminary design contract that we entered into with (borough traffic engineer) Pennoni Associates that was for $350,000,” Ziegler said. “You subtract out the bid amount of $3,089,000, subtract out $25,000 that PennDOT is taking from the grant because they can, and that leaves a remainder of about $83,000.”

Ziegler said the borough still has to fund the construction inspection and construction management.

“It was thought if the bids came in to allow us to do that, that it could be funded under the grant,” Ziegler said. “With the bid coming in at $3,089,000, plus other stuff, that means we have to carryover with borough funds.”

Ziegler said the borough had almost $83,000, and the construction inspection came in at $263,000.

As far as construction management, Ziegler said the project is a design-build project. The contractor had to hire their own engineer to complete the design, he said.

“PennDOT really doesn’t want to review that design. They want the borough’s engineering firm to review the design,” he said. “Since Pennoni did the preliminary, they will basically oversee the final design.”

The cost for that contract is $109,000. As of now, that contract has been entered into.

“At this point in time,” Ziegler said, “if we stop things here, we are in effect committing to an additional $289,000.”

But the costs do not stop there.

It has been determined that sanitary sewer repair must be done at Vine Street and Derstine Avenue before the project is underway.

Chris Fazio, borough engineer of the firm Remington, Vernick & Beach Engineers, said that work would be an additional cost of $240,000 with contingencies.

Furthermore, there are costs added in for right-of-way acquisition of a 32-square-foot parcel at the corner of Wood Street and Derstine Avenue.

“PennDOT wil do the work in determining what that is, and the borough will fund that,” Ziegler said.

The agreement with Marino Corp. was signed this week, and the design is currently being completed.

Ziegler said the design work will be finished in about 11 months and will be implemented after approval from PennDOT.

Construction on the connector project will begin in spring 2012 with a 12- to 15-month construction schedule.