Mayor presses engineers again on shoddy work

FORT MADISON – Fort Madison Mayor Matt Mohrfeld once again has raised his eyebrows at additional costs for infrastructure projects in the city.
Tuesday evening, Mohrfeld questioned City Public Works Director Mark Bousselot on why the city is incurring slightly more than $100,000 in change orders as part of the Avenue L overlay project from 20^th to 30^th Streets.
The increase results from three change orders, two which increase the cost of the project, and one that provides a little relief.
The majority of the cost comes from what appears to be an oversight on the work done several years ago when the intersection of Avenue L and 27^th Street was redone. Councilman Rusty Andrews summarized that everyone assumed the entire intersection was reconstructed when it was angled between Walgreens and Hy-Vee, however, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
“I think some people had in their mind that 27th was done knowing the level of survey he did because this is a mill and overlay. He surveyed every inch of that thing, you know. It is kinda disappointing he didn't say 27th St. isn't completely replaced,” Andrews said.
Bousselot said evidently that project included patching some spots, but not replacing the concrete and he noticed this when he was setting up detours for the project currently underway.
“When this happened I wasn't here, but I think the engineer was under the assumption that the pavement on Avenue L had been replaced because we realigned everything.  As they were out looking and surveying, they're seeing that the sections of roadway at the intersection of Avenue L has further deteriorated,” Bousselot said.
Warner Engineering Associates out of Mt. Pleasant did the design work on the project.
“I went out there and took a look, and what happened is when we did  the realignment of 27th, we didn't redo the intersection.”
He said new concrete was placed from the curb line south on 27th and new concrete was placed from the curb line north on 27^th and there is a patch in the two westbound lanes around the manhole that is new, but everything else is the old, existing pavement.
“So these quantities were not in the original contract. This is more or less an adjustment of all the quantities that would be associated with milling to the intersection, pouring the concrete, fixing the curb, and then tying back in on 27th going northbound and southbound for a total of $131,065.38,” he said.
The total project now will cost the city $2,523,907, an increase of $108,000 over the original contract of $2,415,777 with Jones Contracting Corp. of West Point.
“So when we designed this, we just blindly assumed that this was good. Nobody walks this project. We hire a professional engineer, they run a survey, and nobody renders an opinion on this intersection, nobody says anything,” Mohrfeld said.

“It got missed during the design,” Bousselot said. “We’re catching it now.”
He also said if the additional work had been caught during the original design, it still would have cost the city for the extra quantities and work, which has been estimated at five days. The engineering firm won’t be charging the city for the design of the additional work, Bousselot said.
“Don’t we pay somebody to do these designs for us?,” Mohrfeld said. “Didn’t we give them, like, a couple of years to do a nine-month project? And yet we missed something like an intersection.”
Andrews said boots have been on the ground for two years to come up with plans the project is built on.
“It is unfortunate that someone didn’t say 27^th isn’t completely replaced and is in the same condition as the other blocks. But here we are with a change order that the city is handcuffed to do,” he said.
Bousselot said, realistically, had this been caught earlier in the design, those quantities would have been in the bid and the city would have awarded the contract at about $130,000 more.
“So our dollar amount is the same now as it would have been on bid day had it been included,” Andrews said.
Mohrfeld said the city puts their faith in the professionals to design a solid project and then the city is let down “miserably”. 
“What else did they miss on the project? Stop signs, loops, this. Are we gonna get past 10 fingers on this?”
The loops Mohrfeld referenced are loops that were included to be reinstalled at the intersection of 24^th and L, but with the new fire station being relocated, the loops won’t be required. That resulted in a savings of about $25,000 on the project. The signs were the first change order approved Tuesday. That change order of $2,500 is to replace current traffic control signs from wood to telespar, or square steel frames.
In other action, the council:
• approved a $670,000 contract with Blue Top Excavating for the Denmark Hill Booster Station.
• approved a resolution setting a credit/debit surcharge of 2.5% on all debit and credit card transactions for city services effective May 1, 2025.
• recognized April 2025 at Sexual Assault Awareness Month and read a proclamation as such.