South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Bids to be opened today for long-awaited Green Park Road improvement project

Staff Report

Bids for the city of Green Park’s long-awaited Green Park Road improvement project are scheduled to be opened today — Nov. 4.

Bids for the project, which will redevelop a roughly 6,000-foot stretch of Green Park Road from Tesson Ferry Road to Lin Valle Drive, will be opened at 11 a.m. at City Hall, 11100 Mueller Road, Suite 2.

As proposed, Green Park Road will be widened with two extra feet of lanes on each side to make 12-foot lanes.

Other improvements include a new pedestrian pathway along the road’s north side, an additional right-turn lane at the road’s intersection with Tesson Ferry Road and a new left-turn lane at Antrill Drive.

Design plans also call for eliminating drop-offs and ditches from the road and replacing them with vertical curbs on each side. Because the curbing would replace ditches on each side of the road, a storm sewer would be installed across the road’s length.

Substantial grade changes also will be made at the road’s intersections with Kohrs Lane, Mueller Road and Lisa Marie Court to improve sight-line visibility and provide better curb alignment.

The East-West Gateway Council of Governments in 2003 approved a federal grant funding 80 percent of Green Park Road’s original reconstruction cost of $2.425 million. As projected then, the city’s share would have been roughly $485,000.

But the estimated cost to redevelop Green Park Road is expected to rise due to such factors as the city’s plans to construct a pedestrian pathway along the road’s north side instead of a sidewalk down the more residential south side and also because of estimated increases in construction costs since 2003. Green Park received a $4,000 grant from the Municipal Park Grant Commission to assist in the planning phase of the new pedestrian pathway along the road’s north side.

To date, the city has spent a total of roughly $750,000 to acquire three properties along Green Park Road and in consulting fees for right-of-way acquisition.

City Administrator/City Clerk Zella Pope announced at the Oct. 18 Board of Aldermen meeting that the city had received approval earlier that month from the Missouri Department of Transportation and the federal government to seek bids for the Green Park Road project.

“… Once the bids are opened, then Weis Design Group will make a recommendation to the board. The board will then choose a contractor and then whoever is selected, that has to go to MoDOT for approval. Then it has to go to the feds for approval …,” Pope said, noting that work on Green Park Road most likely will not begin until early spring.

Mayor Tony Konopka said work possibly could begin as early as February.

Pope said, “… Hopefully by February or so, weather permitting, because there’s demolition that needs to be done and some preparation work for the actual street project to start …”

City officials also plan a second phase of redeveloping Green Park Road. That phase of Green Park Road’s reconstruction will run from Lin Valle Drive and will include widening the Gravois Creek bridge.

Ward 2 Alderman Tim Thuston asked Oct. 18 about the timing of the two projects.

Pope replied, “… It is very much a possibility that the bridge can run in conjunction with the Green Park Road project. We still are waiting for our final approval to go out for bid on the bridge project and that should be coming at any time …”

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