K.2. - Virginia Beach City Council Meeting - 6/6/2023

The Providence Road Sidewalk Improvement Project will provide for the construction of a 5-foot-wide concrete sidewalk along the south side of Providence Road from Kempsville Road to the intersection of Indian Lakes Boulevard and Churchill Drive, which is a distance of approximately 0.60 miles. The sidewalk provides connectivity and will tie into an existing sidewalk at 5153 Providence Road and an existing sidewalk at 5009 Providence Road. The project also includes piping the existing ditch, new curb and gutter, tree removal, driveway replacement, accessible curb ramps, pedestrian crosswalks, minor grading, and drainage improvement. The project will provide connectivity in an area that is clearly used by pedestrians even though there is no current sidewalk. This project will provide valuable connections between residences, schools, commercial, and recreation areas. All construction is within the limits of City owned right-of-way. The project has incurred unexpected expenses that have resulted in the construction contract exceeding the original contract amount by more than 25%. The three main drivers of this increased cost include: •Quantity overruns of estimated contract pay items, most of which were associated with maintenance of traffic on the project. The contract amount was based on an estimated quantity of the pay items. •Widening the pavement on north side of Providence Road to provide additional buffer area between the travel lanes and the work zone. This widening was necessary because within most of the project limits Providence Road has only two travel lanes with no shoulder. The dimensions of the lanes and work zone buffer as designed in the plans met the minimum requirements for maintaining traffic through a work zone. However, based on the field conditions and heavy traffic noted during construction, the project team decided to build out the shoulder on the north side of Providence Road by 2' to allow additional work zone buffer space. •Work associated with relocating an existing government fiber line that was found to be in direct conflict with storm drainage pipe being installed with the project. The design of the storm drainage system on the project was based on a survey performed in conjunction with the project design. A government fiber line was installed along Providence Road, following the completion of the project survey and consequently occupied the same area as the storm drainage system. The contractor installed conduits for the relocation of this fiber, to expedite the fiber relocation and minimize the project schedule delay. The project is currently funded by local and federal funding. The Total Project Cost is approximately $1,966,620.15. The City provides 60% funding ($1,179,972) from the Traffic Safety Improvements funds and the remaining 40% ($786,648) from the federal Transportation Alternative Program funds.