Potential cost for Horseshoe Bay roadwork jumps by millions of dollars
HORSESHOE BAY — Estimates for a street-improvement project has risen from $16 million to $24 million due to costs associated with aging roadways, environmental factors and the fluctuating cost of materials, city officials said during a recent workshop.
Other factors that could drive up the cost of the Street Improvement Plan include topography, driveway tie-ins and construction, officials said July 2.
However, the new price tag — which is not set in stone, city leaders emphasized — will not result in a tax increase.
"It is just a guess, an estimate. (The $24 million figure) is not founded on anything other than we’re going to continue the program," Councilman Phillip Lee said.
City Council members during the workshop unveiled a status report on the first completed project: six miles of roadway in the Fairways subdivision north of FM 2147 and adjacent to Slick Rock Golf Course.
In a section titled Cost Data Related to Street Improvement Plan, officials presented a different set of "rough estimates" for the overall project, which totaled more than $24 million.
"We have 37 miles to go," Mayor Bob Lambert said. "We just don’t know."
One of the largest expenses in the Fairways project involved connecting roads to driveways and upgrading materials used as foundation for streets, which increased the cost per mile.
"When we went in, we decided we were going to do it right and it (will) last 25 years," Councilman Jeff Robinson said, adding that includes "tying in driveways and improving the base."
The cost of materials and fuel for construction adds more uncertainty to future costs, city officials added.
Despite the potential price tag, which will vary with each project, council members appeared determined to maintain the current tax rate.
"The proposed tax rate, which will not be proposed until September, will be the same this year, 25 cents per $100 (property valuation), the same for the previous year as it was this past year," Robinson said. "Then, we will have to make some determinations about just what the future road construction is going to cost in the areas where we haven’t even got bids."
An example of a project plagued by cost overruns involved the recently completed Bay West Bridge. The construction cost was $670,000, but additional engineering fee estimates associated with three different bids raised that figure to $820,000.
"In the past, we’ve done some basic maintenance (on streets throughout the city), but we have certainly not ever built news streets," Robinson said. "It’s a young city with a bunch of real old streets that we now have to fix."
The city incorporated in 2005, but the original resort community was founded in the early 1970s. Roadway upgrades were handled primarily by the Horseshoe Bay Property Owners Association.
For more on this story, pick up a copy of the July 14-15 River Cities Sunday Tribune.