PULLMAN, WA – The project to rebuild Main Street in downtown Pullman continues to run overbudget.
The general contractor Apollo Inc. out of the Tri-Cities is seeking additional money from the city to pay for cost overruns. Pullman City Councilmembers will consider paying the bill during their meeting Tuesday night. The item is in the consent agenda which means city staff consider the contract amendment routine in nature to be voted on without any council discussion.
Previous contract changes have also been treated the same way by council and staff.
This project’s latest overbudget amount stands around 134,000 dollars. Apollo’s additional costs include removing unexpected concrete and rebar that was found underground. Crews also conducted additional demolition and electrical work that was required but not included in the initial contract.
The new additions to the contract increases total payment to Apollo to over 9.5 million dollars.
The company’s winning bid for the contract in February of last year was 8.7 million dollars. The entire project including costs to the city’s consultant, Welch Comer who is managing the work, is now up to 12.5 million dollars. The work was initially expected to cost a total of roughly 12 million dollars.
The last overbudget request approved by council came in December when an additional 200,000 dollars was paid to Welch Comer.
Work on the downtown rebuild is now a year behind schedule. Crews still have some remaining items to complete and are expected to restart in early April following a winter shutdown.
The project was initially scheduled to take about seven months when work began a year ago. Crews spent much of last year rebuilding the utilities under Main Street, repaving and constructing new wider sidewalks. Main in downtown Pullman was closed to traffic for the work. Traffic returned to Main a month behind schedule in mid-November.
The city is using 9 million dollars in federal government COVID relief funding as the largest allocation to pay for the project.
Pullman City Councilmembers will consider paying the new cost overruns during their meeting Tuesday at 5:30 in city hall.
