WGXC-90.7 FM
Hudson's Promenade Hill project on hold, awaiting new bids
Aliya Schneider is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media the city of Hudson's Promenade Hill Park project is on hold as design materials are changed and a bid request is revised after the lowest proposal received was more than $500,000 over budget. The park improvements are allocated $1.1 million from the city’s $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant. ARCON Construction, of Albany, Colarusso and Son of Hudson, and Gallo Construction Corp., of Watervliet, all submitted bids, with Colarusso putting forward the lowest, at just under $1.7 million, or $585,500 more than the entire $1.1 million project budget. The Department of Public Works has already demolished a portion of the park and is awaiting the choice of a contractor. Construction barriers are currently in place. Construction is scheduled to be completed in December and DPW Superintendent Rob Perry does not expect the bid delay to change the construction completion schedule. The project will be finished in late fall or early winter, he said. The designers are now being asked to come up with a new plan for the park using cheaper materials. Getting approval prior to requesting contractor bids again will likely take three to four weeks. Mayor Kamal Johnson said, “We’re in talks of that now, so it’s not definitive yet, but basically it’s going to end up being some materials. Instead of using a certain stone we’ll use a different version to scale some stuff down, but it’s not really a big deal. These things kind of happen. It’s just a small setback.” Note: Johnson is a WGXC volunteer on-air programmer. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.