Bay County backpedals on some bicycle lane projects as U.S. inflation raises costs

BAY COUNTY — Bay County is set to soon see its first project delays and alterations due to rising inflation plaguing the U.S.

The Bay County Commission approved the changes to its five-year surtax project during its Tuesday meeting in response to recent nationwide inflation that has caused material prices to increase. The county had previously warned that it likely would need to start altering plans for various projects because of inflation costs.

Five sidewalk and bike lane projects will be delayed while grant funding is now sought to construct the projects. Otter Creek Bridge also will be repaired and not replaced, as well as brought in-house.

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The specific impacted projects, totaling $6,840,819, are:

• Harvard Boulevard bike lane project, $1,298,500

• Kelly Street bike lane project, $400,000

• Old Bicycle Road bike lane project, $2,239,050

• Goose Bayou bike lane project, $229,125

• North Shore bike lane project, $874,144

• Otter Creek Bridge replacement project, $1,800,000 (rebuild by in-house staff)

City Manager Bob Majka mentioned the project delays during the Nov. 2 meeting, stating that because of price hikes they would be forced to determine a priority scale for projects.

Some projects, such as paving and resurfacing roadways and improving stormwater systems, will proceed and remain a priority. Commissioner Bill Dozier reassured residents, who had asked if the projects they’ve been watching would be affected, that the county was only delaying projects that had minimal impact to the public.

“I think it’s proven that we trim areas that don’t have the largest impact on the public,” Dozier said. “Our road projects are moving forward and so we’re going to go back and look for grant money to accomplish the sidewalk projects and look at other means to do that, but try to stretch our dollars with the way the economy has changed and expenses have gone up with inflation.”

Majka said as the county moves forward, officials would reassess on a project-to-project basis instead of a yearly approach.

“We have, I think I mentioned in the last meeting, somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million-worth of projects that we are going to have to get on the street in the next 12 months,” Majka said. “On average, we’re going to be dropping a project on the street for bid probably every month and as we watch that pricing come in, we’re going to have to watch accordingly.”

Majka also said that FEMA officials are flexible with working with projects once they have the real-world costs after adjusting and working with the prices.

The commissioners voiced their appreciation for Chief Infrastructure Officer Keith Bryant and his staff for figuring out which projects to trim and working ahead of schedule.

“Because of Keith’s staff and the work they’ve done, we are significantly ahead of the time horizon on getting projects executed,” Majka said. “And so while we are delaying some of these, we’re just tapping the brakes a little bit, but they’ve gotten pretty far down range ahead of themselves with projects completed over the last three or four years. This is the first time we’ve had to pull back.”

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Bay County delays some projects as inflation raises costs