The bump is battling back.

A project designed to permanently fix an accident-causing bump in the road at North Second and Locust streets likely will have to be delayed for at least two years.

That’s because contractors declined to bid on the approximately $2 million piece of work.

“They just didn’t feel like they could physically get the job done in the amount of time we were demanding,” Chuck Soules, the city’s director of public works, said regarding approximately a dozen contractors that considered bidding on the project. “They didn’t want to take the job and then end up disappointing the community.”

The lack of bids has Soules and his staff now recommending that the city wait until late 2010 or early 2011 to begin the work. By delaying the project, the work will not interfere with construction of two new Kansas River bridges on adjacent Interstate 70. The I-70 work is expected to have major impacts on how traffic flows through North Lawrence.

Commissioners originally had wanted the work on North Second Street done by late October to ensure that motorists wouldn’t face two major construction zones in the North Lawrence area. The city was offering up to $50,000 in incentives to contractors to complete the work early. But the city also would fine the contractor $2,500 a day if the project wasn’t completed by Oct. 21.

The delay is just the latest woe for a troubled intersection. Travelers along North Second Street long have been acquainted with the bump in the road, which is near Johnny’s Tavern.

The bump – caused by a sinkhole during the 1993 flood – played a major role in an April 2006 accident that seriously injured a 15-year-old child with special needs who was struck by a trailer that hit the bump and then careened onto the sidewalk.

At that point, the project was scheduled to begin construction in October 2007, but commissioners said they wanted to accelerate the schedule.

But the project ended up being difficult to engineer, Soules said, which led to the construction date being pushed back to this month.

Now, the newest worry is whether $1 million in state funding for the project will survive the two- to three-year delay. City Manager David Corliss said the city believes the funding will remain intact, but conceded there is some trepidation given a shortage of statewide transportation funding.

“I have concerns as to whether that money will be there, but I don’t think we have many good options, other than to wait,” Corliss said.

The delay also could create money issues for the city. Soules said the cost of the project easily could increase by $200,000 during the delay. Any increase in the price will have to be paid with city funds, not state money.

The good news is that city crews in 2006 did temporary work to significantly smooth the bump in the intersection. The bad news is that the work wasn’t designed to last four years, and the bump may resurface.

“We’ll have to stay on top of it,” Soules said. “The road will continue to settle until we can get in there and stabilize everything.”

Stabilizing the road will involve digging down about 20 feet at the site of the sinkhole and replacing inadequate fill material with a more solid base.

The project also was designed to add left-turn lanes at the intersection. Ted Boyle, president of the North Lawrence Improvement Association, said residents were looking forward to those improvements as much as anything.

“Having no turn lanes is a real safety hazard,” Boyle said. “When you’re turning, you spend more time looking in the rearview mirror than what’s coming at you.”

Boyle said he was disappointed the city hadn’t done more to get the project designed sooner so it could have been bid earlier, which he said would have attracted more interested contractors.

“We’re really disappointed on this deal,” Boyle said. “We were looking forward to getting it done and over with.”