New report attempts to compare costs of Rock Chalk Park with other city projects

Lawrence officials have shed more light on how they have evaluated whether taxpayers got a good deal on about $11 million worth of infrastructure work at Rock Chalk Park that did not go through the city’s normal bid process.

The new report paints a mixed picture, with some costs coming in below similar work elsewhere in the city that was bid, and other costs at Rock Chalk Park significantly higher. But Chuck Soules, the city’s director of public works, said the numbers give him confidence the city was charged a fair price for the work.

“The costs for infrastructure at Rock Chalk Park are generally found to be in line with other projects bid by the city,” Soules wrote in the report, which looked at items like the cost of concrete, waterlines, sewer lines, light poles and other such items.

The report comes as city commissioners have opened the door to hiring an outside auditor to examine the costs of the infrastructure work, which was built by a firm led by Lawrence businessman Thomas Fritzel, who is the key private partner in the public-private partnership that built Rock Chalk Park.

The new report provides a glimpse at the difficulty an auditor might have in comparing costs for the project and others that were bid. The report calculated that the cost to build roads at Rock Chalk Park was about $151 per lane foot. It then compared that to the costs to build roads at VenturePark, the new industrial park on the east edge of Lawrence. That construction, which was similar in nature and was bid through the city’s normal process, cost $160 per lane foot.

But upon closer review, Soules said the VenturePark figures include work to install storm sewers and also includes the contractor’s costs to mobilize equipment on the job site. The Rock Chalk Park project does not have those costs included. It wasn’t clear what the comparable VenturePark number would be if the storm sewer and mobilization costs were removed from the total.

Soules’ department was responsible for reviewing many of the costs at Rock Chalk. He said his department sought to ensure that the city was getting a fair price based on what his engineers know about bid prices that are coming in for projects throughout the city. But he said the process is an inexact science because no two projects are exactly alike.

“It is not meant to be apples to apples,” Soules said. “It is meant to give you a ballpark feel.”

Here’s a look at several of the figures included in the report:

• Mobilization costs — which include bringing equipment to the site, setting up construction offices and other start-up costs — were $400,000 for the Rock Chalk infrastructure project. That compared to $375,000 the city paid as part of the reconstruction of the 15th and Iowa streets area.

• Grass seeding was $1,500 per acre at Rock Chalk Park compared to $1,000 an acre at the VenturePark project.

• The per-unit price for waterline work at Rock Chalk Park was within a tenth of a percent of the per-unit price at VenturePark. The unit prices for sewer line work at Rock Chalk Park were about 2 percent less than at VenturePark.

• General excavation work at Rock Chalk Park was $5 per cubic yard, while it was $2.15 a cubic yard at VenturePark. Soules, however, notes that there was only 16,000 cubic yards of general excavation work at Rock Chalk Park, while there was about 310,000 cubic yards at VenturePark. Generally, per-unit costs come down as the volume of work increases, Soules said.

• Reinforced concrete sidewalks at Rock Chalk Park cost $40 per linear foot, compared to $24.30 per linear foot for reconstruction along Bob Billings Parkway.

• Handicapped access ramps were $1,000 per ramp at Rock Chalk Park compared to $650 per ramp at the Bob Billings Parkway project. Soules noted the price for access ramps seems to vary widely, and the city has had other projects where it pays more than $1,000 per ramp.

• Concrete parking lots at Rock Chalk cost $44 per square yard. The city did not have other projects that included significant parking lot work for comparison purposes. But Soules noted that a similar type of concrete that was used for a portion of the Iowa Street project cost $45 per square yard.

• Trees at Rock Chalk cost $425 each. The city pays anywhere from $275 to $585 per tree, depending on the size of the tree, for various projects. Soules said the trees installed at Rock Chalk were of the larger variety. The report also noted that Fritzel’s firm installed 647 trees at the site, although plans called for 450 trees. The city is paying only for 450 trees.

• Parking lot lights at Rock Chalk Park were $6,000 each. Lights for a project at Sixth and Iowa streets were $9,000 each, although Soules noted the lights were different styles, and there were significantly fewer lights at Sixth and Iowa streets.

City commissioners in January are expected to decide whether to hire an outside auditor to review the Rock Chalk Park infrastructure project. The scope of the audit and its potential cost have not been determined.

At Tuesday evening’s meeting, the city’s director of legal services told commissioners that the city may want to again seek more detailed invoices for some services. In particular, the city has questions about the amount of legal fees Fritzel’s firm wants reimbursed. The city has not had access to the invoices that show the per-hour rate attorneys have charged on the project. The law firm has advised that releasing those documents would be a violation of attorney-client privilege.

“We have made repeated requests for that type of information, and we have been told it will not be provided to us,” Toni Wheeler, the director of legal services, told commissioners. “Personally, I would like to see the detailed bills.”