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The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority board of directors approved contracts Thursday morning to rehabilitate a roadway at Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport and replace a pump station at the Port of Toledo.
The board also approved a $50,000 grant to the Lucas County Land Bank for renovations at two of downtown Toledo’s Four Corners skyscrapers while donating a sliver of right-of-way next to its headquarters for the Maumee River Walk.
And it hired an Indiana firm as its new engineering consultant for airport projects as required by a federal requirement for periodic competitive selection for such services.
A $522,273.27 bid from Henry W. Bergman, Inc., of Genoa, Ohio, was the lowest of three the agency received for the contract to mill and resurface the roadway and replace 23 drains along West Airport Service Road and a short section of South Berkey Southern Road that serves the airport.
“This important road provides primary land-side access for many businesses and other entities operating at TOL,” Kayla Lewandowski, a port authority spokesman, said before citing Grand Aire, Toledo Jet Center, Toledo Public Schools, and Interjet West as examples.
The project’s cost is about $5,500 higher than an official engineer’s estimate, but that is within the “permitted threshold,” a staff report stated. It will be paid for from a federal Surface Transportation Block Grant administered by the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, an Ohio Department of Transportation Jobs and Commerce grant, and airport reserve funds.
Construction is expected to start in mid-July and be completed by the end of September, Ms. Lewandowski said, with local access maintained throughout.
Salenbien Trucking and Excavating, meanwhile, submitted a $706,449.97 bid for the pump station project at the seaport that was considerably lower than three other bids as well as the official $1.1 million project estimate.
That project includes 1,732 feet of new forced sewer main and related facilities along with the new pump station and abandonment of the existing main. It will be paid for with port authority reserve or capital funds.
In other business, the port directors passed the first of two resolutions necessary to place the renewal of the agency’s 0.4-mill property levy on the Nov. 5 election ballot.
Funds from that levy support $350,000 in annual neighborhood development grants like the $50,000 the directors approved Thursday to give to the land bank for its restoration of the Spitzer and Nicholas buildings at Huron Street and Madison Avenue to create 350 residential units and 27,000 square feet of retail space.
The total project is expected to cost $193 million.
Under a separate resolution, the board granted 0.046 acre of property from two adjoining parcels to the city of Toledo to allow the downtown side of Metroparks Toledo’s Glass City River Walk to run past One and Two Maritime Plaza, which the agency owns.
The professional services agreement with CHA Consulting, Inc., meanwhile, will cover engineering, architectural, and planning services for both Toledo Express and Toledo Executive airports, which the port authority leases from the city of Toledo.
The agency has project proposals pending with the Federal Aviation Administration for terminal improvements and upgrades to the main runway’s approach system at the largest airport along with other projects both there and at the former Metcalf Airport.
The port authority has used RS&H Ohio, Inc., as its engineering consultant since 2003 under a contract most recently renewed in 2019.
But the FAA requires that consultant work be periodically opened to proposals from qualified firms. CHA was one of four firms invited to give presentations to a team of port personnel after statements of qualifications were solicited from six, a port staff report said.
“The port authority looks forward to working with CHA Consulting on several facility projects that were prioritized as a result of the Airport Master Plan, and for which projects the CHA team has demonstrated prior success,” Ms. Lewandowski said before stating the agency’s appreciation for RS&H’s work over the past 20 years.
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