Simpson Avenue sidewalk project delayed due to lack of bids

The Simpson Avenue Sidewalk Project has been delayed.

Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay informed the city council on Monday that the plans for updating sidewalks along Simpson Avenue have been delayed for lack of bids.

Shay says that when the Washington State Department of Transportation put out a project for bids that would include paving Simpson Avenue/US 101, it included plans to work on sidewalks at the same time with the contractor for the state.

The project is planned to repair sidewalks from the Aberdeen city limits to the Simpson Avenue Bridge. Included in the project, and a reason the city teamed with WSDOT on the bid process, was the addition of ADA compliant ramps along the sidewalk. Shay says that using the same contractor for both made the best sense fiscally.

Shay says that WSDOT rejected the bid.

The project was originally planned to begin in 2018, although the bidding process was delayed for a year. Now Shay says that the state plans to rebid the project towards the end of the year with construction planned for spring 2020.