The Fridley City Council voted 4-0 to approve a major street rehabilitation project that will include water-line work in streets surrounding the Madsen Park neighborhood.
Public Works Director Jim Kosluchar said the city called for bids Nov. 10 and opened them April 7, receiving six. The lowest came in 19.6% below the final engineer’s estimate.
The project was identified in Fridley’s 2026 Streets Resurfacing Plan and Capital Investment Program, which includes a budget of just more than $3 million. Work will include asphalt pavement rehabilitation, spot concrete curb-and-gutter replacement, water main improvements and related work.
The city plans to replace about 5,600 linear feet of water main and 11 fire hydrant assemblies. The project also includes salvaging, reinstalling or replacing existing manhole castings in the pavement for sanitary and storm sewer systems.
Park Construction Company of Minneapolis was the lowest responsive bidder at approximately $2.38 million. The resolution also included a 5% contingency for minor changes or additional improvements identified during construction.
Kosluchar said special assessments are now projected to come in below the earlier estimate of $4,400 per parcel. Construction is expected to run from May through October 2026. Notices of assessment are scheduled to go out in October, with assessments beginning in January 2027.
Council Member Ann Bolkcom asked whether the project would include seeding or grass restoration.
Kosluchar responded that could happen around substantial completion in September, depending on the contractor’s schedule.
“Usually we try to leave enough room for them to place it in their schedule, and thereby we lower the price," Kosluchar said. “Let’s say, for instance, a contractor has a job that’s gonna run into the middle of June. They may not be able to start till then.”
Kosluchar said the city intentionally allowed a wider construction window than strictly necessary to help keep bid prices down.
“We have a warranty for a year on everything, and two years on concrete,” Kosluchar said.
Council Member Ryan Evanson asked why the city chose full water main replacement in parts of the project rather than a smaller or less expensive approach.
Kosluchar responded that Fridley was involved in one of the state’s earliest water-main lining projects in 2011, partnering with Golden Valley and Hutchinson to bring in a contractor from outside the country.
“The reason that we did that at that time was because the water main was under a concrete street,” Kosluchar said, “and directly under fiber optic cable. It would have been terribly expensive to open, cut and dig.”
Kosluchar said the city had hoped water-main lining would become more cost-effective over time, as sanitary sewer lining did. Instead, he said, lining has generally remained more expensive than open-cut construction, depending on surrounding conditions.
“In this case, we evaluated that open construction was gonna be the least expensive,” Kosluchar said. “We won’t do all the water main along this project, we will do select segments.”
Kosluchar said areas with repeated breaks often continue to have problems because of unstable soil. He said the city’s utilities manager is also looking at a system that could better predict future breaks.
The water-main work was split into two projects, and the street project was restructured around the utility work in hopes of getting better pricing with a larger utility package.
Evanson also asked what kind of water disruption residents should expect during construction. Kosluchar said temporary water lines will run along the curb, with temporary service to homes usually provided through hose bibs.
“That type of temporary connection might last, I don’t know, a couple, three weeks, I would think,” Kosluchar said. “Depending on how much of the water main has to go in to get that block turned on, block by block the contractor will shut it off and turn it on. People may notice that the water’s a little warmer, because it’s not in the ground and cooled by the 50-degree ground.”