A contract was awarded for the Kewash Nature Trail spur project by the Washington County Conservation Board this week.

They awarded the contract to DeLong Construction, Inc. of Washington, who submitted a bid of $300,608.85. This comes in under the $342,537 Transportation Alternatives Program grant amount the board received for the project, which is to create a spur that connects the trail with the Kirkwood Regional Center, and to pave a portion of the trail extending west from Highway 1.

Washington City Administrator Brent Hinson explained to the board that the TAP grant is not as flexible as other grants in how the money can be spent, and he suggested a way the board can make the best use of the federal funds, “One way we believe that we can draw down more of those federal dollars is to get the construction engineering portion of it eligible, i. In order to get that eligible to be covered and that’s about $55,000. So basically the construction phase services for engineering, that’s our estimate from MSA Professional Services is the engineer for this is $55,000 and basically we could get that 80% covered by grant, so that’s $44,000 grant dollars otherwise we’re going to turn back.”

In order to use federal grant money to fund construction engineering the board will have to seek proposals from multiple firms. Hinson says this process could take 6-10 weeks, which is doable as DeLong’s deadline to begin construction is September 3rd. The board also looked at designs for a possible future project to create a trail loop with another spur connecting the trail to Lexington Boulevard, northwest of the Kirkwood Center.