The city of Arnold will spend $1,676,716.70 to replace a buckling retention wall, replace concrete on numerous streets and fix a broken section of a stormwater pipe.
City Council members voted unanimously March 2 to approve the three projects.
The city will pay Keeley Construction Group of St. Louis $912,353.20 to tear down and replace the retention wall on Church Road near Stardust Drive and across the street from Lowe’s, 920 Arnold Commons Drive. The work also includes replacing the gutter and inlet behind the top of a retention wall on Arnold Tenbrook Road near Friend Tree Lane.
Arnold will pay Spencer Contracting of Arnold $557,734 to replace concrete slabs on city owned streets.
The city also will pay Plattin Creek Excavating of Arnold $206,629.50 to remove a collapsed portion of a stormwater pipe and an in-ground pool that fell when the pipe collapsed on Ellen Drive, which is off Arnold Tenbrook Road.
The retention wall work is expected to begin in April and be completed by November, and the street repair and stormwater pipe projects should begin on Wednesday, March 15, and be completed by Nov. 15, Public Works Director Judy Wagner said.
She said the city will pay for the retention wall and street repair projects with money from the Jefferson County’s 1/2-cent sales tax for road and bridge projects.
Wagner also said she believes the city’s insurance company, Missouri Intergovernmental Risk Management Association, will cover the cost of the stormwater project. She said if the project is not funded by the insurance company, the city will pay for it out of its general revenue budget.
“We have filed a claim,” Wagner said. “Normally, they deny a claim right away if it will not be covered. We are optimistic the insurance company will cover it.”
Retention wall
Wagner said Keely Construction submitted the only bid for Church Road and Arnold Tenbrook Road retention wall projects.
She said the city only received one bid because of the intricacies involved in removing the existing small-block retaining wall and replacing it with a cast-in-place wall that will need to be anchored into the limestone behind the existing wall.
“It is not a standard retaining wall,” Wagner said. “In this case, we have to remove it, and there is a limestone wall behind it that is not as stable as a wall we can leave exposed. There is more intricate details in the construction process.”
Wagner said she has worked on getting the Church Road retention wall replaced since she began working for Arnold in 2019.
She said when the project is complete, the wall will be painted to look like natural stone.
“It will provide an aesthetically pleasing wall that is more safely constructed,” Wagner said.
She said there will be times when one of the eastbound lanes on Church Road will need to be closed during the project.
“They will be daily closures and not closed in the evening,” Wagner said. “It is unknown when the lane will need to be closed.”
Concrete street replacement
Wagner said Spencer Contracting will replace concrete slabs in the St. John’s Crossing and Linderhoff subdivisions, on Sur Vista and Manufacturers Drive and on Michigan Avenue.
The city typically spends about $500,000 each year for large-scale concrete street work in order to limit the amount of individual slab repairs needed throughout the year.
“Our crews do concrete slab replacements throughout the year, but we also contract out to get into subdivisions to get all of the slabs replaced and cracks sealed,” Wagner said. “This way, we do subdivisions one at a time to cause less disruptions for the residents. Then the subdivision is pretty much finished for several years.”
She said Spencer Contracting submitted the lowest of four bids.
Stormwater pipe
Wagner said a portion of a stormwater pipe on Ellen Road began to deteriorate last spring, and she was notified early last summer that a portion of it had collapsed, causing sink holes in residents’ backyards to expand and an in-ground pool over the pipe to sink.
She said the city reached easement agreements with seven homeowners at no cost to perform the work.
Wagner said Plattin Creek Excavating also will fill in the sink holes and the portion of the backyard where the in-ground pool had been.
Wagner said the project will benefit more than the three homeowners.
“It will increase the size of the inlet on Arnold Tenbrook Road so the stormwater that collects on Arnold Tenbrook Road will have more opportunity to get into the inlet and then the pipe will enter into our stormwater system,” she said. “It will alleviate the backyards from flooding and replace a pipe that is decayed.”
Wagner said Plattin Creek Excavating submitted the lowest of four bids.