CORPUS CHRISTI (Kiii News) -
Last January, the City Council voted to make $3 million worth of improvements to Chaparral Street downtown, but that work has still not begun.
Bids on the project reportedly came in too high, so when will the work get underway?
The project was supposed to be finished by now, and was supposed to be the beginning of the transformation of the downtown area. The city decided to put in new water and sewer lines along Chaparral between William and Schatzel streets, a two-block section that the City hopes will help to energize downtown development.
Along with the underground work, new wider sidewalks were supposed to be installed and Chaparral turned into a two-way road, but the City has sent out two bids now on the project and both came back much higher than expected.
On the roadwork alone, downtown management officials say that it would be at least $1.8 million more than the City had budgeted for last year.
"The bids right now depending on how you do the different additives are anywhere from the upper 4's to 6 million," City Engineer Dan Biles said.
The engineering department will take the council several options to get the project jump started. One of those includes finding the extra money to get the work completed as intended. That's what the downtown management district is in favor of.
Speaking of the downtown management district, that board will hold a special meeting on Friday to pass a resolution urging City Council to pass that third option.
