By Steve Plunkett
The last part of the first phase of Gulf Stream’s massive road, water main and drainage project got its first layer of asphalt on Jan. 10, and work began almost immediately — four to eight weeks ahead of schedule — on Phase 2.
Town commissioners approved the schedule change the same day and a $283,717 change order to pay for widening some road sections two more feet — an increase of $106,331 from a previous change order for the same work.
The need to do construction close to the Gulf Stream School when students are off for the summer is driving the altered schedule. Contractor Roadway Construction LLC plans to start work by the school on June 9, the Monday after classes end, and finish it on Aug. 24 before the students’ post-Labor Day return.
“That’s close,” Commissioner Joan Orthwein said.
To make it work, Roadway needed approval to begin Phase 2, the streets in the Core District east of Polo Drive, before it finished Phase 1, which covers Polo and the streets west of it.
“They have the capabilities of having separate crews; they have had separate crews here, up to three, four crews at a time,” said Rick Chipman, the construction project manager for Baxter and Woodman Consulting Engineers.
“The constraint of the school is problematic,” Chipman said, “because they need to get certain utilities and other items completed up to the boundaries of what we’re calling the school zone by the time they start working there so that they can complete that area while school is out.”
The change order pushed the date for “substantial completion” of the first phase from Feb. 18 to March 18. Roadway said it planned to restore all damaged irrigation, landscaping and mailboxes by the end of January, with other items to be finished in February and the rest by March 18.
Homes will be connected to the new water mains within 30 days of the Health Department’s inspection and approval of the project.
Roadway planned to start the second phase at the Golfview Drive end of Gulfstream Road and work north to Lakeview Drive, finishing that section by June 8.
“I’m all in to going forward,” Orthwein said.
“I’m sure the whole town is already tired of construction every place you look,” Chipman said, conceding that letting the crews work in new areas before they’re done with old areas “might be a tough pill to swallow.”
Last August commissioners approved a $177,386 change order to cover widening sections of Banyan, Lakeview and Gulfstream and all of Old School Road from 18 feet to 20 feet to match the Core’s other streets.
But Roadway had not reviewed that amount and said it should be the higher, $283,717 figure.
The original completion date for the entire project, before the change order was approved, was Dec. 13, 2025.
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