Things are moving forward with our new Cove 9 Bridge.  On Tuesday, September 15, we hosted a prebid meeting for interested contractors at the Community Center.  Five contractors were represented at this meeting led by Cochran Engineering, in addition to the utility companies, Crawford Electric, Indian Hills Utilities and Century Link.  The contractors viewed the jobsite between 12 and 2.  And the meeting took place from 2-3 pm. 

The bid opening is scheduled for September 24 at 2 pm at Cochran’s office.  The contractors, board and bridge committee will be able to attend this meeting by Zoom.  We are anxious to see how the numbers will come in.  Covid has changed the world since we estimated the project and construction materials are sky high at this time.  In addition, labor is very difficult to come by.  We are hoping these two items do not have a big impact on our estimate.

We will be evaluating the bids the first week or so of October, then will be able to choose our contractor.  Keep in mind that the “lowest” bid is not always the “best” value bid.  Once the best contractor is chosen, we will write a contract and the contractor will spend the rest of October and November formulating their schedule, mobilizing and getting ready for construction.  Brian Nisbet has agreed to be our project manager.  Brian comes with experience as a project manager at McCarthy, plus is a member at Indian Hills.  We thank him for agreeing to oversee the construction – again a volunteer position taken on by a member whose sole objection is to help the community at a toll to his personal life.

The intent is to begin lowering the lake on October 1.  Please make sure your family/neighbors are aware of this date.  Our hope is to have it lowered enough by November 30 to begin construction on December 1.  That is something that is weather dependent.  Sometime before that, our folks will be making some modifications to the spillway in order to take some of the steepness out so that some longer vehicles will be able to travel to the other side of the lake during construction. 

Somewhere around December 1, the contractor will demolish the old bridge.  At that time, all traffic will be detoured to the dam.  Begin thinking about that now – additional time & distance for approximately 1/4 of our members.  During that time NO TRAFFIC, foot or vehicle will be able or allowed to cross on the south side of the lake.

Construction is estimated to be from December to March.  Assuming that all goes as expected and we have a mild winter, we hope to begin filling the lake around the end of March and we hope to have a “normal” spring……….(will things EVER be normal again???)

Should you have any additional questions beyond this update, please send an email to:  bridgecommittee@ilpoa.org.

Bridge Committee

Brian Nisbet

John Oeltjen

Mike Dean

Gary Campbell

Mary Beth Huffman