City Engineer Russell Pehl broke the bad news to City Council about bids for Bell Street reconstruction coming in way over his engineering consultant's estimates. Pehl underwent repeated questioning as to why bids came in high for water and sewer work.
He said he could speculate why the bid came in much higher than estimated. Why would Pehl need to speculate when the contractor submitted bid pricing per city specifications? The bid sheet broke out specific work for both water and sewer (wastewater).
This is not the first time city staff came across as clueless and uninformed before city council. A professional engineer should be able to explain the difference between city engineering estimates and a construction bid, especially one that came in nearly a third over budget. Homework, research, analysis and preparation beat speculation, especially in the engineering world.
Update 11-5-17: Pehl made the top 20 leaders under 40 years of age list.
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