The Warwick City Council approved three bids for $9 million in street improvements during Monday’s council meeting.

The Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank provided Warwick with a $10 million loan with a 1.24 percent interest rate over ten years for street improvements earlier this year. The council approved an amendment so $9,901,302 would be used for street improvements, and $98,698 would be used for evaluating roads to determine their needs. The council approved three vendors to perform the improvements: T. Miozzi Inc. of North Kingstown, Cardi Corporation of Warwick and D’Ambra Construction Co. of Coventry to do the work.

Warwick Director of Public Works Mathew Solitro explained to the council’s finance committee that the work would be done by three different vendors because it would allow the process to be completed faster, especially with a significant amount of construction currently happening statewide.

 “We really want to push this so I think having the three vendors on this is a good thing because it gives us some flexibility to have one of these companies doing another job, we don’t have to wait two weeks for them to finish that job to come in, we can go to the next person. It gives us some good options, and it allows us to keep moving forward,” Councilman Stephen McAllister said. 

Councilman Jeremy Rix asked about the timeline regarding the project. He said he previously understood that the project would be completed over the course of three years, but was wondering if the project would be completed in one year, as the docket listed the contract lasting from August 2020 to August 2021. Finance Committee Chair Ed Ladouceur also asked if the price would stay consistent if the contract were to be renewed. Solitro said that future plans depend on weather conditions.

“Great money says if we have a bad winter, bad spring with showers and stuff, we extend [the contract],” Solitro said. “We still have the low interest loan. We haven't lost anything, but we plan for the best of the best and prepare for the worst. The whole thing with pavement is it's all weather. That's all it is.”

Ladouceur was concerned that T. Miozzi Inc. was considered the priority bidder because they submitted the lowest bid, but only by $30,000 compared to Cardi Corporation. Ladouceur would prefer a local business as the first choice.

“ We have a spread of $30,000 and we have a local contractor who not only pays a significant amount of business taxes here to this city, but also pays personal property taxes. And I have a problem with that contractor being second choice for less than one tenth of a percent for the contract, or $30,000.”

Other council members felt that Ladoceur’s concern was marginal, since the company’s prices were similar, and if approved, could have an impact on future city bids.

“It's not like we're choosing one over the other,” Councilman Timothy Howe said. “It is basically saying ‘We have three companies that we're going to go with. And the lowest bidder wins the first call because they are actually the lowest bidder. I certainly get worried about what precedence it'll set if we don't go ahead and follow the guideline of the lowest bidder to versus the bidder that wasn't the lowest.”

Ladouceur also asked if any of the vendors have had their bonds revoked, or if they had previous performance issues. Solitro said there have been no known issues. 

The finance committee gave the proposal favorable action. The council unanimously followed the committee’s recommendation.

The council also approved a $98,698 bid from BETA Group Inc. in Lincoln to evaluate over 500 miles of city-owned roads. This could help the city determine where specific construction work on certain roads may be needed.

“At the end of this operation, what we’ll have is a comprehensive look at every single road in the right of ways in the City of Warwick that our own, and we’ll be able to say, ‘Okay, Sandy Lane can last 10 years, whereas...Church Avenue needs a redo within the next four years,’ Solitro said. “It’ll also tell us what kind of operation to put on the road, i.e. do we do crack sealing, do we do a mill and overlay, full-depth reclamation, things of that nature. Instead of guessing and saying ‘this road is in bad shape, that road possibly could use it,’ we’ll have a professional engineering services firm tell us exactly what is needed.”

Ladouceur said that this could help streamline the road improvement process.

“This is one of the best things that I’ve seen since I’ve been on this council with regard to roads to eliminate most, if not all, of the politics that go along with roads,” Ladouceur said regarding the road evaluation bid.