The city’s Bridge New York Culvert Rehabilitation/Replacement Water Street over Minnow Brook Project is set to have work begin on it soon, as the city council looks to approve a resolution awarding the engineering consultant for the project this month.

The engineering consultant contract will be awarded to Greenman-Pedersen, Inc. from Cheektowaga and will be paid exclusively through the city’s Bridge NY grant.

The city has received a $1.5 million grant for the project that looks to rehabilitate and replace a deteriorated culvert, carrying Minnow Brook under Water Street and two parking lots. The total project cost is estimated to be $1.85 million, with the cost that exceeds the grant money to be funded by the city.

A resolution regarding this same project was previously discussed by the city council in November. At the time concerns from council members included open ended verbiage in the grant contract, and if the extra $350,100 had to be paid before the start of the project. Director of Public Works, Mark Roetzer explained they will work with engineers to stay within the budget but this resolution will have to be passed in order to receive the grant. This resolution was approved and the grant was accepted at the November voting session.

According to a news release last year when the grant was awarded, the project will replace a rusted, perforated and high-maintenance culvert to maintain access to a heavily traveled city street and the UPMC Chautauqua Hospital. The culvert lies in an area that includes the St. Susan Center, Mental Health Association, Community Helping Hands, Western New York Urology and Jamestown Electro Plating. Failure of the culvert would significantly affect access to UPMC Chautauqua, Western NY Urology, and other facilities on Water Street, potentially leading to flooding, water damage to nearby facilities and homes, infrastructure disruptions, and compromised traffic flow.

The engineering consultant contract estimates a start date of March 1, and the agreement with Greenman-Pederson is set not to exceed $190,000.