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August 30, 2004TRAVERSE CITY: Construction on three TART sections to beginFinal bid came in below estimateByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - It's still $166,000 over the original estimated cost but seven years of waiting on critical segments of the TART Trail is over. Grand Traverse County's Road Commission accepted a $790,800 bid for construction of three segments of the TART Trail, including the connector between the TART and Leelanau trails. In July, the low bid for the projects came in $270,000 over the engineer's estimate of $625,000, so the road commission decided to re-bid the project. It also reworked the engineer's estimate with updated material costs. Mike Dillenbeck, director of engineering for the road commission, said construction materials increased 9 percent during the past year and paving bids for asphalt over the last two years jumped from $20 a ton to $30 a ton due to the increases in oil and fuel costs. The final TART work bid came in below the road commission's newest estimate of $813,000, he said. The Federal Highway Administration will fund $628,000 of the project, leaving a local match of $162,800. "There are very few grants of this size," Dillenbeck said. "It's an exceptional grant and that is why we strived to do something special with it." TART Trails Inc. has already secured $115,000 of the needed local match through its recent fund-raising campaign and an earlier grant from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. Missy Luyk of TART Trails said the organization has asked Traverse City and Acme Township officials to fund the balance of the local match. The connector from M-72 to Carter Road in Traverse City is scheduled to be completed by early November. The other two sections include a path along Bunker Hill Road to the top of Bunker Hill that will provide safe access to the Vasa Pathway and an isolated section from Lautner Road to M-72 at Bates Road. Originally the TART Trail was to be extended from Bunker Hill Road to Lautner Road but trail easements were held up by controversy over the village center development in Acme Township. Building that connecting segment will be part of the next phase of trail development, TART director Bob Otwell has said.
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