Closing Up Beefhead Ditch May Be A Little More Complicated After All

The City of La Grange received only one bid for the project to close-in Beefhead Ditch, and the bid came in at nearly double the engineer’s cost estimate. The Council is expected to reject the bid and re-bid the contract.

The project involves replacing the remaining exposed section of the ditch with an underground eight foot culvert. Beefhead Ditch drains stormwater from the north part of town to the Colorado River. Much of it has been covered and converted to an underground culvert over the years. The section that runs along Jackson Street for about two and a half blocks, from E. Colorado to just south of E. Lowerline, remains exposed.

Hlavinka Construction Company submitted the only bid, with a base bid amount of $800,786. BEFCO Engineering initially estimated construction costs at $438,666. City Council was set to consider the bid at a meeting on Monday, Aug. 23. City Manager Shawn Raborn said he would recommend rejecting and re-bidding the project in hope of attracting other companies.

The project includes a portion of Beefhead Ditch that runs alongside H-E-B and the grocery store’s parking lot. Raborn said re-bidding the project would not affect construction work at the H-E-B Store, which is undergoing a major renovation.

The Record reached out to H-E-B last week for an update on the renovation.

The company had not responded in time for this publication.