Pedestrian Improvement

The Johnson School Street/College Hill Road pedestrian improvement project was managed by the Village of Johnson and funded in part with an enhancement grant from VTrans (STP EH 10-2) and a VTrans structures grant obtained by the Town of Johnson.   Dufresne Group was selected using a Quality Based Selection (QBS) method to perform engineering services during construction.  Under the VTrans procurement procedures the design engineer is not eligible to perform construction phase services.  Dufresne Group did not provide design engineering on this project.

The project included 900 lf of concrete sidewalk with concrete curb, as well as drainage improvements.  Soon after construction began, the contractor encountered conflicts between the proposed storm drain and existing PVC water main which necessitated several change orders.  In addition, the specified catch basins were too shallow for the storm drain pipe specified.  Also, staff changes in the Village including the Municipal Project Manager and Village Manager, as well as the VTrans Project Manager created challenges for record keeping and correspondence.

Dufresne Group assisted Village officials in negotiating the change orders and acting as a liaison between the design engineer and the Contractor for redesign changes.

In spite of 14 change orders, delay claims, and an extended schedule, the project was completed to the satisfaction of Village and VTrans officials.