Walnutport awards $12K quote for traffic light upgrades

Improvements to Walnutport’s main traffic light will cost over $12,000.

That’s after borough council unanimously agreed on Thursday to award the quote to C.M. High Inc. of Myerstown, in the amount of $12,150.

One other quote was received from Signal Service Inc of West Chester, in the amount of $18,010.

Borough engineer Jason Newhard told council he will issue the notice to proceed once the items are received.

From that point, he said C.M. High will have 60 days to complete from the date of the notice to proceed.

Newhard noted that council last month authorized him to issue the notice of award to the most qualified contractor.

He said at last month’s meeting that he issued quotation packets to four contractors with quotes due by Nov. 16.

Newhard said at that time he would like authorization to proceed with awarding to the most qualified responsible contractor upon Pennsylvania Department of Transportation approval for the Automated Red Light Enforcement grant.

He said doing so would save time to get installed in early December, and that council would need to ratify any award at the December meeting.

Council at that time voted unanimously to allow Newhard and borough staff to execute the traffic light quotes. The quote is less than the $20,100 state bid threshold.

In October, council decided there’s no need for battery backup for the signal in relation to the traffic light at Best Avenue and Main Street.

Newhard said that since the controller panel is going to be replaced by an insurance claim, the public works staff previously indicated the borough should consider battery backup in order to use the $24,000 in available grant money.

However, after contacting Telco, the borough’s maintenance contractor, and two separate departments in PennDOT, Newhard said council had two choices to consider.

One choice, Newhard said, was for no battery backup and no need to advertise for bids with prevailing wages, since the remaining EMS pre-emption and LED light change will be less than the $20,100 bid threshold. Newhard would need to obtain three quotes for the work.

The other choice, Newhard said, was to add battery backup and require resubmission and approval of the condition diagram for the intersection. That would need to go inside a ground-mounted cabinet separate from the controller, and would add an additional $12,000 to $15,000 to the project, and would be over the $24,000 grant amount, he said.

Council told Newhard not to worry about the battery backup.

In September, council authorized Newhard to bid out the traffic light, as he noted at that time the borough had received final PennDOT approval for the condition diagram to upgrade to EMS pre-emption.

As a result, the borough had to discuss additions due to the control panel being replaced by insurance money.

Council at that time agreed to a suggestion by borough grant coordinator Michael Wentz to add battery backup.

The borough submitted the revised traffic signal condition diagram to PennDOT in May.

The borough has been awarded a $25,000 Green Light — GO program 50/50 matching grant.

Wentz said the borough was awarded the grant two years ago through PennDOT to update the light.

As part of the project, the light would receive new light heads, a new controller and control box and emergency pre-emption.