The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
The opening of the Colonial Park spray park has been delayed yet again, this time to late summer, after the project’s original contractor had to be replaced.
The spray park, located next to the playground on Colonial Drive, was originally expected to be opened in the summer of 2018.
Delays in permitting and other issues pushed that opening to Spring of 2019, officials said late last year.
The project’s original contractor, Abraham General Construction, was let go from its $872,069 contract at the Jan. 22 Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders’ meeting because of “disputes” over “the quality of Abraham Construction’s work, the timeliness of the work and other issues,” according to the Jan. 22 resolution.
Abraham Construction was originally awarded an $819,036 bid for the work. That amount was increased by change orders of $20,423 and $32,609. The second change order was approved less than two weeks before Abraham was notified that the county was ending the contract.
Details of the close-out agreement between the county and Abraham General Construction were not immediately available.
A second contract for the work was awarded to Kenilworth-based Picerno-Girodano Construction at the Feb. 26 Freeholders’ meeting. The contract’s base amount is $610,510; with alternate work of paving a path and parking area added, Picerno’s total bid was $772,445.
Picerno-Girodano’s price was the lowest of four total bids submitted, which ranged to a high base bid of $777,723 and $925,755 with the alternate work, according to bid documents.
Work resumed on the spray park on March 25, according to county engineer Matt Roper.
The park will take up about 6,500 square feet of the total 1.6-acre target area, and will include increased parking and a gazebo.
The park will feature more than 30 pieces of water-spouting equipment.
