During its August 13 meeting, the Sedona City Council awarded an additional $201,938 in public funds to J. Banicki Construction to complete sidewalk lighting and handrail work. The company was contracted to build a pedestrian underpass under the Schnebly Hill Road roundabout.

The amendment was placed on the agenda as a consent item and brought forward for discussion by Council Member Pete Furman.

When the City Council approved the contract in April 2023, construction was scheduled to be completed in February 2024. Deputy City Engineer Bob Welch did not specify how much of Banicki’s 25 percent profit on the contract would have to be paid back to compensate the city and the public for the six-month delay, instead saying that the damage would not be assessed until several more weeks had passed.

“We have a fixed deadline of September 6th to which we bind the contractor,” said Welch. “Failure to meet this deadline will result in contractual penalties.”

Kurt Harris, director of Sedona’s building department, later explained that the project had already been subject to eight previous change orders, three of which had pushed back the project’s estimated completion date by a total of 156 calendar days. Including the additional 59 days authorized by the current change order, the total delay as of September 6 is 215 days.

All three extensions were related to obtaining a permit from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for portions of the work, as Oak Creek is designated as a unique and outstanding body of water in Arizona and is regulated by ADEQ within the Arizona Department of Transportation’s rights of way.

“There are no deadlines for completion or associated penalties, but rather an agreed schedule for follow-up,” Harris said.

Harris added, “Change orders work both ways, protecting both the owner and the contractor when problems or discoveries arise literally during the construction phase.”

“The first change on this project is the visionary lighting package,” Welch said. “(This) involves LED lighting that meets our current lighting standard and was not originally part of the specifications.”

“Component two is underground power line pipes… Our initial thinking about where that was and where we were coming from ended up being different from APS’s requirements.

“Component number three has to do with the concrete wall and barrier paint… We added a component paint.”

“The next component for additional support curbs and handrails… we fell a little short in the plans,” Welch said. “Component six was a full depth saw cut and sealant. Originally we used an expansion joint type material… to avoid premature cracking in that path, we did an isolating saw cut to separate those two systems.”

“These changes were necessary according to staff,” said Deputy City Manager Andy Dickey. “These changes were not errors attributable to our design consultant.”

“You learn by doing things,” Furman said.

The Council unanimously approved the additional expenditure of public funds.

“The completion date is scheduled for September 6,” Harris said in an email on Tuesday, August 20