The Brownsville City Commission approves action on the West Rail Trail Project during Thursday’s meeting in the Brownsville Public Library Main Branch meeting room. Shown (from left) are Mayor Trey Mendez, Commissioner At-Large “B” Rose Gowen, District 3 Commissioner Roy de los Santos and District 4 Commissioner Pedro Cardenas. Roxanna Miranda/The Rider Photo
The Brownsville City Commission approved action Thursday to award an $8.8 million contract to Foremost Paving Inc. for the construction of the West Rail Trail Project.
The project’s aim is to construct a 22-foot-wide, dual-purpose concrete hike-and-bike trail from an abandoned railroad alignment in Brownsville. The trail will run from Palm Boulevard to I69E, for a distance of 6.89 miles, according to agenda documents.
The approval of the project was motioned by Mayor Trey Mendez. District 3 City Commissioner Roy De los Santos seconded the motion.
At the meeting, Multimodal Transportation Director Joel Garza presented the project details.
The City of Brownsville, in conjunction with the Cameron County Regional Mobility Authority, the county and the Texas Department of Transportation proposed the project earlier this year.
In late September, the city received approval from TxDOT to move forward with the construction phase of the West Rail Trail Project.
The trail consists of a 100-foot-wide old railroad corridor that is made of only rock ballast that ranges in width from 25 to 30 feet.
“Vegetated grass drainage ditches that run parallel on both sides of the rock ballast provided drainage for the old railroad,” the agenda documents read.
The existing right of way is 100 feet wide throughout the length of the project. The proposed typical section consists of a 12-foot-wide, dual-purpose pathway for hiking and biking use.
The development of the project has been as follows; On Oct. 5 and 10, legal advertisements appeared in The Brownsville Herald and were posted on the purchasing website, BidNetDirect. No addendums were issued during the process.
At the meeting, it was announced that the only bidder for the project was Foremost Paving Inc.
On Oct. 8 a pre-bid meeting was held and on Oct. 20, sealed bid was received for the project.
The total bid for the West Rail Trail Project is $8,840,681.25, with a completion time of 220 calendar days after breaking ground.
