Public Road / Utility Construction Policy

The City’s policy on the construction of future public improvements is as follows:

Any development that contains public roads or utilities must have a minimum level of city involvement in order to be handed over to the City upon completion. Upon receiving planning commission approval of a plat, site condominium, planned unit development, etc, the developer shall provide the City Engineer with plan and profile drawings (3 sets) of all proposed public improvements. These plans shall be 1" = 40’ scale (profile view 1" = 10’) drawings with all the necessary detail for bidding and construction. The City Engineer shall have 3 weeks to review the drawings and provide a check print to the developer. The developer shall resubmit the revised drawings along with the check prints for final approval. A mylar copy of the cover sheet should also be provided for signature by the City Engineer.

Prior to the Walker City Engineer signing the plans, the developer shall provide a cost estimate (stamped by a professional engineer) and inspection deposit to cover the cost of inspection and construction administration. The calculation for the deposit shall be based on Inspection Escrow Deposit policy and formula (roughly equivalent to 15% of the sanitary and water cost plus 8% of the improvements and drainage estimate). If the project is privately funded, the developer may bid the project privately. The developer and his contractor will schedule a preconstruction meeting prior to beginning work on the public improvements. At this meeting the City Engineer will direct Walker’s inspection / consulting staff to oversee all phases of the project construction through completion. This includes working with Grand Rapids on the approval of sanitary sewer and watermain. Walker staff or consultants will submit all construction documentation to Grand Rapids in an effort to bring these utilities into service.

The developer will be responsible for providing a construction engineer on the project to answer routine questions from the contractor and communicate with Walker’s inspection staff. Any changes to the plans, however, must be reviewed and approved with the City Engineer. Any change or modification should be proposed by the developers engineer and formally submitted with 3 sets of plans.

The City shall use the inspection escrow deposit for the following:

• Consultant inspection services

• Consultant construction engineering/administration

• City of Grand Rapids construction engineering/administration

• Consumers Energy street light installation (if applicable)

• Any independent geotechnical investigation required by the City Engineer

If off site improvements are required for a development the City may wish to take on the design and bidding requirements. This would include off site sewer or watermain greater than 600’ in length, any sanitary sewer or watermain that is considered a trunk utility (sized to handle additional flow), offsite road work that is greater than 100’ in length or requires special assessments, or reconstruction of any existing public infrastructure. In these cases, the City Engineer shall cause a cost estimate to be prepared for the public work. This funding for this work, including reasonable contingencies, should be incorporated into the development agreement and placed in escrow with the City of Walker prior to executing the agreement.

For purposes of this policy, offsite improvements shall be defined as extending any infrastructure outside of the property boundary for the project. Any perpendicular connections to roadways, sewers, or watermain will not be considered off site improvements.