During last week’s Village Council meeting, former Vice Mayor and Councilman Brett Moss went before the new Council and implored them to pause the entire infrastructure project for at least for a month.
Moss, who along with Ed London cast the two “nay” votes in late October to proceed on what some have called “The Big Dig,” addressed Council members, bringing up cost concerns as to why he wants the project halted.
He pointed out that in March 2023, construction costs came in at $30 million, then went up to $50.4 million on Jan. 10, 2024 “with a 25 percent contingency, with the total price (for) the total project on the island at $331.8 million.
“On Sept. 4, it came back to us, from the $50.4 (million), it went up to $74.8 million (for Zone 1),” Moss said.
Moss then pointed out that after an independent study was done, the total came back at between $80 and $90 million.
Moss suggested pausing the entire project for at least a month (until another Council discussion might take place in January) since it’s costing more than $400,000 a month just for the design and engineering concept from AECOM and Black & Veatch.
Furthermore, Moss said AECOM’s contract alone to design the projects comes in at $11,342 a day over 365 days (although they have up to 555 days to complete their design).