ITD saves nearly $8,000 by Doing it Themselves

Do It Yourself. It’s a popular way to cut costs these days. It even has it’s own acronym among practioners – DIY.

ITD maintenance crews in Hammett (just east of Mountain Home) recently saved a pocketful of money by practicing the DIY principle. On an ongoing project in the area to replace some 436 linear feet of broken-out concrete panels in the Cold Springs Creek Canal that runs under I-84 at Exit 114 between Hammett and Glenns Ferry, the contract bid had not accounted for about 1,100 linear feet of vertical joint seams that already existed in the canal that needed to be cleaned and sealed.

The contractor’s bid to do the work of cleaning, power washing and sealing the joints - $10,000.
 
The $10,000 was not in the budget, so over the course of two days in early July ITD crews did it themselves. Along with an inmate crew from the Idaho Department of Corrections, they cleaned the joints of debris, power-washed each joint and then sealed them.
 
“Our cost was $510 for six IDOC laborers, $230 for the IDOC Security Guard, $680 for two ITD employees, $270 for ITD equipment, and $390 in materials,” said Hammett leadworker Carl Vaughn. “Our project total was $2, 080 - a savings of nearly $8,000.” 

 

Published 8-17-2012