Overdue and Over Budget: Creve Coeur Intersection Project Rolls Ahead Despite Snags

A ribbon-cutting usually means a project is complete or a business is debuting.

The new , complete with a ribbon-cutting to mark the occasion. Meanwhile, work at the reconfigured intersection at Olive Blvd. and Graeser Rd., where the new store sits, continues  even after that project's ribbon-cutting on Saturday.

The intersection has been a source of concern in Creve Coeur for more than two decades, as city officials worried about safety at the intersection, which until now, did not have a traffic light. "I was so worried that there was going to be some really devastating accident here and now I know every time I come through here I know there's a safe intersection for our residents to travel through," said Ward 1 Councilwoman Beth Kistner.

While there are two to three weeks of work left on the road portion of the project, figuring out longer-term finances may take longer.

At the May 5 meeting of the , which governs the intersection project funded by an additional sales tax in the area, board member Steve Heitz from Pace Properties reported that the cost of the project had increased by $200,000 since the board's last meeting in January, putting the price tag at about $1.7 million.

Part of the cost increase, Heitz said at the meeting, was due to weather delays, new Missouri Department of Transportation guidelines which mandated work had to be supervised by state inspectors at all times, and the discovery of the need to relocate utility lines. Another factor was an ongoing problem discovered in January concerning Aura Contracting LLC, a construction firm involved in the project.

Heitz said about $191,000, which Pace had paid to Aura, had not been passed onto Aura's suppliers and subcontractors. When that was discovered in January, Pace said it took over payment of Aura's suppliers and subcontractors on the project while keeping the company on to finish the project.

Creve Couer Patch has been unable to reach Aura representatives for comment. A phone number for the company has been temporarily disconnected. A visit to the firms's last known address in the CityPlace complex showed no sign of activity, including any signage in the building's directory and a locked office door.

Despite the TDD project's problems, Heitz was adamant in defending Pace's work on the project, saying Monday there was "absolutely no impropriety on the part of the Pace."

Heitz said the risk of $55,000 on top of its original $200,000 investment in the project would only come into play if the city needed to pay bonds on the project. Heitz says Pace is the the party at risk if there are cost overruns, and would begin to look at collecting the money from Aura once the work was completed. If Aura has no assets available to pay what it owes, then Heitz said Pace would look to recoup costs through financial notes paid for by the additional sales tax collected through the TDD.

According to a January quarterly report, the TDD collected approximately $49,000 in sales tax revenue in 2010.