UPDATE: As it was pointed out to me over the past couple of days, there are some interesting rumors coming out;

• The savings on the mobilization may be just a late fee that was padded into the bid that they no longer have to be concerned about since the project date is being extended. It reminds me of the Event Center siding settlement where the city was given a million dollars of it’s own contingency fund.

• Would have other contractors bid on this project if they would have known about the time extension and could it be broken up into separate bids?

• This may be about utilities. The rumor is Cherapa II cannot open to tenants until more water, sewer and other utilities are hooked up.

Remember when we had to get Phillips to the Falls done right away because developers were ready to start on the adjacent property. The city sat on the land for 11 years for these developers, tax free.

The reason this project is becoming more complicated is because the city is trying to cover up what is really going on.

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything. – Mark Twain

While most might think saving over a $1 million on the project is a good thing, some may wonder why this is being told to us now (Item #6, Consent Agenda);

• Extend Completion Date – By moving the interim completion date from November 18, 2023, to August 2, 2024, and final completion date to September 6, 2024, SFC Civil is willing to reduce the mobilization on the project by $850,000.
• Cherapa II Contribution – The Cherapa II developer has offered to contribute $250,000 towards constructing right?of?way elements (sidewalk, approach and streetscape) between 6th Street and Cherapa buildings, which reduces City cost.
• Scope Reductions and Substitutions – While still in review, there is approximately $350,000 in additional savings to be realized through scope reductions or substitutions.

Most, if not all of these discounts could have been offered to begin with. There have been many engineers in the city who have expressed with me and other reporters that the mobilization and staging fees were questionable to begin with so I doubt the discount is hurting the general contractors bottom line, but we may never know.

Scope reductions are just a couple of fancy words saying there will be less expensive decorative elements.

While I am glad to see Cherapa will be kicking in some dough, they really will be benefitting the most from this project with extensive off street parking and a proposed quiet zone;

• Four prepayment invoice agreements with Wilson & Company, for approximately $40,000 each, represent the costs for required utility inspection and roadway worker?in?charge services associated with the boring under the BNSF railroad and each individual utility in the shared casing pipe.
• Another prepayment invoice agreement will be coming later, as well as a Construction & Maintenance agreement with BNSF. This agreement will outline the cost and conditions of the signal and rail crossing construction done by BNSF as a part of the project. Details are still being finalized, but it represents an important step in progress towards the future whistle reduction zone downtown.

I think these costs should be shared with BNSF (maybe they are?) when it comes to utilities but as for the quiet zone, not one single penny of city tax dollars should be used. Remember, the Railroads sit on Federal Easement land owned by Federal taxpayers. If any government money is used for the quiet zone it should come from Federal grants, the State DOT and the railroads. And if we are already spending money to evaluate the quiet zones we might as well review it for all DTSF crossings including the two between 12th and Avera on Cliff Avenue. There is a Federal DOT grant program for quiet zones.

I also think the developers of super expensive condos next to the tracks should pony up since this would most likely benefit the residents in this area.

The project just began a few weeks ago and the change orders are already rearing their head. With all the money we are spending on this project, it makes you wonder if the bridge will be gold plated?

22 Thoughts on “UPDATE: 6th Street Bunker Bridge becoming more complicated and messy

  1. Very Stable Genius on March 3, 2023 at 8:15 pm said:

    If this goes to trial, will it be known as the scopes trial? That would be revolutionary, or would that be evolutionary? (Sorry)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-014p7KbF4g

  2. The Guy From Guernsey on March 4, 2023 at 6:21 am said:

    Hurry up! We must accept this bid! Time is of the essence! This bridge reconstruction cannot wait! We do not have time to seek additional bids, nor to reconfigure the project to allow for a more competitive environment for contracting and construction.

    Bid participation was perhaps limited to a single entity because of specifications which included a condensed and consolidated time horizon to completion.

    And now this.

    “Extend Completion Date – By moving the interim completion date from November 18, 2023, to August 2, 2024, and final completion date to September 6, 2024”

  3. rufusx on March 4, 2023 at 7:15 am said:

    I’ve looked into that “Roadway Worker-in-charge” job. It’s a sweet deal. Thinking it might be my best gig in a couple years. the fellow doing it on a project I was working on in Iowa turned me on to the whole thing. He essentially calls in on a Thursday to see what projects are going on and decide if he wants to work them – or NOT (if he has something else he wants to do for a week or whatever). If he decides he wants to do a project, it essentially entails his “observing” the work being done to assure it’s in compliance with RR standards. Great pay. Great benefits. Gets to see a lot of the country. Sets own schedule. How long do you think it will take to bore some holes under the RR track crossing? A week – 2 at most? $40k. Just sayin’.

  4. rufusx on March 4, 2023 at 7:18 am said:

    OOpsy. Misread that line item above – that should be $160K, not $40k. Maybe it will be a 3-4 weeks gig.

  5. Mike Lee Zitterich on March 4, 2023 at 7:28 am said:

    The Milwaukee Railroad was the original “Land Patent Holder” of the Railroad Yard, which is a total of 160 acres of land between 6th Street and 9th Street. The land is governed under 43 U.S Code – Public Lands. The Railroad Company(s) hold all rights, claims, and ownership to the land in question as per the 1862 Homestead Settlement Act. Whatever the City does in this ‘area’ would have to be approved of, and by, Burlington-Northern-Santa Fe Railroad Company of who purchased the claim from the Milwaukee Rail Road Company. Also, remember, all profits made by the Railroad Company(s) on this 160 acres of land, the Federal Government as per the patent, was able to collect a 40% Tariff assessed to those profits, which were redirected back to future Public Infrastructures, Roads, Utilities, etc.

    *Remember, the 1862 Settlement Act amended, the original 1841 Preemption Act (settlement act), which allowed for any such American not taking up arms against the Federal Govt during the Civil War to lay claim to, purchase, and settle upon the land. The revenues helped the Federal Govt conquer the Confederacy, and win the war.

    All lands ‘we’ are developing today, are part of the original “Settlement Claims” that established the Town of Sioux Falls as we know it today.

    Western Town Company – established the Village of Sioux Falls (160 acres) **West Bank

    Dakota Land Company – established Sioux Falls City (160 acres) **West Bank

    Milwaukee Rail Road Company – established the Rail Road Yard (160 acres) **East Bank

    Queen Bee Land Company – established the Economic Industrial Zone (160 acres) ** East Bank

    We are talking about a total surface area of land south of 2nd Street, North of 10th Street; between Weber Ave and Phillips Avenue – 640 acres of land, privately owned.

    Lost in all of this current development, was the loss of two major islands in this surface area – Seney Island and Second Island.

  6. Sewer'd's Folly on March 4, 2023 at 7:29 am said:

    The Cherapa and Lloyd master minds have presented the city with a bill they can’t pay. They’re building monster projects with no ability to get enough water and then the place to flush it down.

    11Haken sold his neighboring building to one of the developers in a sweetheart deal and then works with the other to steal government land for their development.

    These projects should have worked in the open and arranged for water, sewer and other utilities for their glamour projects ahead of time. Working ahead of time is open government at its best but that would be counter to Dutch Mafia authoritarian playbook.

    The projects are taxing the brain and the taxpayer’s pockets so the DM can continue to get richer. Nice job 11Haken flushing Sioux Falls while you find ways to enrich your dudes.

  7. D@ily Spin on March 4, 2023 at 10:24 am said:

    The homeless need a pretty bridge to live under. Isn’t Cherapa that mangy supernatural coyote-like creature from Texas? If the bridge is for Texans, it should be big and obnoxious but short with a big belt buckle.

  8. Merrill Gate on March 4, 2023 at 11:58 am said:

    Perhaps, the new mural on the Bunker Ramp should read in large print: Scope Reduction!

  9. Steve on March 4, 2023 at 6:05 pm said:

    “Me and other reporters”… lol. You’re a reporter now?? Hahahaha

  10. rufusx on March 5, 2023 at 10:13 am said:

    Umm, Mike – NO LAND is “privately owned”. Not one square inch in the entire USA. Grants, patents and titles (pieces of paper – lease agreements – are what is “owned”. NOT THE LAND. Get it straight buddy. All sovereign – ultimate – non-transferrable title to land is OWNED by the government. ALL OF IT. Until you come to realize the truth of this base assumption, not one bit of “logic” based on any OTHER, (alternative) assumption like “private ownership of land” is faulty. 100%.

  11. Fact Check on March 5, 2023 at 10:15 am said:

    A Madison judge a few years ago claimed we are all reporters. It involved the case concerning DWC, Pat, and Shawn.

  12. rufusx on March 5, 2023 at 10:16 am said:

    Mr – or Mrs – or Mz. Folly. See above in regard to any “land” being “stolen” from any government. Sovereign title is NON-TRANSFERRABLE.

  13. Mike Zitterich on March 5, 2023 at 5:50 pm said:

    Relax, I understand that ALL LAND is held in a Federal Land Trust in the name of the “PEOPLE”. The land is held in trust until any American comes forward to settle, claim, and purchase the right to OWN the land ‘free’ from all state and local taxes. Under the 1841 and 1862 Settlement Acts, any American can purchase the Right to OWN the land as it is “granted” to them based on the terms set forth by the Settlement Acts.

    Once any American resides on, works the land, and claims the land for a period of 5 years, the President signs off on the Land Patent (or warrant) giving to the American Citizen control of, and property rights to Minerals, Natural Resources, the Land all for the Purchase Prices, Small Filing-Processing Fee, etc.

    Under Article 22, Section 2 of the S.D Constitution the State cannot assess a property tax on such land that lies within the Jurisdictional Boundaries prescribed on the Patent.

    Under the 1841 Preemption Act amended by the 1862 Homestead Act, the Federal Govt gave itself permission to levy a 40% Tariff” (tax) on all profits made off the sale of Natural Resources, Minerals, Activity Upon the Land.

    That Tariff was then used to provide “revenues” for Federal Roads, Infrastructure, Water, Sewer, Electricity, let alone to build the Rail Road’s.

    More than half of these “patents” have since been ceded or conveyed to State’s temporarily allowing the State(s) to take temporary ownership in order to ‘tax’ the land for such things as Public Education, Economic-Community-Land Development, Social Welfare of the State, etc.

    There are 5 such Homestead Claims in Sioux Falls still of whom the Original Patent Holders still hold the Patent Rights and do not pay property taxes today:

    Lyon’s Claim aka the Fair Grounds
    Tuttle Claim aka Tut-Hill
    Pettigrew Claims aka Pettigrew Heights
    Cathedral District Claim aka Catholic Church
    Brookings Family Claim aka Seney Island (Sioux Steel)

    The PATENT HOLDERS do not pay property tax, however, the USERS do.

  14. rufusx on March 6, 2023 at 7:33 am said:

    You’re still wrong Mike. ALL land is not Federal. A great deal of it is, but MOST land is owned by the various STATES. It’s part of the deal that is made when a territory *owned by the Feds – like Puerto Rico, Samoa and DC, are granted “state-hood”. The Federal government does not issue titles within states. The states do.

  15. Fear & Loathing in Sioux Falls on March 6, 2023 at 11:43 am said:

    Is it still legal to declare myself a sovereign?

  16. rufusx on March 6, 2023 at 7:40 pm said:

    F and L. There was a fellow in SF a few years ago – Jerry Adrian. He had a thriving business for years – lots of land in the country where he lived and grew grass. he got hooked in with the whole “sovereign citizens” movement (which one M. Zitterich echoes a good deal of their rhetoric). Long story short, Mr. Adrian ended up in federal court several times because he “declared himself sovereign” and stopped paying taxes of all sorts. His heirs were left with w helluva mess. One of them evidently fell into his dad’s trap around the whole “sovereignty” issue and ended up in federal prison.
    You will note that Adrian Sod no longer exists. https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/crime/2014/06/09/former-sod-dealer-given-months-tax-evasion/10251325/

  17. The Guy From Guernsey on March 6, 2023 at 10:19 pm said:

    Well well, well.
    Looks like the bidets are on hold status.
    Perhaps Scherschligt can offer chamber pot service in those expensive digsl

  18. The Guy From Guernsey on March 6, 2023 at 10:29 pm said:

    Inadequate water service?
    Inadequate sewage disposal?
    Just like one of our authoritarian developers to order everybody else in town to provide to the beck and call of their “vision” … only to completely ‘f’ up the very rudimentary basics of that which is clearly the responsibility of the developer.
    Lest we forget, this whole thing started with a botched demolition.

  19. anominous on March 7, 2023 at 11:22 am said:

    a good way to make this new bridge pay for itself easily is to have a city toll booth on the bike trail under it and have the bikers pay $1 for everytime they go by . just like in those parking ramps

  20. Further Fear & Loathing on March 7, 2023 at 1:57 pm said:

    I still say the “Sixth Street Bunker Bridge” sounds like some sort of 20th century barbershop quartet:

    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YQttNDjqNo0

  21. Gaye Wead on March 7, 2023 at 2:07 pm said:

    I just love it when Mike starts talking about PATENTED lands. It really turns me on. It means someone else is in control. Subconsciously, we all know that’s how we all like it. You might be for states’ rights, but federal intervention is fun, too. AND, then there’s that talk about trust and only temporary….. Now, we are talking about some real property ownership…. Quitclaim is the best…. AND, then there’s also that putting a lien on something and then it’s eventual release….. InDEED…..

  22. Fearing the Fuhrer & More on March 7, 2023 at 4:02 pm said:

    I think that Gaye has been listening to too much Barry White.

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