Kansas River weir project costs turn out to be $2.5 million above estimate

Costs that turned out to be nearly $2.5 million higher than expected have held up work on a project by Topeka’s city government to improve the safety of its Kansas River weir, where three people have drowned since 2007.

Former Topeka Mayor Larry Wolgast, a member of the Topeka and Shawnee County Riverfront Authority, described the development Thursday as a “major setback” and said it was “extremely disappointing.”

City officials had intended last month to start work on the project at the concrete weir, located north of the city’s water treatment plant at 3245 N.W. Waterworks Drive.

But while the city’s estimate for costs to hire a company to carry out the project had been $1,979,000, the low bid the city received was $4,455,000, according to a city document.

“We will need to either change the scope or locate additional funding — or both,” Braxton Copley, the city’s deputy director of utilities, said Thursday.