Players enjoy a round of golf at Harlingen’s Tony Butler Golf Course in this Valley Morning Star file photo. The pandemic-era supply chain crisis is driving up the cost of a long-awaited project to revamp the golf course. (Valley Morning Star file photo)
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HARLINGEN — The supply chain crisis is driving up costs while delaying projects, likely tightening budgets for the upcoming fiscal year.
Across the country, the coronavirus pandemic’s economic slowdown led to production cuts in steel, petroleum-based products and other materials.
Meanwhile, soaring gasoline and diesel costs are driving up product prices.
“There’s shortages everywhere,” Josh Ramirez, a Harlingen assistant city manager, said Friday. “Pretty much all the supplies have increased.”
As local governments begin working on their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year, many are planning tighter coffers.
“We’re certainly taking that into account,” Craig Hill, a Harlingen assistant city manager, said, referring to rising costs. “For services that we contract for, we’re noticing their annual rates tend to be quoted higher. We just to have to account for that.”
Meanwhile, cities working on big projects are struggling with soaring costs.
Harlingen projects
In Harlingen, the lone construction bid for a long-awaited $3.1 million project aimed at transforming the Tony Butler Golf Course’s 18-hole course came in at $6.3 million, leading an architect to try substituting turfs while cutting the number of irrigation sprinklers.
In the downtown area, a $300,000 project to build restrooms has jumped 20- to 40-percent in cost, Javier Mendez, the city’s parks director, said.
“We don’t want to remove anything,” he said. “We’re going to see what we can do to bring it within budget.”
So officials are delaying the project, Ramirez said.
But the supply chain crisis is not expected to impact a project to develop the Lon C. Hill destination park’s $4.1 million second phase because the supply chain crisis has not impacted the price of concrete, a main construction material, Mendez said.
”We’ve been talking to the architect and I think we’re comfortable with the budget we have,” he said. “A lot of it is speciality products. The contractor has manufacturers who work for them. They supply them with the products.”
San Benito sewer system overhaul
In San Benito, costs of a state-ordered project aimed at overhauling the city’s sewer system could jump about 10 percent, Mayor Rick Guerra said.
“It could be 10 percent over but still within budget,” he said. “The prices went up but they’ve been locked — they called the suppliers and locked in the rates. Everything is coming in a little late but we’re getting it.”
Meanwhile, Commissioner Rene Garcia said officials are planning to meet the state’s March 2023 deadline.
“We’re on target,” he said. “I don’t foresee a problem on a bigger scale.”
Guerra said officials expect to complete the project before the year’s end.
For years, officials have been working on the project aimed at overhauling the city’s sewer system to comply with a 2012 Texas Commission on Environmental Quality order requiring the city meet the March 2023 deadline or face severe fines and corrective action.
Rio Hondo faces project delay, cuts
In Rio Hondo, product shortages and soaring costs are impacting two projects, City Administrator Ben Medina said.
A product shortage is delaying a $400,000 project aimed at laying a 12-inch pipeline under the Arroyo Colorado to carry potable water, he said.
“The resin used to make the pipe is from China so it’s not available,” he said, referring to the project’s plastic pipeline. “We’re on a waiting list.”
Meanwhile, rocketing asphalt costs are leading officials to cut a $400,000 street paving project in half, Medina said.
“The cost of petroleum for asphalt is so high, instead of four streets we can only do two,” he said.
