By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
Geoff Tavelli, with Bartlett & West, spoke before the Great Bend City Council Monday night and said the reconstruction of the SRCA Dragstrip is planned to be finished by March 2026, in time for next season’s races.
The City Council approved an amendment to the Bartlett & West agreement to complete 100% design and construction administration services for $315,595. Tavelli said their firm has been seeking input from several sources familiar with dragstrips to get the project just right.
"I think we have a good game plan with the track guys from the SRCA, with Logan Burns (City Administrator) and subject matter experts that have been sitting in the meetings with us," said Tavelli. "We're making sure we're delivering your guys a good product."
The approved price includes the design of a new timing tower and moving the location of the track approximately 300 feet to the west of the original starting line to accommodate future growth if STAR bonds were to come to fruition. Keeping the location would pose challenges for future growth at the track with spectator seating.
The dragstrip was reconstructed in 2021 but several issues followed the completion of the project making the surface unsafe. Tavelli said it will be important to “broaden our horizon in the region to make sure we get some good, experienced contractors.”
"There are some larger road construction contractors we're going to look at going after," said Tavelli. "I don't think we should have too big of an issue finding contractors that want to bid a high-profile, pretty cool project. This is a good feather to put in your cap to bring a product like this to Great Bend and then to have it on the national stage with the NHRA."
Demolition of the track is expected to begin in late June, with reconstruction of the dragstrip starting in late August or early September. A guaranteed maximum price (GMP) for the project will be revealed later this summer.