Excavation is expected to begin soon for the Fifth Avenue underground parking structure, but the Downtown Development Authority is still waiting for a price commitment before finalizing its construction manager hire.

The DDA has not yet gotten a guaranteed maximum price for the project from The Christman Co. of Lansing.

"We were sort of expecting to have a construction manager in place at this time," DDA Chairman John Splitt said at today's DDA meeting. "We still do not have a guaranteed maximum price, so that has been delayed."

The price should be determined by the time the DDA's Capital Improvements Committee meets at 11 a.m. Oct. 14. DDA officials then need to decide whether to hire Christman as the construction manager for the rest of the project. The DDA board has tentatively scheduled a special meeting on Oct. 21 to decide on that.

Also at today's meeting, the governing board of the DDA approved spending $50,000 for design of detailed structural plans for earth retention systems that will be used during excavation for the underground parking structure.

DDA officials said The Christman Co., which was hired in August to manage pre-construction, needs the plans as it calculates the maximum construction price.

DDA Executive Director Susan Pollay said Christman has been amassing cost estimates for various components of the project and is now asking an engineer to assess if the lowest bid for the excavation work is sufficient.

"Today's decision was hiring an engineer to do an analysis to determine if the excavation proposal that came in so far under the other proposals will meet our needs," Pollay said.

The parking structure project, along with related improvements on Fifth and Division, has been estimated to cost the DDA about $59 million.

The board voted 11-1 today on the $50,000 expense with Jennifer Santi Hall dissenting.

Ryan J. Stanton covers government for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529.