The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 14 No. 36 - July 2, 2014

FEATURE

New pier bids opened

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

file photo

The reconstruction of the Bradenton Beach City Pier is now
a month behind schedule due to bid protests and other delays.

 

 

 

BRADENTON BEACH – The new city pier reconstruction bids are in.

Acting City Clerk Tammy Johnson opened the sealed bids Friday morning, joined by Building Official Steve Gilbert and ZNS Engineering’s Karen Wilson.

Gibsonton-based Tampa Marine submitted the lowest opening bid, at $1,402,879, with a $7,500 discount offered if the city can secure the rights to use the county-owned barge dock located at the south end of the Island, near Coquina Beach.

Sarasota-based Duncan Seawall’s bid was slightly higher, at $1,483,717, with $5,000 discount offered in exchange for the use of the county dock as a waterfront staging area for equipment and materials.

Miami-based Pac Comm submitted the highest bid at $1,762,783, with no discount offered for staging and offloading.

In early June, the pier reconstruction project was put out to bid for a second time, after city commissioners unanimously agreed to discard all bids received during the original request for proposal (RFP) process.

The decision to discard the original bids was reached after Pac Comm and Tampa Bay Marine formally protested the commission’s 3-2 decision to award the contract to Duncan Seawall, even though Duncan was not the lowest bidder.

The commission is not obligated to award the contract based on price alone. In May, three commissioners voted in favor of Duncan, based in part on the Pier Team recommendation to go with it or Tampa Bay Marine. Pier Team advisory board members Sam Speciale and Tom Woodard favored Duncan because of the company’s past performance when working on city projects.

Unlike the first round of bids, the new bids include all electrical work and pier lighting.

When the original bids were opened in April, Pac Comm came in the lowest at $1,150,590, followed by Tampa Bay Marine at $1,237,487 and Duncan Seawall at $1,309, 452.

Commissioners hope to select the winning firm in July. The reconstruction work was originally slated to begin in early June.


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