PORT TOWNSEND — Four sealed bids were opened Monday afternoon by the Port of Port Townsend for the Point Hudson south jetty replacement project.
American Construction Co. of Tacoma, with a bid amount of $3,991,118.93, was the apparent low bidder.
Also submitting bids were: Bergerston Construction, Astoria, Ore., $4,598,366.65; Orion Marine Group, Tacoma, $4,014,437.30; and Pacific Pile & Marine, Seattle, $4,639,568.65.
The cost of the project has been estimated at $4.24 million.
Eric Toews, jetty project manger and director of planning and in-house legal counsel for the port, verified the bids were sealed, then read them one at a time.
Representatives from all four companies were present, as were port commissioners Steve Tucker and Bill Putney.
Toews is still processing the bids and said he isn’t surprised by them.
“We had nine companies that pre-qualified. They attended the bid meeting and we were hopeful that we would receive more bids. We aren’t far off with 50 percent. It’s not a bad turnout for a project of this nature.”
According to Toews, the next step is to assess the bid.
“We will evaluate the bid internally and discuss the bond issue that’s before the commission. We’ll develop alternatives, and determine whether or not the port has the financial capacity to undertake this project at this time given to totality of the circumstances.
“We’ll look not only at the low bid but the potential — if not the inevitability — of some change orders along the way.” said Toews. “That would change the cost, as well as the additional expense required for the engineering phase construction and support, and professional contract management. We need to look at the totality of circumstances and see whether this is within the port’s capacity at the current time.”
American Construction representative Renee Romberg was pleased to be the the lowest bidder.
“It was a close bid and we anticipate hearing from them soon to make sure we get it,” said Romberg.
In addition to the project bids, the port also asked for an additional bid amount for larger piles. Bids ranged from a low price of $54,000 to $288,520.
“Engineers were interested in finding out what oversized piles would provide as a safety margin at the seaward end of the south jetty and what that would mean to the overall project,” said Toews.
“We’re confident that it’s engineered correctly with the pile sizes identified as designed. But they were interested in finding out what the delta would be and if it would be in our best interest to oversize the piles.”
Port Executive Director Sam Gibboney was pleased with the bid response.
“I think this was a fine response,” Gibboney said. “In fact, to get four bids of this nature on a project of this size in our area is encouraging.”
“The range of bids is not surprising to us and we’ll be doing some analysis to make recommendations to the port commission Tuesday,” she continued. “There won’t be a decision to award the contract Tuesday. However, there might be a decision to proceed with the bond. The port still has due diligence to do on the bids to make sure the apparent low bidder is both responsive and responsible according to state statute.”
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Jeannie McMacken can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jmcmacken@peninsuladailynews.com.
