PORT ANGELES — Six bids opened Friday afternoon for the Eighth Street bridges replacement project were significantly more than the city engineer’s estimate and 29 percent and more than the project’s $20 million budget.
“The bids were in the range of $24 million to $26 million just for construction, not including construction management,” said a dejected City Public Works Director Glenn Cutler on Friday.
“We estimated about $16 million.”
Cutler said the city will now go back to its consultant, Exeltech Consulting of Olympia, to determine why there’s such a difference between the city engineer’s estimate and the actual bids.
Exeltech also will contact the six bidders and find out why the bids were so high and what can be done to reduce costs, Cutler said.
Bids start at $25.8 million
The base bids opened Friday afternoon from the six contractors ranged from $25.8 million from Mowat Construction Co. of Woodinville to $29.4 million from Max J. Kuney Co. of Spokane.
The city engineer’s estimate for the base bid was $16.8 million. Federal funding on the project is capped at $20 million.
“They’ve got quite a number of very reputable contractors bidding on it,” said Mowat Construction President John Sandstrom on Saturday.
“The numbers are very close and we look forward to building the project if it is awarded to us.”
The project to replace the two timber trestle spans across Valley and Tumwater creeks was put out to bid in December.
The initial project estimate in June 2005 was $22.7 million, exceeding the $20 million the federal government will fund.