by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The Jacksonville Port Authority will discuss some high-dollar projects in the coming weeks, including wharf rehabilitation at Blount Island and the start of the process to construct a new cargo terminal at its Dames Point facility.
The next meeting of the authority’s board of directors is scheduled Dec. 8.
On Wednesday, its awards committee recommended approval of a nearly $2 million contract for HDR Engineering to provide engineering services and support during construction for the rehabilitation of wharf structures at Blount Island Marine Terminal berths 30-35.
The committee will meet again today to discuss the request for proposals to provide professional consultant and design services for construction of Dames Point Container Terminal No. 2, which will be the Hanjin Container Terminal.
The facility will be the first on the East Coast for Hanjin Shipping Company of Seoul, Korea. The original estimate for the facility was $300 million and it had an estimated opening of 2014.
According to the port authority, the terminal will include two berths able to accommodate post-Panamax vessels.
The terminal capacity is designed for the annual handling of more than 800,000 20-foot-equivalent container units, or TEUs. A dual operating system will use rubber-tired gantries and rail-mounted gantry cranes.
The top three engineering firms selected by the Hanjin RFQ Evaluation Committee on Aug. 26, 2009, included Moffatt & Nichol, CH2M HILL and Halcrow Inc., which rebuilt the bulkhead at the Talleyrand terminal.
On Nov. 12, 2009, the Technical Advisory Committee recommended the approval of the following ranking of those companies to the port board: Halcrow Inc., CH2M HILL and Moffatt & Nichol.
The next action by the port board would be to grant the authority the ability to enter into negotiations to determine the price of the contract. The issue could be taken up at the board meeting next week or at its January meeting.
Port authority executives and representatives of Hanjin signed a 30-year lease agreement in December 2008 calling for construction of a 90-acre container facility at the Dames Point Marine Terminal in North Jacksonville.
The process of constructing the facility was halted as labor negotiations between Hanjin and the International Longshoremen’s Association stalled.
However, negotiations resumed and an agreement was signed in September, allowing the process to build the terminal next to the TraPac Container Terminal at Dames Point to continue.
After the design and permitting process, construction is expected to take about two years.
As for the wharf rehabilitation, “the design is estimated to take four to six months for the project, and, after the construction bid process, construction is estimated to take two to three years,” said Nancy Rubin, director of communications for the port authority.
“Construction will be done in phases so that operations can continue during construction,” she said.
HDR Engineering is one of three companies that bid to provide services for repair work at the port.
It was recommended for the job by the Port Authority Awards Committee and that recommendation will be voted on by the board.
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