A $30 million project to improve the Jacksonville Port Authority Blount Island terminal will be presented to the JPA board Monday.
The JPA Awards Committee met Monday to discuss the Blount Island Marine Terminal wharf rehabilitation and upgrades project.
It voted to recommend that the board award the project to Superior Construction Co., which bid $30,880,730 for the project plus a $2.4 million contingency fund, which brought the total of the project to $33.3 million.
The project’s cost will be split between the port and the Florida Department of Transportation.
“Superior has done work for us before and we have been pleased with their work in the past,” said Chris Kauffmann, port COO.
Superior was one of six companies to submit conforming bids. Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Inc., Hal Jones Contractor Inc., Lucas Marine Acquisition Co., Precon Marine Inc. and WG Yates and Sons also submitted bids.
The Blount Island project will rehabilitate and upgrade facilities that were constructed in the 1960s and are in need of repair, Kauffman has said.
Material from the docks has eroded over the years and the project will stabilize the docks to allow on-dock rail to service cargo ships.
The estimated three-year project will be done in phases along Blount Island’s southwest corner, closest to the Dames Point Bridge.
Berths 30-35 will be the focus of the project and will be repaired in a phased approach to allow shipping operations to continue at the terminal.
Kauffmann explained that the JPA will be updated monthly on the progress of the repairs and the contract will be awarded in phases.
The base bid will include the first three phases. Phases 4-6 will be awarded separately based on the outcome of the first three phases.
Committee member Eric Green, JPA senior director of government and external affairs, expressed concerns about awarding a contract that will take about three years to complete.
“What happens if conditions change or they ask for more money, who signs off on that?” asked Green, who was concerned that vendors wouldn’t be able to honor their bid amount on the later phases of the project as financial factors change.
“If they are going to ask for more, or they are not going to perform the work, we certainly have the ability to terminate the contract and rebid all of those alternate phases,” said Louis Naranjo, director of procurement service for the JPA..
“There may be some negotiations in future. We hope that involves the price going down, but if it increases we will have to bring it back to the board,” said Naranjo.
Marvin Grieve, JPA director of project management, assured the committee that the port would know if it wanted to continue with the contract before it reached the subsequent phases.
“By the end of the second phase we are going to know whether or not we want this contractor to go ahead with phases 4, 5 and 6. At that point in time we will make that decision on whether or not we go back out to bid, which would bring additional expenses with HDR for another bid package, or have the contractor finish the job,” said Grieve.
HDR Engineering Inc. is contracted to provide engineering services for the port.
The board will meet Monday and a vote on the project is scheduled.
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