Belle Glade awards $1 million contract for Torry Island docks rehab

Posted 10/24/20

The city commissioners approved a report regarding the long-planned improvements to the Lake Okeechobee-side pavilion on Torry Island.

You must be a member to read this story.

Join our family of readers for as little as $5 per month and support local, unbiased journalism.


Already have an account? Log in to continue. Otherwise, follow the link below to join.

Please log in to continue

Log in
I am anchor

Belle Glade awards $1 million contract for Torry Island docks rehab

Posted

BELLE GLADE — The city commissioners on Monday, Oct. 19, approved a report from Finance Director Larry Tibbs regarding the long-planned improvements to the Lake Okeechobee-side pavilion on Torry Island and its piers, docks and gangways.

As it has been a work in progress behind the scenes all year, with staff and project managers negotiating for better deals using what’s called “value engineering,” the report went on the routine consent agenda and drew no discussion, passing 4-0 with City Commissioner Larry Underwood absent.

Tibbs was requesting the go-ahead from the Belle Glade City Commission to contract with South Florida Building Inc., doing business as BDI Marine and Site Contractors, for an amount not to exceed $983,761.64 for a somewhat scaled-back project from what was originally planned last winter.

As explained in his report, the city issued an invitation to bid (ITB) on March 4, with closing on April 9, and six responses were received. The packet also included a letter from Craig A. Smith & Associates consultants of Boca Raton, summarizing the process that led them to recommend the city hire BDI Marine.

“The original scope was to demolish the existing wood boardwalk, rip-rap the embankment and install a new boardwalk. The revised scope was to demolish the existing wood boardwalk and install a vinyl sheet sea wall. This provides better erosion control and eliminates the need for future replacement of boardwalks. This approach was endorsed by the Florida Inland Navigational District (FIND),” Tibbs wrote.

Staff received approval to award ITB No. 01-2020, “Improvements to Pavilion Lake Piers, Docks and Gangways,” to South Florida Building Inc., dba BDI Marine and Site Contractors, for that amount just under $1 million and sign a contract.

The report explained: “After review of the original bid responses, since all ... were over the project budget and estimates, staff was allowed to negotiate with the low bidder only. The city’s consulting engineer was asked to perform value engineering on the project to reduce the costs using line item deletions as allowed in the bid document to help determine the low bidder. ... As shown on the attached analysis from the city’s consulting engineer, there were no changes from the initial ranking of the firms with South Florida Building Inc.”

Additional staff comments noted that the City of Belle Glade received funding from the Florida Inland Navigational District (FIND) — $349,692 for this project. That leaves a balance of $634,070 that will come from other sources.

The original bids were in the range of $1.5 million from BDI Marine and Site Contractors, so through deletions of jobs and modifications of others, over half a million dollars was saved. Of the original six bids, the top range went from $2.2 million to $3.6 million.

According to CAS & Associates, consultants, “the analysis conducted was a strict evaluation of removing items from the project’s scope and reducing some quantities.”

Several bid items, additionally, were “removed from the contractor’s scope of work and will be performed in-house by the city’s Public Works Department,” including removing hedges, fencing, wooden retaining walls, handrails and sod.

torry island, lake okeechobee

Comments

x