Dredging re-bid to save Port Manatee $2 million

BRADENTON — The Manatee County Port Authority will save a little more than $2 million on a dredging project slated for Port Manatee later this year.

Port Manatee officials on Tuesday said they received a low bid of $14.8 million on dredging an extended berth.

The new low bid, which came in Tuesday morning, is about 14 percent less than the original low bid of $17.1 million, which the port authority rejected in April. The port rebid the dredging project because engineering consultant, CH2M Hill, estimated it would cost about $13 million.

“We felt the bids were too high,” said David McDonald, director of Port Manatee.

The port authority on Tuesday approved the bid by Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., based in Oak Brook, Ill. The port plans to start dredging its south channel by the end of the year.

The port wants to dredge the channel so it can extend Berth 12 from 1,000 feet to 1,584 feet long. The dredging and berth extension are the preliminary steps for an upgrade at Berth 12 that will include building a 52-acre container yard to give Port Manatee more freight storage space once the Panama Canal is widened in 2014.

The port has about $13 million in cash reserves and state grants to help fund the dredging, which is slated to begin by the end of the year with completion in early 2011.

“I think David put his job on the line here by asking to rebid this,” said Manatee County Commissioner Joe McClash. “It was a risky move. The bids could have come in higher.”

With the dredging project bid approved, Port Manatee also will seek a consultant to help with drafting a new business model for the future. The port wants to find consulting services to help it determine whether long-term leasing, a concessionaire or public-private agreement would help Port Manatee be more economically viable in the long run.

To search for consulting services, the Manatee County Port Authority also authorized port officials to advertise a request for qualifications so it can find and review candidates.

The port plans to have a selection of candidates for the authority to review and decide on by mid September.