$8.9M contract awarded to extend Deer Drive at Lakewood Ranch for Schroeder-Manatee Ranch's Waterside development
LAKEWOOD RANCH -- A second road builder has won a contract from the Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District to extend a road into Schroeder-Manatee Ranch's planned Waterside community in Sarasota County.
District supervisors Friday accepted the $8,903,032.01 bid of Frederick Derr & Co. of Sarasota to extend Deer Drive 2.29 miles from University Parkway south to the planned Waterside town center and west to Lakewood Ranch Boulevard. Frederick Derr was the low bidder.
A week earlier, Woodruff & Sons Inc. of Bradenton landed a $11,421,604 contract to extend and widen 2.23 miles of Lorraine Road from University Parkway south to the southern border of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch property.
Others submitting bids for the Deer Drive project included E. T. MacKenzie of Bradenton, QGS Site Development of Lithia, and C & M Road Builders of Sarasota. Deer Drive is now a relatively short road that serves The Out-of-Door Academy, Lakewood Ranch Baptist Church, and Sarasota Polo Club Ranches.
SMR is building the infrastructure to serve Waterside, formerly known as the Villages of Lakewood Ranch South, prior to starting other work on the 2,000-acre community.
Waterside is being developed under Sarasota County's 2050 plan, and will have 12 neighborhoods built around a system of seven man-made lakes.
When built out, it is projected to have 5,144 residential units and 400,000-square-feet of commercial and residential development.
The extensions of Lorraine Road, Deer Drive, and Lakewood Ranch Boulevard to serve Waterside will all be four-lanes.
Stewardship District supervisors expect to award a contract to extend Lakewood Ranch Boulevard in March.
The anticipated start date for construction of the new segments of Deer Drive and Lorraine Road is mid-march, said district engineer Mike Kennedy.
The budget for Deer Drive was approximately $10 million, and Derr's bid came in well under budget, Kennedy said.
Still to be awarded are contracts for extending 1.85 miles of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard on SMR property, and 1.71 miles of Lakewood Ranch Boulevard off SMR property to Fruitville Road. Also yet to be awarded is a contract for extending 1.28 miles of Lorraine Road south of SMR property to Fruitville Road. All road contracts should be awarded by June, say district officials.
James A. Jones Jr., East Manatee reporter, can be contacted at 941-745-7053 or on Twitter@jajones1.
This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 4:30 PM with the headline "$8.9M contract awarded to extend Deer Drive at Lakewood Ranch for Schroeder-Manatee Ranch's Waterside development ."