It looks like all the hiccups and hitches in the get-a-longs of the City of Morro Bay have been worked out and a project to build a pedestrian/bicycle bridge over Morro Creek at the beach will finally get underway.
It was the second attempt to bid the more than $1.2 million project, after the last attempt in October had bids come in more than $240,000 above the available budget.
The City took a big chance on re-bidding the project, after it made changes to the scope of work and put itself up against a Dec. 31 deadline for a grant from Caltrans.
But bidding it again appears to have paid off, as the new round of bids dropped the low bid amount by more than $375,000 and also changed the winning bidder.
Originally, Sousa Const., of Santa Maria was the low bidder in the first round, proposing to do the project for $1.5 million. Trouble was the City only has $1.2 million budgeted for the job. The council rejected all bids at its Oct. 28 meeting and re-bid the project Nov. 2, advertising it in The Tribune legal notices and in regional planning publications.
Six bids were submitted but one came in after the 2 p.m. Nov. 25 deadline and was rejected.
The five bids that were accepted were: Cal Portland, $1.1 million; Souza Const., $1.2 million; Specialty Const., Inc., $1.3 million; Dawson Mauldin, $1.4 million; and R. Burke Corp., $1.5 million.
Some of these companies have histories with the City. Souza built the roundabout and the Harborwalk and is currently contracted for street repairs around town. Specialty built the new Harbor Street Fire Station and Cal Portland has done numerous projects all around the area. Burke did a huge job for Caltrans many years ago when they built two, tie-back retaining walls on Hwy 41 that have kept the roadway from slipping out in troublesome spots.
The initial project involved a 1,475-foot long, 8-foot wide paved walkway/multi-use trail and a 12-foot wide bike path. There would be a 275-foot overlook area and the 130-foot long and 13-foot wide steel bridge across the creek.
One of the major reasons the costs went up was the fire department wanted to be able to use the bridge in emergencies, which meant beefing up the capacity and size of the bridge, which is expected to be a pre-fabricated steel span, similar to the one spanning the creek at Lila Keiser Park.
However, according to a staff report by Barry Rands of the Public Works department, only one of the bidders included the name of the bridge manufacturing company it planned to use.
The City, Caltrans staff and the City Attorney agreed to let the bidders fix that omission without penalty.
Other aspects included a bike/surrey parking area, interpretive signage and low-level lighting, plus drainage improvements, a small amount of grading and removal of some invasive plants.
It’s unknown at this time how much the project has been scaled back to lower the costs but it’s undergone at least three redesigns since first being proposed by a former mayor, the late-Bill Yates, during his final term in 2011.
The City pulled together funding from several sources including its own Measure Q sales tax monies. It allocated $250,000 of M-Q monies in the 2014-15 budget but was still coming up short of the estimated cost earlier this summer.
The City had been looking at putting in another $290,000 but the Council of Governments came to the rescue when it voted to allocate another $352,000 out of SLO County’s share of the State’s Transportation Enhancement (TE) monies.
That allocation was on top of previous monies from SLOCOG and now totals $1.18 million for project construction.
SLOCOG had originally put up $628,000 in TE monies, $200,000 from its discretionary fund, and another $352,000 in TE monies.
The project also got a $220,000 Scenic Byway Program grant put together by Congresswoman Lois Capps that Yates helped secure.
The City has also put in many hours of staff time steering the project through, which can count as matching funds for grants.
