Consultant on Lido Beach emergency renourishment project to be paid an extra $47,456 for services

Weather problems and other delays resulted in longer timeline for the initiative, city staff explains

Before and after photos show the area of Lido Beach that has been the focus of the emergency project. Image courtesy City of Sarasota

Because the Lido Key emergency beach renourishment project took 49 more days than originally planned, the Sarasota City commission has agreed to pay the consultant for the project an extra $47,456.

The initial authorized payment to APTM of Boca Raton was $390,094.50, according to a document provided to the City Commission in advance of its May 20 regular meeting. The adjusted total will be $437,550.50, the document says.

The City Commission voted on April 2, 2018 to award the contract to APTIM — which has offices throughout the United States — with the funds to come out of Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenue set aside for the city’s use in beach renourishment initiatives.

APTIM previously had worked with the city on South Lido projects, City Engineer Alexandrea DavisShaw explained prior to that vote.

The backup agenda material DavisShaw provided to the board members for the May 20 meeting explained that when the scope of work for the firm was developed, construction of the emergency project was expected to take 30 days, “based on past projects.”

However, the agenda document continued, “These projects had larger dredge companies doing the work. As it got closer to advertising the bid,” the material said, staff began growing concerned that few companies might “bid on a rather small project …” Therefore, staff changed the timeframe to allow for a longer sand removal period, the document noted.

The low bid came in from a smaller contractor, which proposed a 90-day duration, the material said.

This is one of the rotating images on the Coastal Dredging Co. website homepage. Image from the website

Coastal Dredging Co. of Hammond, La., is the company that won the bid. Its website says, “Coastal Dredging Company, Inc. (CDC) is a small business providing primarily marine dredging/construction services to clients throughout the Southeastern U.S. The founders and incorporators of CDC have more than 50 years experience in the marine construction/dredging industry. CDC was formed and incorporated in September 1996 with the sole purpose of performing marine related construction projects. Our focus is primarily on wetlands restoration and mitigation, oilfield channels, habitat enhancement, levee construction, pile driving and installation of water control structures. Our company’s continual growth and expansion, coupled with our proven record of consistently providing timely, quality services and customer satisfaction has led to our current bonding capacity of $10 million, and a reputation as an honest dependable contractor.”

Altogether, because of weather problems and other delays, the document for the May 20 meeting continued, the project ended up taking 139 days. Thus, a change order was necessary “for the additional engineering inspection and construction services to cover these additional 49 days,” the material said.

APTIM is scheduled to conclude its work on Oct. 3, the document noted, when it will have allocated 535 days to the project.

The emergency initiative, which cost about $3.9 million, was designed as a response to erosion on Lido Beach exacerbated by Hurricanes Hermine and Irma. It added 40 to 80 feet of beach, City Manager Tom Barwin reported in early April. Altogether, Barwin noted, about 205,000 cubic yards of sand from New Pass was placed on the Lido beach.

A graphic in material the City of Sarasota submitted in August 2018 to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) includes this information about the New Pass borrow area. Image courtesy FDEP

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarded the city $722,229 for the work in response to damage Hurricane Irma inflicted on the shoreline in September 2017. Another $120,372 in State Emergency Response Team (SERT) funding was for Irma damage, too, city staff noted.

Additionally, FEMA awarded the city $85,974 for erosion produced by Hurricane Hermine in 2016, and the city received $14,329 in SERT funds for that storm, as well.

The dredging of New Pass began on Nov. 19, 2018 and ended on March 25, according to a calendar in the materials provided to the City Commission for its May 20 meeting.

As of Feb. 26, the timeline said, 33 days of delays had occurred because of weather problems. Barwin explained in his weekly newsletters that the dredging equipment could not operate in high seas produced by cold fronts that moved through the area.

Final completion of the project was recorded as April 2, the timeline said.