Posted on March 22, 2018
By Rob Morris, The Outer Banks Voice
Nags Head will have to wait a year to add more sand to the town’s 10 miles of shoreline, but the job can be done next summer by tweaking the numbers to stick to a $34 million budget.
The town opened bids on Thursday from four companies, each with proposals for this year and next.
Bids for this summer ranged from 50 percent more than the town can afford to nearly triple the budget.
Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, which did the original nourishment work in 2011, was lowest for both years. But its quote of $36,644,500 for 2019 still exceeds the budget.
Officials had been pushing to get started this year and settle on a plan early enough to give rental management companies time to inform property owners and vacationers. The timeline called for starting work by July.
The town is still waiting for a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but has received a state Coastal Area Management Act permit, Town Engineer David Ryan told the Board of Commissioners Wednesday.
Bids, which were opened Thursday, broke down this way:
2019
Great Lakes – $36,644,500
Weeks – $39,860,000
Manson – $50,150,000
Dutra – $86,248,000
2018
Great Lakes – $52,044,000
Manson – $52,450,000
Weeks – $57,200,000
Dutra – $94,248,000
The bids are based on pumping about 4 million cubic yards of sand onto the beach, the maximum permitted. Great Lakes’ bid was $2,444,500 over the total construction budget of an estimated $34.2 million.
Plans call for a town portion of 2.3 million cubic yards at an estimated $25.5 million and 1.43 cubic yards at $16.2 million eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement for losses from Hurricane Matthew. So that would keep the project at less than 4 million cubic yards and save some money.
If the town chooses to include the FEMA portion, it will have to provide the money upfront. Separating the two, however, would mean deploying equipment twice, which would add significantly to the overall cost.
The town outlined scenarios the Board of Commissioners will consider when it meets April 4:
- If the commissioners choose to complete the town project only — 2.3 million cubic yards in 2019 — the lowest bid by Great Lakes would cost $22,760,000, which is $560,000 more than the Town’s reserved construction budget of about $22.2 million. If the Town plans to stay within the reserved construction budget, great lakes could pump 2,222,222 cubic yards, which is about 97 percent of the planned volume.
- If the board wants to complete the town project plus the FEMA project — 2.3 million cubic yards plus 1.43 million cubic yards in 2019 — the Great Lakes bid would cost $34,700,500, about $500,000 above the reserved budget.
- If the Town plans to stay within the $34.2 million reserved construction budget, the amount of work that can be completed by GLDD would be about 3.7 million cubic yards, which is 99 percent of the 3.73 million-cubic-yard planned volume.
Source: The Outer Banks Voice
