JEFFERSONVILLE — The city of Jeffersonville is tweaking its marina plans after construction bids that came with much bigger dollar signs than expected.
The estimated $2.2 million project came back with bids as high as $4.9 million, excluding the million-dollar floating pier. The lowest bidder — MAC Construction and Excavating, Inc. — was for $3.8 million.
“Normally, we’re right on the money,” said Jacobi, Toombs and Lanz Inc. President Jorge Lanz, on engineer estimates. “In this case, we weren’t.”
Lanz said that the difference in numbers are attributed to a few additions made to the design after the estimate was calculated including a limestone wall against the shoreline. Material and labor costs are up as much as 20 percent in the area because of demand from the Ohio River Bridges Project and other work.
“It’s a great time to be a contractor,” Lanz said. “A couple years ago, we were getting very aggressive bids because the contractors didn’t have a whole lot to do.”
Lanz also said the original estimate was probably on the low side, as many city council members believed from the beginning.
“We’re in the process of trying to figure out what revisions can be made so that we can come up with a really nice project and not spend so much money,” he said.
Construction can’t start anyway until the city has the go-ahead via a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. Lanz said a final draft of the memorandum of agreement has been signed and officials are in the process of deciding.
“The Corps has indicated that they don’t see a fatal flaw,” he said, expecting the permit to come next month.
Mayor Mike Moore said that the modified plan will have fewer docks and other changes, but estimates will probably be higher than $2.2 million.
“I still think the marina is a fantastic asset for the city of Jeff,” Moore said. “It’s long overdue. I think four different administrations in the past 20 years have tried to do what we’re going to be doing.”
City Council President Dennis Julius said he’ll just have to wait and see what the new estimates and plan bring.
“My feeling is they put the cart before the horse in trying to get the bids before the permit,” he said.
Julius said there’s work that can be done at the site in the meantime, including tearing out the rest of the dilapidated docks.
“We owe it to the citizens to clean it up,” Julius said.
City Councilwoman Connie Sellers said that some kind of work needs to happen at the shore.
“For right now, I’m not too concerned,” she said. “I think we’ll do what we need to do, I just think it will have to come at a reasonable cost.”
The city council approved the not-to-exceed $2.2 million for the project and will have to approve the new plans and estimate, too.
“The closer we can get to that number, the better,” Sellers said.