Jacksonville District Holds Industry Meeting to Solicit Contractor Input on Deepening

On March 13 the Jacksonville District held an Industry Day to meet with contractors interested in bidding on the Jacksonville Deepening project. The pre-solicitation notice for the contract “Construction Dredging (Phase III) 40-Foot Project Cut-50 through Lower Terminal Channel Jacksonville Harbor W912EP-08-Z-0005” was made available to the public on March 4 and bid closing date was set tentatively for September.

In accordance with a recently-established procedure the district sought comments from the contractors on the project specifications in order to improve the contract specifications. An informal transcription of the session follows:

Contractor: Does the Corps have the report that goes with the core borings?

Corps: There are no consolidated reports at this time.

Contractor: How about test results?

Corps: Will be included in the actual solicitation.

Contractor: In the 2002 contract there was a lack of appropriate detail regarding the rock.

Corps: Are you referring to unconfined compressive strength?

Contractor: Yes.

Corps: This will be provided.

Contractor: What are the environmental issues?

Corps: Permit is in place; expires in September 2009; no blasting is allowed.

Contractor: Turbidity issues?

Corps: Standard; 29 NTU

Contractor: Is the widener part of the project? Is that represented in the drawings?

Corps: Not all drawings have been provided at this time. Will be widened to 200 feet.

Contractor: Anything special about the disposal area?

Corps: Standard; typical; nothing unusual.

Contractor: What is the contract duration?

Corps: This will be an RFP (request for proposals). We’d like to hear your ideas industry.

Contractor: What is the proposed contract duration?

Corps: Would a more flexible performance period be more conducive to industry?

Contractor: That might increase competition; allowing industry to schedule better.

Contractor: Is the project open to all types of dredges?

Corps: Yes; all upland disposal; no bottom dumping.

Corps: What about commencement time (starting time); lead time etc.?

Contractor: More flexibility would probably lead to better prices.

Contractor: We’d like to see 90 days commencement after NTP (notice to proceed) instead of 30 days.

Contractor: There are only two or three pieces of equipment that can do this type of work.

Contractor: We’d like to see 120 days after NTP.

Contractor: What is the estimated range?

Corps: Magnitude is between $10 and $25 million.

Contractor: We’d also like to see 60 days (or at least 45) to prepare our proposal and not 30 days.

Contractor: We could live with the 30 days.

Contractor: Information provided prior to this Industry Day is helpful although not yet totally digested.

Corps: What if we considered issuing a draft set of plans & specs and then held a Pre-Proposal conference 2 to 3 weeks later in conjunction with a site visit?

Contractor: That would be extremely helpful.

Corps: We are not promising that we will absolutely do that; but we will take it under advisement.

INDUSTRY DAY PARTICIPANTS

Bill Hanson John Karas Steve Auernhamer and Dave Rappe – Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company LLC; Rick Smith and Chris Champigny – Weeks Marine Inc.; Paul Lougheed – Norfolk Dredging; Mike Warwick – Manson Construction; Craig Sim and Tony Landry – Misener Marine; Richard Downy and Scott Vandegrift – J.E. McAmis; Amber Overfelt and Curtis Huggins – Subaqueous Services; Ralph Reese – Contract Drilling and Blasting; Dan Eastman – Optimum Services; Frank Jones and Roy Harper – Jacksonville Port Authority; Steve Ross Ann Mays Dolly Colwell (contract point of contact) Griselle Gonzalez (alternate point of contact) Steve Myers Steve Conger Brian Blake Al Fletcher Russ Tolle and Mark Clark USACE Jacksonville District.