ANNA MARIA – Longboat Key-based Eason Builders is the city of Anna Maria’s first choice to install new brick paver sidewalks and new crosswalks along Pine Avenue between Gulf Drive and North Shore Drive.
On July 25, Mayor Dan Murphy and the city commission discussed three bids received for the first phase of a multi-phase brick paver sidewalk installation project that’s part of the greater Reimagining Pine Avenue safety improvement project.
The Phase 1 work will consist of brick paver sidewalks being installed atop the unpaved, meandering pedestrian paths along Pine Avenue between Gulf and North Shore. The existing concrete sidewalk on the other side of Pine will remain in place for now.
For the Phase 1 project only, Eason Builders bid $233,704, Tampa-based Mali Construction bid $272,796 and the Sarasota-based C-Squared construction company bid $665,290. Because C-Squared’s bid was so much higher, Murphy recommended excluding that bid from further consideration.
Murphy noted the Eason and Mali bids were close to the $181,053 previously estimated by the George F. Young engineering firm that designed and engineered the Reimagining Pine Avenue project.
Murphy sought and received commission authorization to engage in further discussions with Eason Builders.
“I’d to go to Eason Builders and do fact-finding and see if I can come back with an acceptable contract with Eason Builders,” Murphy told the commission. “If that fails, I’ll come back to the commission again and try to come back with an acceptable contract from Mali.”
He noted he can only enter into contract discussions with one company at a time.
Murphy said additional cost savings might be realized if the city’s public works department does the pavement striping and marking for the crosswalk installations.
Murphy noted the bids must also be reviewed and approved by the Florida Department of Transportation – the state agency overseeing the city’s expenditure of the state appropriation that is funding a significant portion of the Reimagining Pine Avenue project.
During the past couple of years, the city previously issued four separate requests for proposals for the sidewalk and crosswalk installations. In all four instances, C-Squared was the only bidder. The city commission rejected all four of C-Squared’s previous bids because of the proposed cost and the commission’s ongoing desire to receive proposals from multiple bidders.
Commissioner Mark Short said receiving competitive bids for the first time illustrates what the mayor and commission have believed all along, that C-Squared’s bids were abnormally high.
“While people may be frustrated that we’ve been talking about this project for a couple of years, it does show we’ve been prudent about how we’ve approached this utilizing not just our money, but the state’s money,” Short said.
Future block-by-block project phases will result in brick paver sidewalks being installed along the length of Pine Avenue where no concrete sidewalks currently exist.
The phase 2 bids for sidewalk and crosswalk installations between North Shore Drive and Crescent Drive are expected to be revealed and discussed soon.
