ANNA MARIA – A damaged boom line on i+iconSoutheast’s barge-mounted crane has delayed the repairs to the new Anna Maria City Pier.
The repairs are required in the wake of the construction company barge crashing into the pier walkway on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
On Friday, Sept 20, i+iconSoutheast Project Director Paul Johnson informed Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy of the latest delay.
“During the crane inspection a damaged section of boom line was discovered. The crane and barge will be demobilized to have new boom line installed on Saturday at an offsite location with the goal of getting back to Anna Maria on Monday. We will then continue with the repairs,” Johnson stated in his email to Murphy.
On Sept. 16, Murphy emailed city commissioners a copy of the preliminary report submitted by the scuba team that conducted an underwater inspection of the damage caused by the barge accident. Murphy’s email noted the divers’ report indicated the underwater damage was limited to the two pier pilings previously identified.
The damaged pilings were removed on Thursday, Sept. 19. The new pilings will be installed after the crane repairs are completed and the crane is back in place. Murphy said once the new pilings are driven, the damaged support beam, stringers and utility conduits can then be replaced.
These damaged pier pilings were removed on Thursday, Sept. 19. – City of Anna Maria | Submitted
Murphy said Mason Martin Builders’ construction of the new restaurant, bait shop and restrooms at the pier’s T-end remains on hold until the breech in the pier walkway is repaired.
Murphy said he and Mason Martin Builders’ owner Frank Agnelli agree that it would not be safe to have his employees working out on the T-end without the pier walkway being fully accessible in the event of an injury or emergency.
“Every day that ticks along is delaying the grand opening,” Murphy said of the anticipated pier opening in early 2020.
ANNA MARIA – An i+iconSoutheast construction barge struck and damaged the new Anna Maria City Pier this afternoon.
Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy said the accident occurred between 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. The barge struck the southeast side of the pier, about two-thirds of the way out.
The degree of damage and the anticipated delays to the pier construction timetable were still being assessed as of late afternoon.
I+iconSoutheast is the marine construction company building the new pier structure, walkway and T-end decking.
This i+iconSoutheast barge ran into the new Anna Maria City Pier this afternoon. – Cindy Lane | Sun
“The icon barge was trying to tie up for the night. He was going to go early tomorrow morning to the Kingfish boat ramp to start loading materials to take out there,” Murphy said.
“He came in a little bit too hot and he rammed into the pier. He broke or pushed off two pilings and one of the top beams – the bent frames that go there. He messed up the stringers there and bent the conduits out of shape. It’s about 15 to 20 feet of damage and those two pilings will have to be replaced. The beam looks like it’s OK and we’ll probably be able to save that. A couple stringers will have to be replaced,” Murphy explained.
Mayor Dan Murphy said scuba divers may be needed to fully assess the pier damage. – City of Anna Maria | Submitted
“The Coast Guard is investigating the accident, as well as the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. I don’t yet have the extent of the damage. I don’t know the amount of delay this is going to create or whether it’s going to be a long delay or a short delay. I went out there and looked at it and a lot depends upon the structural damage that I couldn’t see. I need to have divers or somebody else take a look at this,” Murphy said.
Murphy said i+iconSoutheast is responsible for the damage and the repairs required.
Tuesday’s barge accident bent the pier structure that must now be repaired. – City of Anna Maria | Submitted
The pier project recently incurred some unanticipated delays because of precautionary measures taken due to the possible arrival of Hurricane Dorian. Those storm-related delays resulted in i+iconSoutheast’s anticipated early September completion date likely being pushed back a couple more weeks.
Mason Martin Builders will soon start building the new restaurant, bait shop and restrooms at the new pier’s T-end. Those construction materials were scheduled to be delivered to the pier by barge this coming weekend.
Murphy said it was not yet known if today’s accident would impact those weekend activities or the commencement of the construction of the T-end buildings.
It is not yet known what impact Tuesday’s accident will have on the construction completion timetable. – Cindy Lane | Sun
ANNA MARIA – Anna Maria commissioners denied i+iconSoutheast’s request to extend by nine days the completion date for the construction of the new Anna Maria City Pier walkway and T-end platform.
During the Thursday, March 21 emergency meeting, the commission also denied the company’s request to add $9,146 and two additional work days to the completion date. The request was submitted due to delays the barge encountered when trying to pick up more concrete pilings.
The commission did approve a change request order for an additional $12,078 and one extra work day. The approved change order offsets the extra expenses and the lost work day incurred when previously undiscovered remnants of some old pier pilings obstructed new pilings from being driven at six locations. This pushes the completion date back one day, to Aug. 27.
“I believe we’re legally obligated to approve this change order,” City Attorney Becky Vose told the commission.
The initial construction phase does not include the restaurant, bait shop and public restrooms to be built upon the T-end platform. Those buildings will be part of a second construction project Mayor Dan Murphy said would soon be put out for bid.
Each change order presented included a collective recommendation from Murphy, Vose and Jax Saxena. Saxena is the vice president of the Ayres Associates engineering firm that designed the new pier. The city’s contract with i+iconSoutheast allows the contractor to submit change order requests if something unusual or unexpected occurs. Murphy said these requests generally pertain to time, money or both.
These pilings will support the new restaurant, bait shop and public restrooms at the new pier’s T-end. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
Weather delays
“Through March 16, i+icon has been unable to work on the pier for a total of nine days due to inclement weather,” said the change order request submitted by project director Paul Johnson.
“Bad weather days should have been taken into account,” Murphy told the commission. “We haven’t had any unusual weather. We have had days where it was unsafe to work, but that is something that should have been taken into account. They know the weather on Tampa Bay just as well as us and they know when the chop gets up it is in fact unsafe.”
Murphy said some of the lost days could already have been made up by working on Saturdays when the weather was perfect.
Vose said the contract addresses specific delays attributed to unanticipated causes that include severe and unavoidable natural catastrophes and abnormal weather conditions.
“A windy day and a rainy day on the west coast of Florida is nothing abnormal,” she said.
Commissioner Amy Tripp said the construction company still has several Saturdays to make up the lost work days.
Delivery delays
The change order summary memo prepared by Saxena stated three truckloads of concrete pilings could not be delivered to the barge pickup point on Feb. 28 due to heavy rains that flooded the property where the pilings were stored. The truck delivery was delayed until March 1, which delayed the barge delivery from Tampa to Anna Maria until March 3.
“This delay was outside i+icon’s control,” Johnson’s change order request stated.
Saxena’s memo suggested the contractor could have anticipated these delays. Murphy said the truck delivery could have been confirmed before the barge departed.
Additional savings
Murphy also provided the commission with a list of additional cost-saving opportunities available to the city through the direct purchase of construction materials.
The savings are available because the city is exempt from the sales taxes the contractor would pay. The city previously obtained similar savings by directly purchasing the pier pilings. Future purchases of this nature do not require additional commission approval.
The additional tax-free savings include $8,438 for the Ipe wood decking, $3,161 for the wooden support timbers, $5,947 for the concrete deck panels and $13,925 for the concrete piling caps, for a total savings of $31,471.
The commission unanimously supported Murphy’s suggestion that an additional $7,500 could be saved by not staining the Ipe pier decking. Murphy said the manufacturer and the contractor recommend not staining it.
Seymour said not staining the decking would allow it to fade to a natural gray that resembles the old pier. Copeland, a woodworker by trade, said if the pier is stained now, it will need to be stained again every two years to maintain the desired appearance.
Public Works Manager Dean Jones said not staining the pier would spare his department the labor-intensive efforts associated with re-staining an 800-foot pier every couple of years. Carter said re-staining the pier would also require the pier to be closed while that work took place.
ANNA MARIA – On Friday afternoon, Mayor Dan Murphy provided Manatee County Senior Administrative Specialist Monica Luff with an update on the construction of the new Anna Maria City Pier being built by i+iconSoutheast.
The construction update was requested by Luff, who works with the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Tourist Development Council. Both governmental entities answer to Manatee County’s Board of County Commissioners.
According to Murphy, the pier project’s total anticipated cost is approximately $4.8 million. In 2018, the county commission committed $1.5 million to the project using funds generated by the county’s 5 percent tourist tax. The county commission also allocated an additional $330,000 in surplus beach concession revenues for the project. The county’s funding commitments equate to approximately 37 percent of the total anticipated project costs.
In his Friday, Feb. 22, update to Luff, Murphy wrote, “The status of the Anna Maria City Pier project is as follows:
We are in the pile driving phase of construction.
As of today, all 70 piles for the T-end of the pier have been driven. The T-end supports both the restaurant and bait shop;
The T-end piles are 50’ long by 14” in diameter, each weighing 5,000 lbs.;
There are approximately 134 more pilings to go for the walkway leading out to the pier;
On average, seven piles are driven each day. Weather permitting, the contractor works six days per week;
All piles and equipment are transported by barge from St. Pete. and/or Tampa to Anna Maria so as to alleviate traffic congestion on the Island;
The barge will leave Anna Maria this Monday to procure more equipment and piles, returning Thursday (2/28), weather permitting;
Next phase will be placing the concrete pre-cast slabs on top of the T-end pilings, building bents (deck supports) for the walk-way out and installing utilities to the pier T-end;
In spite of several foul weather days, the project remains on track for platform completion by August 28, 2019,” Murphy wrote.
The construction of the pier buildings will be addressed in a yet-to-be-issued request for proposals (RFP). The selected firm will then begin a subsequent and possibly congruent phase of construction once the T-end platform is completed. It is not yet known when that RFP will be issued or when that construction phase will begin and end. Murphy said previously he expects the pier to be opened to the public by year’s end.
The forthcoming RFP process is partially contingent on the negotiations between Murphy and current pier tenant Mario Schoenfelder regarding the tenant’s contributions to the project.
Murphy has suggested Schoenfelder contribute $500,000 toward the interior buildout of the restaurant and bait shop spaces. In exchange, Schoenfelder would be allowed to provide some input on the interior design and interior components. Schoenfelder’s current lease expires in December 2020.
Due to high winds and choppy seas, no pier construction work took place on Wednesday, Feb. 13. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
On Feb. 14, Murphy provided the city commission with its first update since the construction started. He said the i+iconSoutheast crew lost two days of work that week due to inclement weather and choppy seas. Murphy said the construction company feared for the safety of its employees because of the waves created by the windy conditions. A visit to the pier worksite the previous day indicated no work taking place that day.
ANNA MARIA – The first pilings for the new Anna Maria City Pier are in place and partially driven as of Saturday.
The pilings eventually will support a restaurant, bait shop and public restrooms at the end of the new pier.
On Monday, i+iconSoutheast General Superintendent Larry Thornton and Project Director Paul Johnson took Mayor Dan Murphy and City Commissioners Brian Seymour and Carol Carter on separate tours of the worksite, accompanied by various media members.
“It’s looking good. I’m pleased with the progress.” – Dan Murphy, Anna Maria Mayor
Thornton said the pier project will require 202 50-foot concrete pilings. The pierhead (also known as the T-end) decking and buildings will sit atop 14-inch diameter pilings. The primary pier walkway will sit atop 12-inch diameter pilings.
Starting in water about 10 feet deep at the far end of the pier, all pilings will be driven at least 30 feet into the sand and clay below.
I+iconSoutheast superintendent Roberto Matos uses a level to ensure the piling is going in straight. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
The pilings are first lowered into a steel template. Once a piling is set in place, a jet pump is turned on and the water pumped through those pipes forces the sand out and creates space for the piling.
A crane-mounted diesel hammer is then used to drive the pilings the rest of the way through the harder clay below.
As the water gets shallower, the pilings will be driven deeper. The concrete pilings will be trimmed at the top to create the level surface for the precast, concrete platform that will serve as the base for the Ipe hardwood decking.
The pilings must be precisely located within 2 inches of their predetermined locations so they line up with the precast platform sections.
Johnson said the first pilings were delivered by barge from Port Manatee. The rest are expected to be delivered in a similar manner and no concrete pilings are expected to pass through the city on a tractor-trailer.
“We are trying to minimize the amount of the material that comes in through the city,” Johnson said.
“I think that’s a great decision,” Carter added.
City Commissioner Carol Carter visited the pier worksite by boat Monday morning. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
Johnson said the hardwood decking will be trucked to the onshore staging area near the foot of the pier. According to Murphy, those deliveries are supposed to take place between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. whenever possible to minimize any impact on daytime traffic.
Thornton commended city officials for choosing concrete pilings over wood pilings because they resist the waterborne worms that feed on wood pilings.
After returning from his Monday afternoon boat tour, Murphy said, “It’s looking good. I’m pleased with the progress. On a good day, they can drive at least seven or eight pilings per day, so we’re making progress and that’s good news.”
The mayor said he spotted 14 pilings in the water during his boat tour.
Murphy recently predicted the pier construction site would become a point of interest for visitors and residents and that’s coming to fruition.
“I was down there Saturday and Sunday. It’s attracting people and that’s good. I think the more piles we drive, the more people it’s going to attract,” he said.
The city of Anna Maria’s contract with i+iconSoutheast requires the pier platform and decking to be completed by Aug. 26.
The city will issue a separate request for proposals seeking bids for the construction of the city-owned restaurant, bait shop and restroom spaces at the pier’s T-end.
The pier and pier buildings are expected to be opened to the public by year’s end.
The foot of the pier provides a good view of the work taking place. – Joe Hendricks | Sun
ANNA MARIA – The time has arrived to begin building the new Anna Maria City Pier.
This week, the barge crane arrived in the Tampa Bay waters offshore from the old pier site. This was preceded by the arrival of the mobile construction office and the setting up of the on-shore staging area the week before.
According to Anna Maria City Commission Chair Brian Seymour, the crew from i+iconSoutheast is expected to begin driving the concrete pier pilings into the bay bottom on Monday, Jan. 28, or soon thereafter. The city has scheduled a media boat tour of the work in progress on Wednesday, Jan. 30.
The surveying work includes this small platform in addition to the surveying equipment located on shore. - Joe Hendricks | Sun
The initial work crew was still at it as of 5:15 p.m. Thursday evening. - Joe Hendricks | Sun
- Joe Hendricks | Sun
The old Anna Maria City Pier bait shop building was missing its roof on the morning of Sept. 11, 2017, the morning after Hurricane Irma passed through. - Joe Hendricks | Sun
The waves and wind from Hurricane Irma tore loose the decking at the old pier's T-end. - Joe Hendricks | Sun
The new Anna Maria City Pier and pier building will look like this. - Schimberg Group | Submitted
In late November, city commissioners authorized Mayor Dan Murphy to execute the $3.33 million contract with Tampa-based Infrastructure & Industrial Contractors Southeast Inc., also known as i+iconSoutheast.
The contract pertains to the construction of the pier structure, decking and walkway. The contract does not include the restaurant, bait shop and restroom spaces to be built at the pier’s T-end. That part of the pier project will be addressed in a separate request for proposals (RFP) issued later this year.
The issuance of that RFP is partially contingent on Murphy’s pending negotiations with current pier tenant Mario Schoenfelder, whose current lease expires in December 2020. Murphy has proposed that Schoenfelder contribute $500,000 toward the interior buildout of the restaurant and bait shop spaces, and those negotiations are expected to be finalized in the near future.
The city’s contract with i+iconSoutheast provides the company 270 days to complete this portion of the pier project by Aug. 26. The contract includes a $975-per-day penalty the commission can impose at its discretion if any delays are incurred beyond that date.
According to the contract, the Anna Maria City Pier will be approximately 730 feet long and 12 feet wide, with a 111-foot by 88-foot T-end section that will accommodate the restaurant, bait shop and restrooms.
I+icon Operations Director Paul Johnson is in charge of the pier project. Ayres Associates designed and engineered the pier structure, decking and walkway. Sarasota architect Barron Schimberg created the architectural vision for the pier building.
Ipe wood decking will be used for the pier platform and Kebony siding will be used for the exterior of the pier building. The new pier is designed to look like the old and aging pier that was closed due to hurricane damage in September 2017. The old pier was demolished in July.
