City To Pay Extra $100K For South Bayshore Project

With the South Bayshore improvement project nearing completion, the final bill is coming due for the .

The Safety Harbor City Commission was presented Monday night with a revised version of that final bill, which included additional charges in the amount of $103,332.36.

Of those additional costs, more than $93,000 is owed to the contractor, Steve's Excavating of Clearwater, for unforeseen setbacks related to the project, City Manager Matt Spoor explained.

"The South Bayshore project is nearing completion, it's probably 99.9 percent complete," Spoor said, adding there were just a few minor punch list items left to finish.

"The dollar amount of the total project is $2,330,373.76, which is $93,485.86 greater than the original contract amount."

Spoor directed the commissioners to the agenda file, which contains a list of nine items that necessitated the extra costs.

Some of those costs included: hiring an archaeologist; adding PVC maintenance lines; modifying several baffle boxes; redesigning some water lines and adding additional fire hydrants.

Spoor also pointed out there were some savings associated with the project, however the costs outweighed the savings. An additional $9,836.50 is owed for landscaping done by the city.

Commissioner Richard Blake questioned the extra costs, specifically those paid to the archaeologists, which amounted to more than $40,000.

"I don't think we were aware of the amount of time we would have to have an archaeologist on site," Spoor responded. "It got to a point where anytime they were turning even a shovel there had to be someone out there."

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Vice Mayor Cliff Merz pointed out that the project was one of the largest of its kind for the city, and he hoped lessons have been learned in regards to the planning and execution of such large scale endeavors.

"Now that it's behind ... have we come up with some different policies, different changes, or are most of these unexpected costs that you did your best to mitigate?" Merz asked.

Spoor said it was a combination of both, but they have learned lessons and made changes — namely hiring a contract specialist — to be better prepared for such projects in the future.

"I think there's equal lessons learned all the way around — staff, our design firm and the contractor," he said. "It was a high profile project on a road that was open for vehicular traffic during the entire two years the project was going on, and that posed many challenges."

The revised bill for the project will be presented to the commission at the April 15 meeting, at which time the city will pay the entire amount minus 10 percent, roughly $233,000, which will be held back until the contractor completes all the remaining punch list items.

The city is responsible for 28.5 percent of the total cost, with the remainder to be covered by federal and state grant funds.

In related news, the project earned a Future of the Region award in the Natural Resources and the Environment category from the Pinellas Planning Council, much to the delight of Commissioner Nina Bandoni.

"This is the moment I've been waiting for for a very very long time," Bandoni, a council member, said of the award, which recognizes notable achievement in resource planning and management.

Related:

• Roadwork Resumes Along Bayshore Boulevard
• Bayshore Construction Moves to Next Phase
• Merchants Weigh In On Bayshore Construction Project
• Bayshore Boulevard Construction Enters Final Phase