Port Manatee awards dredging contract

Port Manatee awards dredging contract
   The Manatee County Port Authority has awarded a contract to dredge Berth 12, a key step in the port's effort to attract containerized cargo and the final piece of an 11-year, $200 million port expansion project at Port Manatee.
   Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. has been awarded the contract to dredge the berth to 41 feet and extend it from 1,000 feet to nearly 1,600 feet.
   Great Lakes' $14.8 million bid was accepted just two months after initial bids were rejected by the port authority for exceeding the engineer's estimate for the cost of the project. The rebid process resulted in a $2.3 million savings for the port — 14 percent less than the original bid. Under the winning bid, 1.1 million cubic yards of material will be excavated and removed by hydraulic dredge to a certified uplands spoil disposal site.
   'Port staff's many years in dealing with dredging issues made us confident that a more favorable outcome was probable by rebidding the project,' said David L. McDonald, the port's executive director. 'The savings provided by the lower bid creates a more certain timeline for the project's completion.'
   Port Manatee expects Berth 12, which sits adjacent to a planned 52-acre container terminal, to be ready to accommodate containerized shipping and be operational by early-2011.
   Last month the port took delivery of a second mobile harbor container crane. The purchase of the crane and a similar Gottwald crane is the result of a public-private partnership between the port and the stevedoring company Logistec.