GILROY
– All three construction bids for the city’s new police station
have come in more than $8 million – or nearly 50 percent – higher
than engineers’ estimates, stunning city officials and casting a
cloud of uncertainty over the short-term future of the project and
the city’s next course of action
.
GILROY – All three construction bids for the city’s new police station have come in more than $8 million – or nearly 50 percent – higher than engineers’ estimates, stunning city officials and casting a cloud of uncertainty over the short-term future of the project and the city’s next course of action.
City officials said Wednesday that the apparent low bidder for the actual construction of the new station – including the 48,500-square foot facility itself and a two-level, roughly 250-space underground parking garage – was Redwood Shores-based S.J. Amoroso Construction Co. at approximately $26,137,000.
The engineers’ estimate was $17,835,000 for that portion of the work, city officials said.
The other two bidders weren’t far behind Amoroso. City officials said San Francisco-based Nibbi Brothers Construction bid approximately $26,700,000. KH Construction of Fresno bid approximately $26,792,000.
“Obviously we’re very disappointed they came in higher,” said City Administrator Jay Baksa on Wednesday. “Up to this point, all the bids for the last four or five months have come in below the engineer’s estimates, and we were quite optimistic we were going to get a good bid here.”
The high bids also baffle city officials because of the current economic and construction climates.
“This was a major surprise given there’s a hunger out there for public-works projects,” said Mayor Tom Springer.
They were also surprised at the relatively low number of bids, considering the number of application packages the city sent out. Some 90 firms picked up sets of plans for the project, and there were more than 300 requests for additional information from at least 15 firms.
Officials said the city is working to get more information from its architect on what happened, and a construction management firm will also make a review in order to help officials craft a recommendation for the City Council, which has to approve any bids and contracts. A series of meetings with key officials and architects is planned for early June.
Springer said Thursday that he could personally not approve the bid because of the significant difference from estimates.
“At this point I could not conceive that those bids could be accepted,” he said.
And police department leaders would not in good conscience ask the Council or community to support such an increase, said GPD Assistant Chief Lanny Brown.
Brown said he was shocked and disappointed by the bid results and said the $8 million gap is “absolutely ridiculous.”
“We’re looking at all options at this point,” he said. “Nothing is sacred …
“We’ve got to start from a very basic premise that the police (department)… has outgrown its current place, and we need more room, and how do we get there from here?”
Without cost issues, construction on the project was scheduled to begin this summer and wrap up by early 2005.
“This may or may not impact that,” said Bill Headley, the city’s facilities and parks development manager. “We’re still trying to determine what all of this means to us.”
A telephone call to a project architect with Rancho Cucamonga-based WLC Associates was not immediately returned Thursday morning.
The bids opened Tuesday do not include several other portions of the project. Including demolition, infrastructure, construction, architectural and engineering services and construction management – the total cost for the project was estimated in February at nearly $25 million dollars.
However, officials said not all of those costs are associated only with the police station. They said some underlying infrastructure improvements and the parking garage are also meant to serve the overall Civic Center complex, which is eventually planned to include a revamped library and senior center as well.
The police station funding comes from special impact fees the city collects from developers.
