City of Dover staff are working on repackaging the bid for the public improvements to the city-owned waterfront development site after none of the four prequalified firms submitted a bid for the project.
Project Manager Steve Bird updated the Cochecho Waterfront Development Advisory Committee (CWDAC) Tuesday on some reasons why no bids were received learned from conversations with the firms following the Oct. 26 bid closing date.
Bird said that all of the firms expressed concern about not being able to complete some of the required shoreline work by the March 15, 2023, deadline set by the permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers. Other reasons include not getting the cost estimates from subcontractors and the firms being too busy with other work to begin the waterfront work by December or early January.
Bird said the city is working with the Army Corps of Engineers to transfer the existing permit to a new one, allowing work from September through March 15, 2024. Engineers are also revising the bid in response to some of the questions raised by the potential bidders.
The goal is to release a revised bid by the end of the year and have the City Council award a bid by mid to late winter to allow work to begin later that spring. Construction work on the streets, utilities and creating pad sites for the waterfront development is not affected by the March 15 deadline.
The bids were sent to NorthEast Earth Mechanics, LLC., of Pittsfield, Severino Trucking Co, Inc., of Candia, S.U.R. Construction, Inc., of Rochester, and Sargent Corporation of Stillwater, Maine, which were prequalified through a request for qualifications the city released on Feb. 24, 2022.
In other CWDAC news, the committee endorsed the findings of the CWDAC Park Subcommittee on creating a new crew building, as the current one will be removed to allow the construction of the waterfront project. After meeting for the past year with stakeholders, the subcommittee, chaired by Norm Fracassa, agreed the best of the alternatives was to create a new building within the park. The idea is that the land would be leased to Great Bay Rowing, which would be responsible for the building's permitting, design, construction and maintenance. With the endorsement, CWDAC will continue to develop the proposal.
CWDAC's meeting can be watched in full at https://dovernh.viebit.com/player.php?hash=xLqoJmaDckuw.
Original source can be found here.
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