County to finish portion of Siesta seawall

After more than a year of setbacks, the Siesta seawall project at Bay Island Park is again underway — at least on the county’s side.

The park is divided in ownership: The county owns the portion on the south side of Siesta Drive, and the north side is city-owned. Visitors use the park for fishing and boating, and firefighters use the park as a mooring location during operations on the spoil islands nearby.

“It’s a much-used park,” said County Commissioner Nora Patterson.

The wall is 40 years old. Brenda Bair, the project design manager and a professional engineer with the county’s Public Works department, said that seawalls generally can last a little longer, but the one on Bay Island suffers from erosion issues.

The park closed for construction in March 2013, when the county and city entered into a joint agreement to replace 800 feet of the seawall. The agreement stated the county would manage the replacement for both sides, and the county received a $823,451 grant from the West Coast Inland Navigation District. The county divided the funds and gave the city $317,742 for its side of the park. The city’s cost for the project exceeded that amount, but the city agreed to pay the difference of $114,378 when the project was completed.

However, in August 2013, the project was halted because the contractor, CB Construction Services Corp., defaulted after the death of the firm’s president and CEO, Cresente Bautista. The project had to select a new contractor, and the cost increased. That increased the city’s cost by about $200,000, Bair said. The city said it could not fund the extra expense and it asked to withdraw from the joint agreement. The county approved the request at its Wednesday meeting.

This year, the county is replacing its section of the wall. The new contractor, Duncan Seawall, Dock & Boat Lift, received the notice to proceed with construction June 9 and is in the process of removing the old panels. The project is slated to be mostly complete by December.

The construction contract is for $950,551. Because the city is no longer involved, the county will apply the full amount of the $823,451 grant to its portion of the project. The cost covers new construction plus the removal and disposal of the previous contractor’s work — about 100 panels of seawall, Bair said. The original contractor had done only a little work to the city side of the wall; the new contractor will grout a groove in the top portion of the wall panels, fill in one corner where erosion has occurred and replace some landscaping that was removed during the first construction attempt.

The new contract price is higher than the original one because of the extra fill material needed. Because the project was stalled so long, erosion occurred behind the panels that were already installed.

A small portion of the county’s side of the park is now open, but county staff recommends park goers use caution when visiting it. County staff has made an effort to reduce the fencing and construction materials at the park to keep it from looking like a “war zone” after more than a year of being closed, Bair said.

Bair said the city will seek to use one of its own contractors to repair its side of the wall in the next few years.