Firm protests contract for Longboat Key beach project

As the town completes its mid-island beach renourishment, plans for two additional sand projects have hit a potential snag.

Ferreira Construction Southern Division Co. Inc. is protesting the town’s choice of Norfolk Dredging Co. to dredge Longboat Pass and New Pass to expand Key shorelines. Ferreira submitted a $5.7 million bid for the project, which was roughly $780,000 less than Norfolk’s offer.

“Ferreira protests the bid for several reasons, which all require that the recommendation of award be set aside, that the entire solicitation be canceled or that the subject project be rebid to correct the errors and/or omissions referenced herein,” wrote Ferreira attorney Michael Gore in an April 26 letter to Mayor Jack Duncan.

Now, the town’s engineering consultant Olsen Associates will draw up new, more specific bid documents and take new offers, said Public Works Director Juan Florensa.

“I want to put that on the street next week,” Florensa said.

The protest will likely delay plans to mine 200,000 cubic yards of sand from New Pass and 250,000 cubic yards of sand from Longboat Pass by at least 30 days, Florensa said. The New Pass  project is scheduled to begin in July, while the Longboat Pass project is slated for September.

“We’ll move it along pretty quickly,” said Town Manager Dave Bullock. “These things don’t drag out too much.”

In selecting Norfolk, Purchasing Manager Kari Kennedy disqualified Ferreira, the lowest bidder, for not submitting a waiver from the U.S. Coast Guard to do work in regulated areas. Town staff also determined Ferreira wouldn’t be able to handle the renourishment based on examples of similar projects the company submitted with its bid.

“Based upon the examples presented and the lack of the required waiver, Ferreira has not demonstrated it has the requisite experience operating the proposed dredge in the sea states expected to be experienced on the exposed ebb shoal platforms of New Pass and Longboat Pass,” Kennedy wrote in an April 22 memo.

But Gore wrote in his letter to Duncan that his client does not need a Coast Guard waiver because its dredging vessel is less than 79 feet long. And he also contends that the town’s criteria for a contractor is subjective.

“We request that you take action to override the arbitrary and irrational excuses to reject the lowest bidder, Ferreira,” Gore wrote.

If the town hadn’t chosen to re-bid the projects, Bullock would have had to appoint a three-member committee to consider the protest.