BY CHARLES M. KELLY
The City Council this week awarded a contract of more than $7.1 million to John S. Meek Company, Inc., to improve the Seal Beach Pier. The vote was 4-0. Mayor Mike Varipapa was absent. The council also approved a budget amendment of an additional $4.7 million for the pier improvement project. The project will include repairs to the pier caused by the 2016 fire, wave damage caused by a 2014 hurricane off the Mexican coast and also include metal railing for the pier.
Council members raised concerns about the cost of a public relations outreach plan and discussed ways of reducing the cost of the project. However, the proposal was approved as it was presented to the council.
Actual construction won’t begin until at least the day after Labor Day, as the California Coastal Commission does not allow construction activity in the coastal area from late May to early September.
The 2017-2018 city budget set aside $3.7 million for the project, according to the staff report prepared by Associate Engineer David Spitz. Spitz, the city employee in charge of the pier repair project, presented the staff report to the council.
The insurance provider will cover more than half the cost, according to the Spitz report.
According to Spitz’ report to the council, the insurance carrier has aproved construction costs of more than $8.2 million with the city of Seal Beach being responsible for 42.79 percent of the cost.
The Meek Company was the only one to submit a bid for the project, according to the Spitz report.
Spitz told the council that five companies were “plan holders,” but only one of them bid on the project. Plan holders are companies that are potential bidders on a project.
Seal Beach resident Johnathan Waller told the council that when he looked up the Meek Company online, the most recent project he could find was from 2008. “There’s a huge gap in their work history,” he said.
However, Councilwoman Ellery Deaton told Waller that the city knew of 18 current Meek Company projects.
According to the staff report, the company that will manage the pier construction project, contacted the companies that did not bid on the project. Among the reasons reportedly given, the companies said the project was too small for their company or they had other projects in the works and could not staff the pier project.
According to Waller, it seemed odd that companies could be so big that they would be uninterested in the project.
The Meek Company has worked for Seal Beach in the past on projects that included, according to the Spitz report, the pier deck replacement project and pier demolition that took place after the 2016 fire at the end of the pier.
According to Spitz’ report, staff did not recommend putting out the project for more bid, arguing that while putting out for rebidding could reduce costs, putting the project out for rebidding could also increase the cost of the project.
According to Spitz’ report, the trends for work and material costs are going higher. “In addition, rebidding this project will delay the construction by several months at a minimum, or even up to a full year,” Spitz wrote. He said much the same thing Monday. Based on these considerations, his staff report recommended acepting the Meek Company bid of $7,178,648.
District Two Councilman Thomas Moore asked Spitz what was being done to prevent future fires. Spitz said the pier would have a new fire line and that the pier’s Douglas fir wood would be replaced with greenheart wood, which he described as a heavier wood. According to the Wood Database, greenheart wood is considered a good wood for “marine environments.”
Deaton asked if just making the pier a pedestrian pier, as opposed to making it strong enough to hold up a restaurant building, would make a difference in the cost of the project. (As the Sun has previously reported, there are no current plans to put a restaurant on the end of the pier. The current plan is to rebuild the pier so it can physically support a restaruant building.)
Spitz said he didn’t know if that change would bring significant savings to the city.
MBI Media was hired as part of the project managment team to keep the community informed about the construction project as it progresses, according to the Spitz report. Deaton said it seemed to her that the city needed public relations when the fire took place.
City Manager Jill Ingram said the public relations outreach was already approved in the contract for the construction management company.
The MBI Media public outreach plan will include a project website with weekly updates, an informational postcard , distribution of the postcard at public events and by mail or by door-to-door hangar, and by installing project construction signs in Eisenhower Park.
The end of the pier has been closed, off and on, since Ruby’s Diner closed shop in January 2013.