Bids For Fayetteville Parking Deck Skyrocket

FAYETTEVILLE -- Construction estimates for the Spring Street Municipal Parking Deck project have grown several million dollars.

A groundbreaking scheduled Monday was postponed for at least another month while city officials wrestle with higher than expected construction bids.

If the city were to accept all bids received Friday, parking deck construction would total about $12 million. That's roughly $4.6 million, or 61 percent, more than the $7.4 million price tag Baldwin & Shell Construction, Garver engineering and city officials anticipated in April.

In late 2012, its construction was expected to cost $5.6 million.

Concrete bids, in particular, exceeded the city's budget for the four-level, 245-space parking deck planned on the south end of the Walton Arts Center.

Baldwin & Shell in April estimated all concrete work would cost about $2.7 million. The apparent low bid the city received Friday from Contec Concrete was about $4.5 million, a difference of $1.8 million.

"You just heard the air leave the room when those bids were opened," said Jeremy Pate, Fayetteville's Development Services director who has been overseeing the parking deck project since January.

Lindsley Smith, communications director, said in a news release the discrepancy was enough to delay Monday's groundbreaking.

"(The) decision was not made lightly, but was made with the knowledge that such bidding and re-evaluation, to be done wisely, must occur now and is paramount to the groundbreaking,"

No makeup date has been set. Pate said Monday a full rebidding process could take two or three months. Or, as construction manager, Baldwin & Shell could negotiate bids or go through a separate bid process on their own.

"As soon as we get our number's back from Baldwin & Shell, we'll be able to make a little bit better informed decision about where we have to devote our resources," Pate said.

"We've got to have this come down," he added.

At one point, parking deck construction was expected to begin in Spring 2013 and last for a little over a year.

Mayor Lioneld Jordan in 2011 formed a committee to evaluate the project. The group disbanded after two months, however, with no firm idea of where the deck would be built or what it would look like.

The City Council in November 2011 authorized a $6.2 million bond package for the parking deck, but bonds weren't issued until December 2012. The bonds are being repaid using fees and fines from the city's paid parking program.

Deck financing and location -- and paid parking in general -- became a central issue in the run-up to the November 2012 mayoral election between Jordan and former Mayor Dan Coody.

City Council members eventually decided to build the deck at the northwest corner of Spring Street and School Avenue in December 2012. Their decision didn't come without criticism, however, from members of the Walton Arts Center Council who argued a parking deck on the south end of their property could impede arts center expansion plans.

Design teams for the city and Walton Arts Center spent months coordinating the two projects. In April, Fayetteville aldermen sent Garver engineers back to the drawing board again -- this time because construction had increased to $7.4 million.

The city's design team was able to lower costs by about $800,000 by redesigning underground piping, removing bank shoring and underpinning from the grading plan, reducing the size of a rainwater harvesting tank and reconfiguring the deck's electrical system. But the anticipated savings wasn't enough for the entire project to be paid for with the $6.2 million bond issue. Up to $1.5 million will come from money the Walton Arts Center committed to the city when aldermen approved arts center governance changes in July. Even with that money, the city faces a $4.3 million gap for construction alone.

The project met further delays in June when arts center engineers discovered structural issues with steel trusses in the roofing system over Baum Walker Hall.

According to an Aug. 14 news release, the trusses have been repaired, box office staff have returned to the center lobby and the center's 2014-15 season will kick off with a Sept. 28 performance by Dr. John and the Nite Trippers.

Construction has yet to begin on what has been estimated to be a $23 million renovation of the center on Dickson Street. Center officials in June said construction on the first phase of the project -- a new lobby -- would begin this month and last through the third quarter of 2015.

Erin Rogers, public relations director for the center, said Monday, "We do not see a significant impact on our timeline, but, as the city works through their bidding process, we will wait to hear from them."

The City Council last month awarded a $448,000 demolition and excavation contract to Baldwin & Shell.

Workers were out turning dirt on the south end of the center property Monday. Pate said they were preparing the site for demolition of administrative offices, which are part of the parking deck project. Pate said all further demolition and excavation work will be on hold while city officials work through bidding issues.

"We don't want a hole in the ground sitting there waiting for the next phase of the project," he said.

"No one was expecting the bids to come in as they did," Pate added. "But we're dealing with the cards we've been dealt, and we'll continue working toward a good solution."

The city issued a news release last week saying two blocks of Spring Street and School Avenue would be closed "through June 30, 2015" during parking deck construction.

Pate said, once construction begins, the parking deck should take about 10 to 11 months to complete.