As Palm Beach prepares to embark on replacing the seawall along Midtown’s municipal beach, the Town Council has allotted about $1.4 million for the project’s development and design, with a little extra thrown in for good measure.
Led by West Palm Beach-based Murray Logan Construction LLC, the project would replace the roughly century-old, 2,715-foot-long seawall that extends from Royal Palm Way on the north to Gulfstream Road on the south.
A measure approved by the council July 14 allocates $1.38 million for pre-construction services, the amount specified in Murray Logan Construction proposal for the project. In all, the council funded roughly $1.5 million for the services, with the extra money built in to cover contingencies.
The pre-construction services will include surveys, a geotechnical analysis, design development and practically all planning required before the project’s commences sometime in January, officials were told.
Some Town Council members expressed a slight hesitation about the size of the the price tag. But Town Engineer Patricia Strayer said the costs reflect the fact that the contractor will be tasked with the bulk of the pre-construction process.
“All of that reduces the amount of risk that is incurred during construction,” Strayer said.
In other words, she said, the town will avoid bearing the brunt of the cost of any unforeseen circumstances during the design process.
“So, they can’t come back to us and say the situation has changed or the environment has changed and we (at Town Hall) did not represent it correctly,” Strayer told the council.
Town Engineer Jake Hurley said any unexpected costs incurred during the construction would be distributed between the contractor and the town.
Hurley emphasized that the just-approved funding does not include the cost of designing a revamp of the linear park that stretches along the sidewalk west of the seawall on Midtown Beach.
A measure for the linear park’s renovation will likely be presented to the council at its Aug. 11 meeting, he said.
The council will receive regular updates on the status of the design process and will have a firm maximum price for the project well before construction begins, Hurley said.
“I’m feeling very good about this starts, because I think you selected the right contractor and selected the right process,” Council President Pro-Tem Lew Crampton said.
Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at dlasa@pbdailynews.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach OKs $1.5 million to fund design of Midtown seawall project
Reporting by Diego Diaz Lasa, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Diego Diaz Lasa, Palm Beach Daily News | USA TODAY Network
