Port Manatee Berth 12 Dredging set to Begin in January

PORT MANATEE – Work is set to begin this January after the Manatee County Port Authority announced in July that Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co. won the contract for Port Manatee's Berth 12 dredging project.

The project, which includes dredging the berth to a depth of 41 feet at mean-low-water and extending it from 1,000 feet to nearly 1,600 feet, is the final piece of Port Manatee's 11-year, $200 million port expansion.

Great Lakes’ $14.8 million bid was accepted just two months after initial bids were rejected by the port authority for exceeding the engineer's estimate for the cost of the project. The re-bid process resulted in a $2.3 million savings for the port — 14 percent less than the original bid. The winning proposal includes the base bid and bid alternate, representing 1.1 million cubic yards of excavation and removal by hydraulic dredge to a certified uplands spoil disposal site.

“Port staff's many years in dealing with dredging issues made us confident that a more favorable outcome was probable by re-bidding the project,” said David L. McDonald PPM®, Port Manatee's executive director. “The savings provided by the lower bid creates a more certain timeline for the project's completion.”

Port Manatee’s new Berth 12 is expected to accommodate containerized shipping and be operational by August 2011. The berth sits adjacent to the port's planned 52-acre container terminal — designed to attract new containerized shipping traffic.