Industrial park bids come in far under budget

West St. Mary Port Commission members Tuesday learned they may have saved significant money on the first construction phase at the industrial park.
Executive Director David Allain said bids were opened Tuesday morning for work at the industrial park site on the Charenton Navigation and Drainage Canal.
The project calls for digging of a slip, with fill material used on the site, and a roadway.
Reid Miller of Miller Engineers & Associates, said of five bids, one was $1.3 million, some $700,000 below estimates and available funds. That bid has been taken under advisement for study.
There are funds left over, then, that could later be used for items previously cut from the bid proposal, such as sheet pile along the proposed slip and a waterline from the Town of Baldwin.
“We’ve had a couple calls about the industrial park,” Allain said. “We’re working with the technical college and punching all the buttons we can” to locate a vocational training facility on the park site.
Allain also reported the navigational aids are in and due to be installed at the Jaws, replacing the existing markers. He said a few customizations are being made and the buoys should be in place in a month or so.