IMPORTANT LETTER FROM MAYOR OLIVER

Tuesday, January 14, 2025 - 9:08am

Kure Beach Residents, 

The Town received the following email dated December 20, 2024 concerning the upcoming CSRM (beach renourishment) event scheduled for this year. 

Project Partners,

FYI – The results of today’s bid opening for the FY-25 Carolina Beach / Kure Beach CSRM Solicitation were less than favorable.  We had only one bid package submitted (Weeks Marine) coming in with a bid price of $ 37.5 M, compared to our IGE (independent government estimate) of $ 19.6 M. At nearly twice our IGE, this bid price is far outside the awardable range for this solicitation.

I anticipate that we will cancel this solicitation, and move to reissue a solicitation targeting a contract award in the summer of 2025. This would push the scheduled renourishment cycle out another year. We will again be targeting the environmental window of 16 November 2025 to 30 April 2026.

Under these circumstances the USACE would have to rebid the project which would push us later into the season for completion. Getting additional bidders are slim and since the price was double the estimated project cost. The best possible solution is to postpone the event until next year. We should get better pricing and more bidders participating. The reality is most contractors had projects awarded in other areas and they didn’t bid on our project because of the lateness in sending out the solicitation for bids. We have heard the USACE will advertise for bids late April to early May. No specific dates have been set.

We will encourage the USACE to do the following:

  1. Be more aggressive in getting the bids advertised to potential bidders to maximize the availability quality bidders and secure a more realistic cost.
  2. Review our beach and hopefully identify any areas that may need attention prior to the scheduled event.
  3. Assist the town in any issues with storm water outfalls before next fall.

This is not the most favorable situation for us and Carolina Beach, but honestly it is the most logical decision based on the lack of bidders and the cost of the single bid received. If anything changes or we have additional information we will send out additional communications.

Allen Oliver

Mayor of Kure Beach 

 

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