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Stretch bid over budget
By Kevin Wadlow
Senior Staff Writer
kwadlow@keynoter.com
Contractor OK'd for
$148 million for highway work
Rebuilding Jewfish
Creek Bridge and U.S. 1 between Florida City and Key Largo appears to be
significantly more expensive than budgeted, a state Department of
Transportation bid document shows
A bid of $147.8 million to build a new, arched
Jewfish Creek Bridge and the highway from Key Largo to the Miami-Dade
County line has been endorsed by the DOT.
The same "notice of intent to award" document,
dated Oct. 7, shows the amount budgeted by the DOT for the work was
$89.5 million.
Granite
Construction Co.'s bid is 65 percent higher.
At Monroe County meetings held earlier this year,
DOT officials estimated rebuilding the entire 18-Mile Stretch between
Florida City and Key Largo at $148 million.
Officials at DOT could not be reached at press
time.
"An overrun of this
magnitude raises questions about some of the other assurances on this
project that we've been given," said John Hammerstrom, a Tavernier
resident who's been perhaps the most vocal critic of the
highway-widening plan.
Granite's bid was the lowest of three qualified
bids listed by DOT. The other bids were for $170.3 million, and $173.5
million.
At a DOT presentation to a contractors'
convention in August, officials estimated the cost for the Jewfish Creek
Bridge would be $63 million, and the highway up to the county line would
be $24.3 million.
Even if the
estimated $83 million cost for the Miami-Dade road improvements were
accurate, it would push total costs to more than $230 million.
In August, DOT received the final federal permits
it needs to commence work on the 18-Mile Stretch project.
The project was been in the works for decades.
The state environmental-impact statement for the project was released in
March 1992.
Protests from Upper Keys residents and the Monroe
County Commission over the originally planned four-lane highway design
stalled progress.
DOT grudgingly narrowed the design down to three
lanes, and then again to two lanes (with some passing zones).
A drawing of a "typical" cross-section of the
highway between Florida City and Key Largo shows a 12-foot-wide
southbound lane, separated from the 12-foot-wide northbound lane by a
median of 14 feet and a raised concrete barrier.
A 10-foot-wide shoulder on the northbound side
would be paved and used for emergency evacuation.
The new
1.5-mile-long Jewfish Creek Bridge would rise more than 65 feet over the
waterway to eliminate the need for a drawbridge on the main access route
to the Keys. It also would include cloverleaf-type access ramps for the
Gilbert's Resort area and other adjacent properties.
"It further raises questions about the state's
spending priorities when the budget has already been stressed by four
hurricanes this year," Hammerstrom said.
Advocates of the project say it is needed to
increase motoring safety and keep hurricane-evacuation times.
Critics say less costly alternatives are
available that would not deliver larger volumes of short-term visitors
to the Keys. |
