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BRIDGET HALL GRUMETAfter two decades in the making, the contract to deepen Hudson Channel could be awarded next week.
HUDSON - The past month has been a scramble to meet with contractors, line up easements and process paperwork. Now, county officials are ready.
The plans to dredge the Hudson Channel - a project more than two decades in the making - are poised to clear the final hurdle.
The County Commission is scheduled to vote Tuesday on awarding a $1.9-million dredging contract to Subaqueous Services, Inc. of Fort Lauderdale. Work would begin this fall and take about six months.
"I'm real happy about it," said Al Meyer, a longtime supporter of the plans. "In the winter, when the tides are real low, (boaters) might not be able to get out for a couple of days. Now we'll have water so that people can use (the Gulf) all the time."
Getting to this point hasn't been easy. The county received the necessary state and federal permits a year ago, but only one contractor bid on the project, and his price was a couple hundred thousand dollars too high.
County engineers met with contractors to brainstorm ways to bring down the dredging costs. They agreed to allow the work to begin later this fall, once the equipment is available from the North (where summertime dredging projects tie up most of the machinery).
And they came up with less expensive plan for handling the 30,000-cubic yards of dirt that will be scooped from the 2.1-mile channel.
Originally, the watery dirt was going to be dumped on a small piece of private property to dry out. Then the dirt would be scooped back up and trucked to the county-owned Belcher Mine.
As long as the dirt ended up on government-owned land, the county would not have to pay the state $2.25 per cubic yard of dredged material that is considered state soil. But the trucking costs were so expensive, officials learned, it would actually be cheaper to pay the state $67,500 and deposit the dirt on nearby private property.
Within the past few weeks, the county lined up two sites along the west side of U.S. 19, totaling 5.7 acres, to accept the dredged material. The watery soil can be piped over without using trucks.
One site belongs to Patrick Shane Mason. The other belongs to Lester Mallet, Alton D. Rogers and Gary Blackwell. Both properties will be filled for free, making the land more buildable in the future.
"The bottom line is, there will be . . . an almost $425,000 savings," said county engineer Jim Widman. "The bidders feel they can accomplish the work in a much shorter time, therefore the cost of equipment and manpower is down."
About half of the dredging tab is covered by a $1.08-million grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection. The county will cover the rest.
The commission meeting starts at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Historic Courthouse in Dade City.
- Bridget Hall Grumet covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is bhall@sptimes.com