Construction of a new aquatic center near the Belmont Pier in Long Beach has been delayed again after bids came in significantly higher than the project’s $50-million budget.
At a Marine Advisory Commission meeting on June 12, project manager Charlene Angsuco with Long Beach’s Tidelands Improvement Division told commissioners the city decided to reject the only two bids submitted.
Angsuco did not provide a specific reason. Bids are rejected on occasion at the discretion of the Public Works Department. Bids are typically abandoned when there aren’t enough submissions or the proposed costs run over city estimates.
Both bids, Angsuco told the commission, came in around $60 million, well over the project budget. Angsuco clarified at the meeting that only one of the two bids was “viable,” as the other was not filled out correctly.
Moving forward, she said, city engineers will “repackage” the bidding process and then field new submissions from contractors — a move that will delay that project several months.
This will shift the start of construction, Angsuco said, from late fall to late winter or early spring, depending on how long each step takes; It will take two to three months to repackage bids and another one to three months to field new applicants, she added.
In the repackaging process, Angsuco said the city will look at “factors that may have contributed to cost-growth and certain categories compared to estimates,” but did not specify what will be examined this time around.
“We (will) repackage it, with hopefully, greater clarity,” Angsuco said. “Where contractors might have been reading something as unclear that led to higher bid pricing, we would want to clarify that, and in addition, hit the reset button and give folks a different package to review that’s hopefully clear in their minds and reduces risks on both sides.”
“Contractors may price things because they see risk or they see lack of clarity or perhaps an uncertain approach for how they might tackle things,” Angsuco said.
The project, which was originally pitched in 2016 as a $119 million domed natatorium capable of hosting 2028 Olympic competitions, has steadily been diminished by rising costs and regulations. Legal challenges from community groups, declining oil revenues and changes mandated by the California Coastal Commission, which has jurisdiction over coastal projects, further ensnared the process and hiked the cost.
At the meeting this month, Angsuco said competition for builders was also a problem: contractors they spoke to said they had bigger projects to tackle right now.
“Regionally, the Los Angeles construction market is very hot,” Angsuco said.
The pool last came before the public in January, when Public Works Director Eric Lopez told the City Council the project had four or five qualified bidders, but several did not place a bid.
City engineers also filed an application for the project through the California Coastal Commission on March 13.
With about $22 million already spent on pre-construction work like design and environmental studies, the project has less than $50 million available for construction. Angsuco said the pool is still not fully funded. Any additional money needed will require the department to either seek outside capital, like a grant, or request additional cash from the City Council.
“We have a majority of the funding; we don’t have all of it,” Angsuco said.
For more information on the project, including a detailed timeline, click here.