HELEN — A federal funding provision has prompted the Helen City Commission to go back to the drawing board on receiving bids for a new pedestrian bridge along Ga. 75 (Main Street) over the Chattahoochee River.
The commission, in its regular meeting Tuesday, adopted a resolution awarding the project to low bidder Square Deal Enterprises of Sautee. However, that bid did not meet a federal requirement.
Because the work is being funded with federal Transportation Enhancement funds funneled through the Georgia Department of Transportation to the City of Helen, that bid was not accepted due to a provision requiring a certain percentage of the funded work to be performed by minority- or woman-owned business.
“The main purpose of rebidding it was because we received four bids on the pedestrian bridge project,” City Manager Jerry Elkins explained. “After review by the state of those bids, only one of those bids was qualified to meet the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise percentage of the project. That particular bid that did meet that was $270,000 higher than the low bid, so we had two choices. We could either accept that bid and pay the additional $270,000, or we could re-bid the project and hope to get competitive bids again.”
The city commission chose the option of rebidding the project, voting unanimously in favor of that after a detailed explanation of the issue by Elkins during a called meeting Friday.
“The DBE requirement is there because it is federal money handed down to the state for distribution grants for different counties and cities to do road projects,” Elkins said. “The federal government requires, on this particular type project, that 13 percent of the amount of the bid be done by disadvantaged business enterprises, so with only one qualifying and an extreme amount of money difference in the low bidder, the city would be better off to re-bid the project and stress to all bidders that they have to meet that requirement.”
Elkins said he will contact the city’s engineering firm, EMI, to begin the process of advertising for new bids for replacement of the pedestrian bridge linking the area of The Castle Inn with the area of Café International, across Main Street from an identical pedestrian bridge constructed by Square Deal Enterprises near Paul’s Steakhouse.
Asked whether the technical issue and rebidding process will delay the project, Elkins said it likely will result in minimal delays.
“It will probably delay it 30 to 45 days, but hopefully we will still be able to begin no later than November or December of this year, which really is better for the city because of Oktoberfest and then all of the events that we have in November and December for the Thanksgiving and Christmas season,” Elkins said.
