Bids for Ames' new indoor aquatic center are $3 million under budget. City plans to award contracts Feb. 20
Initial bids for an indoor aquatic center in Ames are $3 million under budget, the city council revealed Tuesday.
The 38,900-square-foot Fitch Family Aquatic Center, which will include a lazy river, a water slide, and three pools, will be located on West Lincoln Way near the Grand Avenue intersection.
Construction is expected to start at some point this year, with the council hearing initial bids during Tuesday's meeting. Seventy-nine construction bids, making up 14 bid packages, were presented for around $28 million.
Though bids were presented Tuesday, the contracts will be awarded next month after final council approval.
Ames Parks and Recreation Director Keith Abraham credited RDG Planning and Design and Story Construction, who have assisted the city with the project, for their help securing the high number of bids.
"(They were) really beating the door down so to speak, talking to the contractors and sparking some interest," Keith Abraham said. "It was very important when we did the bidding."
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Bids accepted, contract decision coming Feb. 20
The aquatic center's construction will cost about $18.6 million, nearly $3 million less than the original estimated price of $21.8 million. The total project cost also came in low, at about $28.8 million, $3 million less than the projected $32.1 million.
A dozen of Tuesday's bids were accepted with no complications. The low bid for paving and sidewalks was withdrawn, and the bid package was awarded to the next lowest bidder for just over $351,000, an increase of almost $71,000.
Story Construction recommended rejecting the bid package for precast concrete and structural steel work and rebidding the entire thing. The reason was that the low bidder − and potentially others − suggested using a manufacturer not approved through an addendum, as required.
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Troy Turner, project manager at Story Construction, said it is standard practice for bid packages to be rebid shortly after the initial process.
"It is fairly common to have bid packages rebid quite quickly," Turner said. "There's usually one or two packages that have some sort of issue and need to be rebid pretty quickly."
The council agreed to rebid the singular bid package, which will be awarded with the rest of the aquatic center contracts on Feb. 20.
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Celia Brocker is a government, crime, political and education reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached at CBrocker@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Ames council plans to award aquatic center construction contract in February
