CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Nueces County commissioners gave the low bid for the new Bob Hall pier construction conditional approval. This means they're now going to shave off costs to get the final bid under budget.
"We approved as long as we can get the value engineering back down into budget," County Commissioner Brent Chesney said. "Once that happens, which I'm very confident that we will, then we'll bring forward a contract to the court at our June meeting to proceed from there."
This conditional approval gave the bid to Callan Marine to rebuild the pier.
Chesney says the project is very close to budget and they should be able to reduce the bid to match.
"It came in about $935,000 over, so we've got that much that we've got to go back and work on to get it done and everybody involved in the process feels very comfortable that we can do that," he said.
Troy Adler, chair of the Coastal Parks Board of Commissioners -- which approved the low bid first -- said there are some welcome improvements in the new design.
"We are anticipating a wider pier, I believe it's a little bit taller as well," Alder said. "One of the big features we're working on is at the end. Instead of a T-head, we'll actually have a D-head which is going to allow to hold up against the wave action a lot better and give us a lot more room out on that end."
While the bid does not include frills, it is a new design that should wear well.
"We went from one piles to two piles so it's a little more sturdy, more stable and we designed this pier to about a hundred year storm which is pretty significant," Chesney said. "That's why it's a little more costly because we designed it to where it will last a lot longer."
"It's a 50-year lifespan expectancy, so in the past they've never been that quality," Alder said.
Chesney says he and the court have been seeking private contributions to help rebuild the pier and have received pledges from the National Weather Service for a weather station and the Port of Corpus Christi has also made a $500,000 donation.