By Steve Plunkett
Construction prices more than double what was expected have forced the city and the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District to delay plans to rebuild the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center observation tower and refurbish Lake Wyman and Rutherford parks.
The bid for the work at Lake Wyman and neighboring Rutherford came in at about $15.5 million, city civil engineer Lauren Burack said. City staff had budgeted $5.6 million, with $2.6 million of it coming in grants.
Burack told City Council members at a June 13 workshop that the “excessive” price was “primarily due to the boardwalk cost, the number of pavilions and the additional shade structures and pier cost.” The price of lumber for boardwalks was $2,000 per linear foot, more than double what the city historically has paid, she said.
City Manager Leif Ahnell said the lumber prices have “come down significantly” in the past couple of months and recommended that council members wait and rebid the project.
“We expect further declines over the next several months as well,” Ahnell said. “We think we can find a better price at the end of the year.”
Burack also gave council members two options to lower the cost. Demolishing the existing boardwalk rather than renovating it and deleting walking trails on the north and south sides of the parks would save $4 million, she said. Omitting another section of boardwalk and not building new restrooms and the observation pier would trim another $4 million.
Either option would still leave restoration of the silted-in canoe trail, installation of two kayak launch sites and a boardwalk connecting them to the parking lot, removal of invasive vegetation, native planting and mangrove planting and trimming.
The parks are adjacent to each other on the west side of the Intracoastal Waterway near Northeast 20th Street.
In 2012 the city rejected a plan put together by former Mayor and then-County Commissioner Steven Abrams that would have restored Rutherford Park’s canoe trail, extended its boardwalk and created a sea grass basin on the large spoil island just east of Lake Wyman Park.
That project would have been funded by a $2.1 million grant from the Florida Inland Navigation District and $450,000 from Palm Beach County, with the city and the Beach and Park District each chipping in $225,000.
The city was tempted by the outside money but ultimately did not want to cede control of the project to others.
In 2016, the city drew up a $6.5 million plan that included two double boat ramps in Rutherford Park and no money from FIND. That plan was dropped in favor of the current configuration.
Regarding the Gumbo Limbo tower, Beach and Park District commissioners also decided to wait to rebid the project after the city advised that before it could rebid, the district would have to budget the full $2.6 million of the previous bid. The district had expected the bid to be $1.2 million.
Commissioner Steve Engel was pessimistic about the cost changing much.
“Prices very rarely come down when it comes to capital projects, whether it’s the city or us or anyone else. This is a fact of life,” he said.
District Chair Erin Wright said rebidding the project now would not be smart.
“If we go into a recession, we don’t want to be putting $2.6 million into a tower. That’s just not the No. 1 priority on our list of projects,” she said.
Commissioners decided to leave the tower out of their next year’s budget and amend the budget to accommodate rebidding if prices do come down.
They also returned to the Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards, the new name of the Friends of Gumbo Limbo, the $250,000 private donation that started the push for the tower in 2019. The Coastal Stewards also raised $263,000 to more than match the first gift.
In other business, commissioners congratulated Bob Rollins and Susan Vogelgesang for being elected to new four-year terms. Nobody filed to challenge either incumbent.
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