Officials review Fairbanks Ferry resurfacing award after FDOT approved additional funds

Gadsden County staff briefed commissioners at a workshop on plans to move forward with the Fairbanks Ferry resurfacing project after bids exceeded the original budget.

Clerk (Clerk) told the board the county received multiple bids and that the low bidder remained lowest even after FDOT granted additional funding to cover the shortfall. A county engineer/staff member (Engineer/Staff) said the contractor’s bid was higher than the original project estimate and FDOT supplied roughly $196,000 in additional funding after reviewing the procurement and the design’s age.

"So the only person that's getting additional funds would be the contractor themselves," the staff member said, explaining that the construction engineering inspection (CEI) task order was not increased and is being paid separately.

Commissioners expressed safety concerns tied to repeated fatalities at a particular stretch of road and asked whether the resurfacing contract included widening or other safety work. "We had probably about the last 2, probably 3 or 4 deaths on the road," a commissioner (Chair) said, urging measures that could slow traffic and improve safety at that location.

Legal and procurement questions were raised about bid-challenge risk. One commissioner asked whether increasing the contract amount could expose the county to protests from second-lowest bidders; county legal/staff reviewed bid documents and noted that, based on the bid tabulation in the packet, the amended project total remained below the next-lowest bid, reducing the risk of a successful challenge.

Next steps: staff indicated they had obtained FDOT’s supplemental funding and expected to proceed with contracting the lowest responsive bidder; commissioners asked staff to ensure the project scope addresses the local safety concerns where possible. The transcript does not show a formal vote on the award in the workshop segments provided.