No comments as Cedar Rapids awards higher-than-expected bids

CEDAR RAPIDS - Bids for two of the city's last major public construction projects have arrived higher than the project manager's pre-bid estimates, but the City Council hasn't blinked.

This week, the City Council did not discuss or comment before awarding contracts on the city's new public works building, a $36 million project called the City Services Center expected to open in the fall of 2014 on the site of the current facility, 1201 Sixth St. SW.

The project's general contract went to Miron Construction Co., with a Cedar Rapids office, for $19.185 million -- $885,000 or 4.8 percent higher than the pre-bid estimate of $18.3 million.

The mechanical and plumbing contract was awarded to Modern Piping Inc. of Cedar Rapids for $4.57 million -- $420,000 or 10.1 percent higher than the pre-bid estimate of $4.15 million.

And the electrical contract went to Acme Electric Co Inc. of Cedar Rapids for $4.24 million -- $459,912 or 12.2 percent above the pre-bid estimate of $3.78 million.

A smaller, fourth bid, for demolition work on the site, was awarded to D.W. Zinser Co. of Walford for $489,000, or 23.6 percent lower than the pre-bid estimate of $640,000.

All four contracts had multiple bidders, with the awards going to the low bidder.

Rob Davis, the city's engineering operations manager, on Wednesday said the contractors bidding on each contract submitted bids in close enough proximity to one another to indicate that the bids were a "fair representation" of the work detailed in the project documents even if the bid prices were higher than expected.

"It is really hard to pinpoint any one thing," Davis said of the reason for the bid numbers.

The City Services Center project is being funded with $18.5 million in disaster dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, $5 million in state I-JOBS money and $12.5 million in city funds, most of which come from revenue from the local-option sales tax.

On Tuesday, the City Council also learned that the bids for the city's new Animal Care & Control Building, which is being built on the Kirkwood Community College campus, came in higher than the pre-bid estimate.

The apparent low bidder among seven bidders, Portzen Construction Inc., Dubuque, Iowa, submitted a base bid of $3.79 million, which is $390,000 or 11.5 percent above the pre-bid estimate for the work of $3.4 million.

The city's Public Works Department is reviewing the animal shelter bids.