4 companies bid to repair SGI fishing pier, including the company that broke it

4 companies put in bids this week to do the repairs to the St. George Island fishing pier and county commissioners were very surprised to see that one of the bidders was the company whose barge actually did the damage.

The pier, which is actually a section of the old St. George Island bridge, was damaged in late June during Tropical Storm Debby when it was hit by a barge belonging to the Orion Marine Group, a company that was doing work in the bay for Progress Energy.

The barge knocked out three sections of roadway, leaving a 165 foot gap that makes it impossible for people to access much of the pier.

In October the county commission approved a repair plan to replace the missing section of bridge with a 16 foot wide timber pier held up by concrete piles.

The bids that came in this week ranged from 566 thousand dollars to nearly 954 thousand.

The county has set aside about 600 thousand dollars for the work from a fund the county has for pier maintenance.

All of the bids have been handed over to county staff for consideration and the board will choose a contractor at its next meeting.

Commissioners were very surprised to see that the Orion Group put in a 885 thousand dollar bid to do the repairs.

The county is suing the Orion group for the cost of the damages because it was Orion’s barge that hit the pier.

In December, County commissioners agreed to file suit in the local circuit court so a local jury can decide whether Orion is liable in the case and the amount of the damages.

A federal judge, however, will still have the ultimate decision as to how much money the Orion Marine Group has to pay to the county.

http://www.oysterradio.com e-mail manager@oysterradio.com with comments