The Hermosa Beach City Council Tuesday night voted unanimously to award its multimillion-dollar pier renovation contract to George C. Hopkins Construction Company, a project that the construction firm will begin work on this fall.

Public Works Director Richard Morgan said the project should be finished by this time next year.

“George Hopkins is a very solid contractor that oversaw the Burbank Airport expansion project,” said Morgan. “We believe it’s a very good bid. Back in October when we first bid this, it came in so surprisingly high. A low bid was approximately $4.5 million but was not determined to be responsive – they had a subcontractor problem. It was so much over the engineer’s estimate we determined to go back to the drawing boards. We cut down the scope, eliminating about a half million dollars in the work, primarily the observation deck and handicap ramp to that on the garage.”

In addition, the city dissolved its contract with Irvine’s Purkiss Rose-RSI, opting to work strictly with Ron Yeo, an architect who’s been involved as a hired designer of the project’s third phase as a way to reduce its budget. Without Purkiss Rose, the city will save $19,722 in its original contract and $12,000 in the firm’s overhead costs along with, according to the report, its “supervision and coordination.”

The price of George Hopkins from Glendale, the lowest bidder, exceeds the engineer’s revised estimates (the first set of project costs predicated by city engineers also underestimated the first round of bids) by roughly $1.3 million (about 37 percent) over the $3.5 million projection. The city’s staff members reported “the constantly increasing cost of (building) materials” as the reason for the contrast in $3.5 million and Hopkins’ bid of $4,782,000.

The other company that bid on the project was Kiewit Pacific Company from Santa Fe Springs, at about $5.5 million. The city advertised for bids in April and 33 companies picked up bid packages. Two companies bid on the project by the closing date of July 1.

“First of all, what we are seeing here is that the price of materials is going up astronomically,” said City Councilman Sam Edgerton. “It is imperative we get going on this because even with all of the hacking on this we are still coming in at $4.7 million. It’s one of those things where you have to get the right people to forecast the cost of this kind of project. I’m very satisfied that we finally have the right firm to oversee this project and not the same one we had before because they couldn’t forecast this properly. I’m sorry to see them go because they were nice people but we need people in here to do the job.”

In February, city officials, faced with a pier renovation project figured to be $1 million over the projected costs, brainstormed ways to get the project back under budget.

The new changes were based on what the group of city officials – a subcommittee comprising City Manager Steve Burrell, Morgan, Lifeguard Bob Moore, and City Councilmen Peter Tucker and Edgerton – discussed and agreed upon.

At this time, Morgan suggested several changes, including removing the project’s observation deck which would provide $250,000 in savings, eliminating the ADA ramp to the deck which would save the city $100,000, eliminating colored concrete that would reflect $450,000 in savings, and excluding the use of colored tiles and granite in the compass rose design at the base of the pier that would save the city $300,000.

The city originally advertised for bids in late October and received two in early January. The City Council agreed to reject the only two bids that were submitted for the project. Metro Builders & Engineers Group bid at about $4.4 million and H.A. Lewis Inc. bid around $5.4 million that were approximately $986,000 and $1.9 million, respectively, over city engineer’s estimates. The city readvertised the project June 10 and did not receive one bid, so the city extended the date to July 1, and received Kiewit’s and Hopkins’ bids.

The City Council began voting on changes and designs for the plans in 2000 that centered on the base of the pier just west of The Strand and pier plaza. The original plans called for newly reconstructed lifeguard headquarters, a new observatory and amphitheater, and renovated bathrooms. According to current plans, the new observatory is designed to sit on the south side of the pier just east of the new lifeguard towers. It will be a circular structure with ADA-compliant walkways. An amphitheater will be erected directly across from the observatory on the north side of the pier. The plaza located in the midst of these two structures will resemble an open public square with benches and planters. The compass rose design, with tips of the rose consisting of copper and the outline comprising colored granite, will sit in the center of this plaza called Schumacher Plaza, an area named after Dr. David Schumacher and his wife, Margaret, a longtime Hermosa Beach couple who donated $1 million to the project.

“Now we have a bid here of $4.78 million against that which we approved as the dollar amount,” added Morgan. “We have obviously a very creative funding scheme here before you because we have not finalized some of the funding from L.A. County in other possible grants and if the city manager cares to comment on that.”

Morgan said the city could move the lifeguards off the beach and into temporary headquarters, a project taken off as an item of the approved plans, and recommended that the city in effort with the lifeguards take on the responsibility of providing and operating a makeshift living quarters and offices, which came about as a decision to reduce the rising budget costs.

“All construction funding is not yet secured, but staff recommends award of the project at this time,” states the staff report. “Any further delay risks Hopkins Construction withdrawing its bid. Staff has requested that Los Angeles County provide funding to cover costs related to the temporary and permanent lifeguard facilities.”

The Public Works Department has also submitted an application for a grant from the California Coastal Conservatory. The outcome of each is unknown at this time.

The first phase of the project entailed the restoration of the cracked pylons along with earthquake retrofitting while the second phase included the construction of new lighting, decks, handrails, benches and fish-cleaning areas. The city began working on the first two phases in 1998 and closed the pier during construction, finally reopening it in October 2000. However, the city has paid for repairs on the pier since 1994.

This year’s Tyco Fund budget ($600,000), funding up to slightly more than $2.1 million overall in the project, will lose $75,000 because of a readjustment in a budget prediction. The city will funnel a proposed amount of $300,000 into the same budget for next fiscal year 2005-06. The city’s entire budget for the project is estimated at about $5.7 million and overall projected expenditures – the contract cost of $4.7 million, the city’s temporary lifeguard headquarters is expected to cost $133,000 along with contingency costs and other budgets for inspections, etc., – total about $5.6 million.