Bridge St. Costs Escalate; Boathouse Renovation, Upweller Bids Higher Than Expected

CHATHAM – A lot of celebration accompanied the arrival back in town of the former Stage Harbor Coast Guard boathouse in March. Now that the boathouse is firmly set on pilings at its new home at 90 Bridge St., reality is setting in.

 The final pieces of the waterfront improvement project at the site — involving the renovation and restoration of the boathouse and construction of a new shellfish grow-out system (known as an upweller) inside the building — are running into today’s economic reality.

 The town received just one bid on the boathouse work which was more than $300,000 over the initial cost estimate. But that pales in comparison to the one bid for the seawater system, basically the mechanical workings of the upweller; that bid was more than $1.2 million above the estimated cost.

 While the project’s budget can absorb the higher cost of the renovation, town officials and engineering firm GEI have had to retool the seawater system specifications and have put that aspect of the project out to bid a second time.

 “Our hope is that it comes down considerably,” said Rick Pomroy of Pomroy Associates, the owners' project manager. The new bids are due tomorrow (Friday, June 5).

 The select board awarded the $2,199,747 boathouse construction contract to Robert B. Our Company on May 26. The bid was $337,628 above a 2025 cost estimate. Our was the only bidder.

 Our was also the only firm to respond to the seawater system contract, submitting a bid of $2,732,294. That’s 85 percent, or $1,236,854 over the 2025 estimate.

 The overall project, which includes dredging, a new bulkhead and new floats and piers, was expected to cost approximately $11 million. The higher bids could push that higher.

 There’s another complication. A portion of a state grant for the seawater system needs to be spent by June 30, when the current fiscal year ends.

 Pomroy tied the higher costs to “drastic” increases in the cost of materials due to the Iran war, as well as the separation of the work into different components rather than one project, which can drive up mobilization costs.

 One of the reasons the seawater systems part of the project was separated was to qualify for a state Food Security Infrastructure Grant, through which the town was awarded $730,620. When all the other costs of the project are subtracted from availability funding, including the higher boathouse renovation contract, a deficit of about $1 million remains, according to Natural Resources Director Greg Berman. That money could be appropriated through the waterways user fee revolving fund, which would require a town meeting vote.

 Officials went forward with the boathouse renovation contract, which is partially funded by a state Seaport Economic Council grant, to keep the project on track and complete the upgrades necessary to accommodate the upwelling system.

 The town’s current upweller, which grows out millions of shellfish annually to augment the town’s wild shellfishery, is located in the harbormaster’s building and is in dire need of replacement. It’s a specialized system, and moving it to 90 Bridge St. requires equipment necessary to accommodate the new location, which is higher above the water than the current site. The system includes three seawater intakes mounted on davits so that one operator can clean and maintain one while another is still working, Pomroy explained at last week’s select board meeting. Other equipment was included to allow the system to be backwashed without dismantling it.

 “Do you think maybe we over-engineered this thing?” asked select board member Stuart Smith. “Grants or no grants, something’s very much amiss, in my mind.” Given that the number of commercial shellfishing permits issued by the town has declined in recent years, officials have to take a “serious look” at the project “and really determine what’s nice to have and what we need to have to have an upweller,” he said.

 Pomroy said the system was designed with input from many stakeholders. “This was not designed in a vacuum,” he said.

 Berman said the specifications were value-engineered and evaluated to determine if some components could be purchased by the town.

 “We’ve got work to do,” said select board Chair Jeffrey Dykens, adding that while the upweller was operated on a “shoestring” in the past, the bids for the new system were “out of hand.”

 “We need to make sure we are getting what we want at a cost we can swallow,” he said.