City Selects Firm to Rebuild Boardwalk

This story was updated at 5:58 p.m. on 4.3.13.

Long Beach is ready to take the next step toward building a new boardwalk.

The City Council on Thursday will vote on a contract with Grace Industries, a Plainview-based civil/heavy highway construction firm, to build the proposed tropical wood and concrete walkway at a cost of $44.2 million.

“We anticipate holding a special city council meeting this Thursday evening, whose sole purpose will be to award the winning bidder of our boardwalk reconstruction project,” City Manager Jack Schnirman announced at the start of Tuesday’s council meeting.

The city received bids from six firms to rebuild the boardwalk, and Liro, the engineering firm that the city hired to oversee the project, would interview the three firms that submitted the lowest bids, Schnriman said. Liro was expected to make a final recommendation to the city’s department of public works Wednesday. Grace Industries was the lowest bidder. 

“This bid will be the first bid in which the city has utilized a project labor agreement, which basically means the boardwalk will be built by skilled workers from our local Long Island workforce,” Schnirman said. 

The selected firm would perform the project higher than the $40 million figure Liro representatives announced when they unveiled the design for the new boardwalk last month, Schnirman said. The project came in at between $40.8 million and $65 million, according to Newsday.

Jim LaCarrubba, the city’s commissioner of public works, said that a “considerable” amount of the boardwalk will be completed by summer’s end, and the city plans to open sections as they become completed, he told Newsday. 

Earlier this year, after the city’s former 2.2-mile boardwalk was destroyed during Hurricane Sandy, some government officials said boardwalk rebuilding was expected to cost about $25 million. The proposed boardwalk is estimated to have a lifespan of up to 40 years, which would add to the cost of the project, Peter Gerbasi, vice president of LiRo, said at last month’s meeting. Both U.S. Rep. Peter King and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer have said that they are working to get the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse Long Beach to cover most or all of the city’s $200 million costs due to Sandy, including the boardwalk project. 

Beach Access and West End Dunes

At Tuesday’s meeting, Rosemary Sheridan, a Tennessee Avenue resident, inquired about the city's plans to provide access to the beach this summer. “How are we going to get our beaches up in time,” Sheridan asked.

Schnirman said there would be full access to the beaches this summer. “Beaches will open, there will be ticket takers, and it will be wonderful,” he added. “And that will obviously be crucial to our summer, to our businesses, and to our small city getting back on its feet.”

Sheridan also asked how the city plans to handle the dunes in the West End that were destroyed during the hurricane. “You’ve got all this sand that you’re putting down along the beachfront, but yet it’s covering, or almost covering, all the old sand,” she observed.

Schnirman said the department of public works is working on the dunes, and he referred her to speak to LaCarrubba about the specific beach on her street.

“My guess is that you’ll probably see announcements on this as things move forward,” Schnirman said.

Thursday's meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Long Beach City Hall.