The Mobile County Commission voted Monday to formally accept a $30 million grant to redevelop a portion of Bayou La Batre’s waterfront with an upgraded boat launch, marina and other public amenities.

While Monday’s vote was routine, preceding discussion raised fears that rising construction costs could threaten the scope of the work.

Commissioners voted Monday to approve “acceptance of a grant award and sub-recipient agreement from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for the Redevelop Bayou La Batre City Docks Project in the amount of $30,511,522.00 with no local match required, and authorize execution of all associated documents.”

It was a routine step, but an essential one for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dramatically improve public access at a geographically and ecologically unique location. The site where the work will be done is a short distance from point where the mouth of the Bayou opens onto the Mississippi Sound, making it an access point for inland waters, coastal marshes, the Sound and the Gulf of Mexico beyond.

There’s a boat launch there now, and a small public fishing area, but the parking area is mostly unpaved. Two disused old Mississippi casino barges loom over the scene. Renderings show dramatic improvements: An open basin with big new ramps, plenty of paved parking for trucks and trailers, a marina and ample park space, among other amenities. At www.bayoulabatrecitydocks.com it’s described a project that can help develop “amenities that attract both locals and tourists while showcasing Bayou La Batre’s small-town coastal atmosphere and historical heritage as the ‘Seafood Capital of Alabama.’”

The money funding that vision comes from Deepwater Horizon disaster fines and penalties, through a process established by the federal RESTORE Act. In this case, the money comes from the Department of the Treasury via the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. The project, one of several affecting Bayou La Batre, was approved by the Alabama Gulf Coast Recovery Council as far back as 2018.

Alabama officials working on RESTORE-funded projects have said the process of carrying them out has been slowed by several factors, including the scope and number of the projects and the fine-grained approval from federal agencies overseeing the funding. In this case, the money comes from the Department of the Treasury.

A few RESTORE-funded projects in Mobile and Baldwin counties have been completed, notably a major coastal restoration project at Lightning Point, just south of the Bayou La Batre docks project site. But 13 years after the Deepwater Horizon Disaster and 11 years after passage of the RESTORE Act, many more are still working their way through stages of permitting, engineering and bidding.

The city docks project has been in its engineering phase; the county commission’s formal acceptance of the grant should open the way for bidding in the months ahead. But as the county commission discussed its March 27 agenda at a March 23 work session, the bidding process in general emerged as a source of angst.

At that session, commissioners received the recommendation to reject all bids for an unrelated project in which the sole bid received was more than twice its estimated value for the job. “We’re getting a lot of that,” said Commissioner Merceria Ludgood.

Commissioner Randall Dueitt said he’d been seeing the same thing with projects related to construction, roadwork and parks. “I guess maybe I understand a little bit because of supply chain problems and the cost of material being higher, but 100% markup or 100% above our estimated cost … if it was an isolated incident maybe I could understand but I mean, this is across the board, sometimes, that we’re having 50, 60, 70 and in this case 100% above what our engineering firms are telling us that it should cost.”

Dueitt also said he was disturbed by seeing a lack of competition, in cases where only one firm would enter a bid and that bid would be high. County Engineer Bryan Kegley said the escalating costs over the last year had prompted county leaders to prioritize projects. “We only have so much in our pay-as-you-go program that we can expend,” he said.

“There is an escalation in material prices, equipment prices, labor prices that these contractors are honestly experiencing,” said Kegley. “Whenever they sit down and show us their process of creating their bids to us, and the uncertainty of trucking availabilities, or material availabilities, it’s significant and it’s real. We’re doing everything we can to make sure that we do not have situations where we receive one bidder and it’s much much higher than what we estimated. We do not award bids when we have situations like that.”

In such a case, Kegley said, the county will try to negotiate a better agreement with the single bidder, or wait to re-bid the project at a better time.

Ludgood expressed concern this might be “a new normal.” Kegley said that based on his talks with counterparts in other areas, the issue was widespread. He suggested that so much private work was available that contractors might not feel the need to aggressively pursue government contracts. Dueitt concurred.

The concern carried over to discussion of the Bayou La Batre project at the March 23 meeting. Dueitt asked Tina Sanchez, the county’s director of environmental services, to speak about the county’s involvement in the grant.

“This project was one that was championed by the city of Bayou La Batre,” Sanchez said. “As the plan was developed and finalized, there was a recognition that these large-scale projects require a great deal of capacity – in-house grant management and engineering and science and physical management as well – so it was decided at the time that the county could and would serve as the administrators and project managers for those projects. So this is a city of Bayou La Batre project to redevelop city docks. We’re running it, basically, with input from the city and the mayor. Once it’s done it’ll be turned over to the city of Bayou La Batre.”

The docks revamp was announced as a $21 million project in 2018, but the amount was later increased. Sanchez said that while the grant was large, rising costs still represent a threat to the planned budget.

“$30 million was not the beginning amount of this project,” Sanchez said. “It’s not just for construction. It includes engineering and other costs. That’s the total amount of money available to this. And we’ve already gone back the well, the [RESTORE] Council did, and amended the plans to add some more money. So $30 million is all that’s available to this project. If it comes in over bid, I don’t know what we’ll do.”

“It’s a wonderful project,” said Dueitt. “I’m excited for Mobile County, I’m excited for the town of Bayou La Batre, and I’m excited that the county is involved in this project, as long as we can get it done for that price.”

Dueitt said that he’d been surprised by how much public interest there is in expanding public access to the water. Since being elected to the commission, he’d found it to be a top request from constituents, he said.

According to a fact sheet at www.bayoulabatrecitydocks.com, a complete design and bid package should be ready in July. Bidding and contracting are expected to take three months, with the greenlight for construction work to come in fall/winter 2023.