Kimmswick Port Project on Track for 2020
Date Posted: August 30, 2020
Posted In: Projects, Workforce,
From My Leader Paper: A riverboat port facility in Kimmswick may be finished by the end of the year, after the Jefferson County Port Authority’s Board of Directors recently voted to accept a construction contract.
In addition, the Port Authority has taken the first tentative steps to develop another port facility in Crystal City.
Port Authority Executive Director Neal Breitweiser said the board voted unanimously in June to award an $893,248 contract to XL Contracting of St. Peters to build the Kimmswick port, which will be the home base for the Delta Queen riverboat and can handle other boats traveling the Mississippi River.
The company submitted the lowest of nine bids for the project, he said.
“They had the best engineering appraisal, and proved they are able to pull off work of this scope,” Breitweiser said.
He said work to build the port – a river landing and a road leading to it – may begin in early September and is scheduled to take 15 weeks.
Breitweiser said details are being worked out with XL Contracting that may affect the starting date and the cost of the project.
“In October (2019), the board unanimously rejected a single bid for the project because it was about $1 million more than expected,” he said.
Port Authority officials said the engineering firm that developed the plans, Hanson Professional Services of Maryland Heights, had estimated the cost of the project at $1.2 million.
Breitweiser said the design of the project didn’t change much since the bid was rejected last year, as the dock itself was fairly basic, but details surrounding how much construction could be done offsite and whether work was required during high-water times were modified to make the project more attractive to bidders and to bring down the cost.
When the dock is complete, boats will be able to drop anchor in Kimmswick. Breitweiser said he frequently fields calls from operators interested in mooring their boats in Kimmswick when the main tenant, the Delta Queen, is not there.