[guyute65045]

Howdy all,
I am bidding a sediment pond retrofit and I am starting to question my
#s. the existing diversion channel is 435' ft long, 170' across and 4' deep at the upper section, and the lower section is 690' x 45' and 4' deep. I am dredging 2 feet of silt out of it, then turning it into 6 sediment traps of various sizes: 90x155, 45x155, 25x155, and 18x40. All sediment traps are 6 ft deep when finished, silt gets disposed of onsite @ 350ft away and the excess material gets used to make the berms between the traps, any extra material gets wasted in the same spot. The lower portion is the same thing except the traps are 640x40 and 40x40 same depth.
My question is time, I figured it at 18 work days to complete using two excavators (Volvo 140, 210) 2 Komatsu CD 60 tracked dump trucks, and 1 Cat D6n. I have already added a contingency cushion for my time, but something is nagging at me.I feel like I am off. Any of you pond gurus think I am way off? I don't wanna loose my ass on this, but I do have to bid it kinda tight. Things are vicious around here.

Thanks for any and all input.
John

 

[tgeb]

I don't know much about these retention ponds but it looks like you'll have to hustle to get all that complete in 18 days.

Rino, Denick, jmic and some of the others will probably have better input than I.

Good luck with it, I hope you get the job.

 

[rino1494]

Personally, I think that 18 days is overkill. How many yds does those dumps hold, not many I think ?? That may be while it will take longer. What about pumping water, compaction, seeding and mulching ??

We have a holding pond that we are starting in a week or so that is 22,000 yds and we figure on 20 working days. Time will tell.

 

[guyute65045]

I am figuring 6 yards per truck due to how heavy the material will be. On the surface it looks cut and dry as the basin is already 4 ft deep, all in all its only about 5k yards moved. I may just add a couple of days to ease my mind, but I hate to put myself out of the running, I also hate to leave money on the table too. Going with my gut may be the best solution.

 

[guyute65045]

Bid let on fri, 259 and change got it. I was at 264. It is competitive out there this year. Thanks for the feed back. I will be curious to see how it goes for the co that got it. Last year the co that got it didn't bid on any thing under 500K this year different story. Got another bid letting Tuesday, hopefully this one goes better.

 

[Vinny]

Yea, for sure its tight all over. But it looks like you were on the right trail. Thats pretty close numbers.

We just started a job for a municipality we got (pond dredge and walls) for our excavating division and the next bid up was $20K higher on a $300K job.

 

[tgeb]

Sometimes, and I am not saying it happened in this case, but sometimes the bidders get inside information.

I bid some work for one of our local government agencies a few years ago. Tear out and replace concrete walks at various schools. I had gotten word that the current contractor was very high with his bids, so I bid high as well.

First bid I was real steep like 20 bucks/foot tear out and replace. The other guy beat me by something like 50 cents a square foot.

Ok, I tried the next project, 15 bucks/foot, got beat out by the other guy.

So I thought wtf? next bid I pitched a loosing bid, something like $4/ft. to see what would happen......the other guy got the job.


I asked my contact who the low bidder was and he told me the company name, which I googled.


Turned out, and I am sure it is just coincidence, the name of the company that was winning the work happened to have the same name as the last name of the director of maintenence for the school district. :w00t:


I quit wasting my effort on that nonsense.

John, $5K is very close to winning the job, too bad you did not get it. :sad:

 

[Vinny]

Turned out, and I am sure it is just coincidence, the name of the company that was winning the work happened to have the same name as the last name of the director of maintenence for the school district. :w00t:

Of course it was just coincidence Tom:whistling

 

[tgeb]

Yeah, thanks Vinny.

It's funny how these coincidences occur isn't it, coincidences occurring at random.....

 

[guyute65045]

"Turned out, and I am sure it is just coincidence, the name of the company that was winning the work happened to have the same name as the last name of the director of maintenence for the school district. :w00t:"

We have a town near me where the only excavating contractor is related to the health officer(wastewater permits) and the only state engineer in the county. Guess who gets all the septic system business in town, needless to say I dont bother with that town.
I have another bid letting tomorrow on a wetlands restoration, I feel good about my #, just need my bonding agent to get his head out of his @#4. He tried today to change surety co's day before I need the bond, I get trying to save me $$$ but this is cutting it close.

 

[tgeb]

We have a town near me where the only excavating contractor is related to the health officer(wastewater permits) and the only state engineer in the county. Guess who gets all the septic system business in town,

Funny how this works out sometimes. :sad: