Board to discuss more paving

Pavement will be on the agenda for the Santa Maria Public Airport Board of Directors when it meets at 7:00 p.m. tonight at the Airport Administration building.

While construction crews have begun paving the 1,700-foot extension to the main runway, the board will discuss whether or not to award a contract for parking lot repaving and alterations to Rockwood General Contractors of Arroyo Grande.

The project will rehabilitate the airport’s main parking lot and create more customer friendly parking for Pepper Garcia’s Restaurant, one of the airport’s key terminal tenants.

The project could range from slightly below $50,000 to nearly $199,000, depending on how many alternatives are added to the base project.

Rockwood’s bid of $49,632 was the low bid of seven estimates the airport received for the base contract. If all of the alternates are completed, the final contract cost will be $199,274.  Rockwood’s base bid was 24% under the airport engineer’s estimate, while its overall bid was 20% under estimate, according to General Manager Chris Hastert.

R. Burke Corp. of San Luis Obispo provided the lowest bid for all of the alternatives at $164,905, but its base bid of $53,792 was approximately $4,000 more than Rockwood.

“The basis for the bid award is based on the base bid only. We weren’t sure which of the alternates we were going to go forward with,” Hastert said.  Base bids ranged from $49,631.68 to $84,380.25. Overall bids ranged from $164,905 to $249,162.10.

Rockwood, Burke, J.F. Will Co., V. Lopez and Sons, Souza Construction, John Madonna Construction and Granite Construction all supplied bids.

Every parking lot at the airport will get slurry sealed and striped, Hastert said.

The Board of Directors will also choose who represents the airport on a variety of local, regional and national committees.

 By Brian Bullock/Staff Writer bbullock@santamariatimes.com Santa Maria Times | Posted: Thursday, January 12, 2012