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Walkway Price Falls $100,000

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By MIKE SALINERO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 7, 2007

TAMPA - A new walkway outside the Frederick B. Karl County Center will still have a fancy terrazzo finish, but it will cost taxpayers $100,000 less than a previous design.

Hillsborough County commissioners, on a 4-1 vote, decided to negotiate design changes with the contractor building the walkway rather than re-bidding the project and starting over. The changes will reduce the project cost from $503,000 to an estimated $403,000.

Commissioners last month approved replacing the walkway because its granite surface is cracking. The County Center's security service has documented 14 tripping incidents on the walkway between June 2001 and July of this year.

But officials were critical when they learned half the cost of the $503,000 project was because of its terrazzo finish. Commissioner Rose Ferlita said that was inappropriate while the county is cutting services and laying off workers. She asked the staff to look at a less-expensive, stamped concrete design.

'Matching something, making it prettier is a wonderful thing, but not right now,' Ferlita said.

Real Estate Director Mike Kelly presented the commission with two options Thursday, both of which would save money over the initial design. The first was the one that the commission, minus Ferlita who voted no, ultimately chose - to negotiate a change order with contractor CEM Enterprises Inc.

The other option was to terminate the agreement with CEM, and re-bid the project with a set price of $350,000. Kelly recommended the board choose option 1 because it would allow the project to move ahead and would avoid a $20,000 penalty for terminating the agreement with CEM.

Ferlita asked whether choosing the first option would replace the terrazzo.

'Why can't we do the whole thing with textured concrete?' Ferlita asked.

Kelly said getting rid of all the terrazzo would require the project to be re-bid.

Ferlita also criticized county architectural manager Swati Bose for inferring that the city of Tampa would object to a walkway surface that did not fit with the design of the County Center and the plaza across the street. Bose answered that she had met with Wilson Stair, Tampa's urban design manager, and Stair had not been supportive of a design incorporating just concrete.

'He said he would not be able to support a sea of unbroken concrete in this location,' Bose said.

Ferlita countered that Stair had told her the County Center had been built before the city had adopted urban design guidelines, so it was not subject to them.

'There is no requirement for anything other than plain concrete because we're grandfathered back before the urban design guidelines were put in place,' Ferlita said.

Stair said Thursday he had met with Bose and other county staff to discuss materials for the walkway. He said he didn't make any recommendations.

'I think Bose had mentioned it would probably be better to have granite materials compatible with the building,' Stair said. 'My answer to that was that in the long run it would probably work better, but their role was to consider costs.'

The new walkway will consist of a 6-inch-thick concrete slab, overlaid with a textured terrazzo with an abrasive finish to prevent tripping and slipping, Bose said.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com.

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