Design-Build Etowah River Park Canoe Launch

Dawson County, Georgia is soliciting design-build proposals for the Etowah River Park Canoe Launch under RFP #388-21, with proposals due August 19, 2021 at 10:30 a.m. EST and a mandatory pre-proposal conference on August 2, 2021 at the park site.

The scope is replacement of existing steps with a new ramp ending at the same elevation and location as current stairs, encompassing four phases: Preliminary Design, Detailed Schematic Design, Final Design, and Construction Services. An engineered Erosion and Sedimentation Plan must be submitted with a variance application to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division, as work occurs within the buffer zone. River access may be closed completely to the public during construction; the contractor must detail the construction schedule timeframe. Bidders are directed to streamstats.usgs.gov for river flow rate and elevation change data and provided tax boundary information and a canoe put-in plat. The County will not bear the cost of acquiring additional land for the proposed solution.

Dawson County has not established a set budget and is open to cost-saving designs meeting all required scope, applicable laws, ordinances, rules, and regulations. Evaluation assigns technical scoring with a fee-grading adjustment weighting. Questions and addendum submissions were due by August 11, 2021. The County intends this as a fall project.

Award (as of October 22, 2021): TriScapes, Inc. was selected with a total project cost of $160,000, comprising $5,000 for Preliminary Design, $6,000 for Detailed Schematic Design, $4,000 for Final Design, and $145,000 for Construction Services. TriScapes received a perfect technical score of 10.00 points (25.00 points after fee grading adjustment) against Helix Group's technical score of 4.03 points (10.07 points after fee grading adjustment). The competing bid from Helix Group was $397,250.