Construction firms salivate over potential city contracts

LOCAL CONSTRUCTION companies hope that a bond issue voters approved in November 2000 will pave the way toward better times for their industry.

Contractors say that with competition heating up for fewer bids, chances increase that they will make the up-front investment to bid without getting

A $150 million series of construction projects the city of New Orleans hopes to complete in the next five years could help shore up a sagging construction industry. Pat Gootee, president of Gootee Construction Inc., says that with just about every type of commercial building except hotels experiencing a slowdown, city projects would be welcome.

The slate of public works projects includes street improvements, parks and community centers and projects designed to stimulate economic development.

However, some say that the city has dragged its feet spending money from bond issues in the past. They fear a similar delay this time around.

The new bond issue comes just as the city is preparing to commit the last part of a bond issue that started in 1995, says Cedric Grant, Mayor Marc Morial's chief administrative officer.

As the mayor pushed for voters to approve the bond issue in November, local watchdog group the Bureau of Governmental Research warned that the city had been sluggish spending the 1995 money.

"We are supposedly going to start seeing some of the new money out there. There is still some of the old money that needs to be spent," says Esquivel.

Grant says improvements to city buildings and new building construction from the 1995 bond issue stand 85% complete. Street projects from the same slate of construction projects stand 65% complete. "By the end of the year, we will see a lot of activity. We expect to be finished with all of the 1995 projects in the next year," Grant says.

Grant says there is a long lead time to account for the design and engineering before contractors can pull out the jackhammers and the air-nailers and get to work. "We spend as much time in the design phase as we do in the construction phase," he says.

In addition, he says it's important that the city give the public the opportunity to learn about the projects and voice comment oil them.

Barriere Construction Co. President George Wilson says that in the past the city work has come up for bids in spurts, making it difficult for construction companies to allocate appropriate resources. He hopes that with the city hiring a program manager to oversee the projects, it will let out the work in a more orderly fashion.

Grant says most of the $25 million worth of bonds the city sold this year to fund its capital improvement projects will pay for design and engineering of projects that will go out to bid in the next few years. However, he says a few projects remain that aim to stimulate the city's economy; these will go out to bid quickly.

The city is forming a cooperative endeavor agreement with the National D-Day Museum to help fund the construction of a new Wing to the museum that will explore the World War II Pacific theater. The D-Day Museum will get $400,000 toward the construction project, which it hopes to finish by Dec. 7, the 60th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. In addition, the city is rebuilding a section of Melpomene Street in coordination with The Saulet apartment complex development.

Grant says it's important for the city to fund those projects because they help grow the local economy. He says a similar investment of city bond money put toward the expansion of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center during the 1995 bond issue has delivered returns for the city.