LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / August 15, 2000

LAPLACE – Another stormy South Louisiana Port Commission meeting Wednesday saw St. Charles Parish commissioner Jay Roberts leave in a huff,furious at River Consulting and not wanting to say more than he did.

Roberts, who arrived late in the meeting, got there in time to confront Bruce Carmichael, project engineering manager for River Consulting Inc. on theHarbor Services dock relocation, on a $25,000 change order.

When the Globalplex bulk dock expansion began to intrude upon the old Harbor Services dock, where the fireboats are anchored, the decision was made to relocate Harbor Services upriver.

Later, it was determined that site was too dangerous as regarding barge fleeting, so a second new site was acquired.

The change order, Carmichael said, included work done for the necessary permit applications (already performed to expedite the project), relocating existing design work and new, site-specific design work (including utilities and for an access road and parking lot which the previous upstream site lacked).

However, Roberts and fellow St. Charles commissioner Joey Murray tookCarmichael to task, with Murray commenting that “every contract RCI had was either behind schedule or over budget.” He moved to table approval ofthe change order.

The vote on Murray’s motion was 5-2 against.

Roberts then observed that approval of the change order was “throwing money away.” He then stood up, said, “This is the last statement I’ll make onthis subject,” and abruptly left the meeting in progress.

Murray urged that since the scope of the project, which has struggled on for three years since inception, has changed so much it needed to be re-bid. Thissuggestion was ignored by most of the remaining commissioners, who approved the change order 5-1. St. James commissioner Lawrence Jacksondid observe, though, that there was “not enough planning” by the port on this project.

In other business, Executive Director Joseph Accardo Jr. welcomed his newdeputy director, Henry Sullivan of LaPlace. Sullivan said the experience ofworking full time at the port is quite different than serving as a commissioner. He served as a St. John the Baptist Parish commissioner from1988 to 1996, serving as president for two years and treasurer for one year. “It’s eye-opening,” he said.Accardo also informed the commission the port is getting $4.1 million fromthe Port Priority Trust Fund toward engineering of its new transit shed at Globalplex.

Accardo said later this is a good deal from the state, where the port need only come up with 10 percent in matching funds.

Also, the commission accepted contracts as complete on the gantry rans, gantry truck system and gantry sub-bases at their dock expansion, sending a resolution of certification to the state Department of Transportation and Development.

Finally, a change order of $55,834.02, requested by Guy HopkinsConstruction Co. for landside improvements at the dock improvements, wasapproved in a 6-0 vote, along with a contract time extension to Oct. 4.”This settles it, unless we’re stupid enough to cause more delays,” Accardo said.

Delays were caused over location of phone and utility lines and drainage issues. “We delayed them many, many days,” Accardo added.

Return To News Stories