On Saturday, the City of Martinez hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for its first new park in the city in over 20-years.
With bids received and a contract awarded, the groundbreaking occurred on July 20 and Pine Meadow Park is anticipated to be completed by November 2024. The new Pine Meadow Park is located at the site of the former Pine Meadow Golf Course.
Approximately 8 acres have been dedicated for open space and park use as part of the residential subdivision development located north of Center Avenue and east of Morello Avenue. The park will be adjacent to the new street, Pine Meadow Drive. it will include the following:
- Accessible parking
- Bio retention
- Monument sign
- Nature play trail
- New trees
- Original oak
- Pathway – paved concrete
- Pathway – crushed aggregate
- Picnic area + tables
- Playground
- Recreational turf
- Restroom
In February 2022 the Martinez City Council adopted the final master plan for the new park, along with elements to be included for the first phase of the park project. Last July, the city asked residents to help them name the park.
In May, the council agreed to award a construction contract with Buhler Commercial for the Pine Meadow Park project at a cost of $2.7 million which included a 5% contingency of $130,104.
According to the staff report, Buhler Commercial’s bid came in roughly $779,896 or 43% above the Engineer’s Estimate with a total bid of $2,579,896. Since the bids were so much higher than the estimate, staff reached out to the second and third low bidders, both of which have previously performed work for the City and whose bids were within 3% of each other. Both indicated that they did not see any areas to significantly lower their bids on this project without revising the plans to reduce project scope. Furthermore, they said that there are a considerable number of other projects bidding. Since developing the estimate last winter, construction costs have continued to escalate. Based on these factors, staff does not believe that rebidding the project would result in lower bids.
This project is subject to the Project Labor Agreement (PLA) because the contract amount is greater than $1,000,000. Buhler and its listed subcontractors have agreed to be bound by the PLA. Buhler has 9 years of experience working on similar projects in Northern California. For these reasons, staff recommend awarding a construction contract for this project to Buhler
Exhibits for the Park Masterplan and layout of Phase 1 improvements can be seen on the City of Martinez website:
For more information: click here
