It was January 2021 when Monroe County began the first of three necessary multimillion-dollar bridge replacements on Duck Key. Four summers later, while one of the three projects awaits minor finishing touches, the headaches of plywood bridge surfaces, detours and temporary one-way traffic patterns are still a way of life for the island’s residents. And starting this week, those headaches have official dollar signs attached.
Contracts for the Bimini Drive, Seaview Drive and Harbour Drive bridges, originally valued at $3.18 million, $5.26 million and $5.78 million, respectively, were awarded to American Empire Builders in December 2020, with notice to proceed given in January 2021 for the Bimini Drive bridge. Change orders for the Seaview Drive and Bimini Drive bridges have since added roughly $940,000 to those price tags, including about $500,000 for temporary strengthening on a crumbling Bimini Drive bridge.
According to intermittent updates posted on a dedicated page of Monroe County’s website, the Bimini Drive bridge, the most visible and heavily-trafficked of the three projects, is currently pending minor finishing touches.
The same updates list the targeted date for substantial completion of the Seaview Drive bridge as Thursday, Sept. 4 – 597 days after the project’s commencement date on Jan. 16, 2023. The Harbour Drive bridge’s date target is currently listed as March 18, 2025 – 540 days after the project’s commencement date.
But the most recent construction schedule available for the Seaview Drive project, relayed via an email obtained by the Weekly, lists a substantial completion estimate in late January 2025. Though the bridge was roughly 25% complete at press time, Monroe County director of engineering services Judith Clarke told the Weekly by phone that “the contractor has to submit an updated schedule to us, and we believe that (January 2025) is going to push out at this point.”
As delays for the Seaview project grew, county spokeswoman Kristen Livengood confirmed in a Jan. 26, 2024 email that the county began diverting payments for the Seaview bridge to AEB’s surety bond company, responsible for footing the bill beyond the original bid amount for the bridge’s completion through AEB or another contractor if AEB fails to deliver.
According to the county site’s Aug. 23 update, county officials notified AEB on Aug. 16 that the county will begin assessing damages when the Seaview project’s contract expires on Sept. 4: $500 per day for the first 15 days, $1,000 per day for the next 15 days, and $3,500 per day for each additional day.
If AEB were to meet its January 2025 target, liquidated damages would still total well over $400,000 per the existing contract – and that number would only grow with additional delays.
Extensive email correspondence reviewed by the Weekly between Duck Key residents and county officials, largely relayed through Duck Key Property Owners’ Association (DKPOA) president Ron Oestreicher, have for months challenged construction updates and targeted completion dates posed by AEB.
“The residents of Duck Key after four years of this bridge nightmare deserve the truth,” Oestreicher wrote on Aug. 26 in an email to county officials requesting a “realistic project projection” for the remaining bridges and a public meeting with Duck Key residents. “AEB has never been held accountable to their contractual obligations, and time will tell if the county will enforce the damage clause. Clearly what gets shared with the public is whatever AEB presents to the county, without any regard if it is realistic.”
“Every time I go by the Seaview Bridge during the weekdays, I do not see anyone from AEB there,” wrote Seaview Drive resident Sylvia Hernandez in an Aug. 25 email. “Once about two weeks ago, I saw one person, sitting on his truck talking on the phone. At this pace, our bridges may take several more years for completion. In the meanwhile, our neighborhood is filled with barricades, detours, temporary traffic lights, construction equipment and plywood bridges.”
Other American Empire projects facing extensive delays have made headlines around the state over the past year – many of which had similar estimated start and completion dates to Duck Key’s saga. In January, citing “absolute agreement” with “unacceptable” performance by AEB, Pinellas County commissioners voted to terminate contracts with the builder on three long-delayed bridge projects totaling $7.7 million, scheduled to conclude in 2022 and 2023.
That same month, officials with the city of Saint Petersburg issued a notice of default to American Empire for another $3.6 million bridge replacement in its Shore Acres neighborhood. In April 2021, AEB was awarded a $6 million contract to replace the city’s 9th Street South bridge. That project is also still ongoing, with FDOT posting that officials are “aware of the delays and actively working with the contractor and their surety company on a recovery plan to complete the project in a timely manner.”
“I have no hope that (assessing liquidated damages) will incentivize AEB to finish the work,” Hernandez wrote in her Aug. 25 email.
In an email to DKPOA members on June 24, 2024, DKPOA bridge committee chair John Wolfe said there are “no good options” to address the current situation.
“The obvious option is to again declare AEB in default and terminate the contract,” the email stated. “While this would be satisfying, it really is not an option. As we know, AEB was the only bidder the first time around. I can’t imagine any contractor bidding on a partially completed, small, complicated bridge project as they would certainly have liability concerns. The delay would be extensive.”
Asked whether AEB’s recent history with other projects, extensive delays and contractual faults could prompt the county to look elsewhere for completion of the Seaview or Harbour Drive bridges, Clarke said the county would evaluate “all of our options under what’s available to us in the contract.”
“After the projects were awarded, the contractor ran into financial difficulty, and that slowed the project down,” she said. “When the surety bond became involved with the payments, I coordinated with our county attorney and outside counsel, and (continuing with AEB) will be evaluated. The county’s goal is to get the bridges complete, and we’ll be looking at all alternatives.”
American Empire Builders did not return a call and voicemail request for comment from the Keys Weekly.
