Excavating Firms Eager To Tackle DPW Project

BROOKSVILLE - When Assistant County Engineer Gregg Sutton put out a call for excavation contracting firms interested in hauling away contaminated soil at the old public works site in downtown Brooksville, he wasn't quite prepared for the flood of responses.

Sutton said there are nearly 20 representatives eager to take on the job - from as far away as Tallahassee and other far-flung areas of Florida. It's another indication of how tough times are economically for many of these construction firms, Sutton said.

Many made the trip to Brooksville last Friday to tour the contaminated site and find out what the project entails. The company winning the bid will truck the contaminated soil to a landfill designed to hold such waste, probably in St. Cloud.

On July 23, the firms will submit their sealed bids to the county and commissioners will choose the company.

Given the big response, Sutton predicts there will be no problem getting a firm on board at a reasonable price - and that bodes well for taxpayers, he said.

To save money, the county split the cost of its interim cleanup of the former public works compound at 201 West Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. between the project consultant and a private excavation firm.

Brooksville-based Creative Environmental Solutions, the county-hired consultant handling the DPW project, will handle the technical end of the operation and supervise excavation and hauling operations.

Before trucking it out, the firm will remove shallow contaminated soil on-site (by the ditch on the south part of the property) and at an adjoining lot. Work crews will dig down about two feet below the surface and remove various hydrocarbons, heavy metals and various contaminants.

Meanwhile, there's still no word yet from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) which is reviewing site assessment reports submitted by Creative. When that is done, FDEP will recommend the final step in the remediation, or cleanup process.

But instead of waiting for the state, the county wanted to go ahead with the intermediate cleanup, which doesn't require FDEP approval.

Sutton said these state reviews can take months, especially given the reams of analysis from the Brooksville site.

"They've got a tough job and a big job," Sutton said.