Bids over budget

Bids for a new valet and self-park parking lot at Bob Hope Airport

came in at double what the airport authority has budgeted for the

project, sending officials back to the drawing board.

The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority on Monday approved

redesigning its plans for the 27-acre Star Park property and will put

the project back out to bid in early 2006.

The airport budgeted $13 million to improve the site but bids for

the work came back in at $26 million.

“Our intent is to come back with a design package that equates

more realistically to the $13 million we have on hand,” airport

spokesman Victor Gill said.

The high bids were to due to increase in oil used in asphalt,

other large scale projects going on elsewhere in the region and

hurricanes Katrina and Rita drawing away materials and workers, Gill

said.

“It’s a tough time to be bidding on a large job like this,” Gill

said.

A development agreement reached with the city earlier this year

gave the airport the go-ahead to purchase the Star Park property for

$41.8 million to use for valet and self-parking. The airport closed

on the property in June.

Airport Commissioner Bill Wiggins, of Burbank, explained the

situation to the City Council on Tuesday.

Vice Mayor Todd Campbell wanted to be assured that the airport was

going to do all the necessary work on the parking lot, including

landscaping required by city code.

The scale back on the project includes eliminating a new elevator

for the existing four-story parking structure, redesigning the

building for valet drop-off and pick-up and cash transactions,

Wiggins said.

“We definitely have plans to come back when there is the time and

money and finish what we need to do,” Wiggins said.

Part of the airport’s original plan for the lot was to replace all

the asphalt and reconfigure it to allow for the maximum number of

vehicles, Gill said.

But to come within the amount budgeted, the asphalt will now stay

as is, even though that means the airport will lose 300 of the

allowed 2,900 parking spaces, Gill said.

An improvement for the lot that will still happen, just

differently, is the relocate of an airport service road that will

bisect the parking area.

Instead of constructing an underpass to get cars from one side of

the parking area to the other, an overpass will be used instead, Gill

said.

“We still need the flexibility to be able to get cars from one

side to the other but a cheaper way to do that is build up and have

an overpass,” Gill said.

QUESTION

What do you think of the airport’s scaled back Star Park plan?

E-mail your responses to o7burbankleader @latimes.comf7; mail them

to the Burbank Leader, 111 W. Wilson Ave., Glendale, CA, 91203.

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