Okaloosa County to re-bid air traffic control tower in Destin

Work on the proposed air traffic control tower at the Destin Airport will have to wait for the project to be re-bid after a 5-0 vote during the Okaloosa County Board of County Commissioners Oct. 7 meeting.

“We received three bids and there were some discrepancies among those bids,” Sunil Harman, Okaloosa County airports director, told commissioners. “Further more, we’ve decided we have to calibrate the scope of work with the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) for the installation of the tower cab equipment.”

The three companies that submitted bids to the county were Cathey Construction, Lord & Son Construction and Speegle Construction. The project was originally put out for bid July 1 and bids were opened July 30, where they were reviewed by Reynolds Smith & Hill.

Based on the agenda item from the meeting, all of the bids contained “mathematical errors and had differences which exceeded $500,000 between each total-as-read bid schedule.” During the review process, it was also determined that a change in scope was necessary to address additional security measures.

A small scale future land use map amendment and rezoning of the tower’s site must also be completed.

Once the county is done revising the site and security drawings, the project will be put out to bid again, according to Deputy Airports Director Tracy Stage, who noted that the process “can sometimes be lengthy.”

The proposed air traffic control tower project is one that’s been watched closely over the years, as locals and airport officials have been outspoken about the increased air traffic in the skies above Destin, whether from military aircraft, personal aircraft, tourism helicopters and others.

The tower, according to the development application, would be roughly six stories and 67.5-feet tall and 4,419 square feet. The tower was accepted into the Federal Aviation Administration’s contract tower program in 2012.