It will cost the city of Kent about half as much as estimated to replace the deteriorating Lake Meridian swimming and fishing dock.

The City Council awarded the contract to Anacortes-based Neptune Marine Services, which submitted a low bid of $750,985. Sales tax will boost the contract to $822,328. City staff expects work to replace the dock to be completed in June.

Everett-based engineering firm Reid Middleton estimated the replacement at $1.5 to $1.7 million, according to city documents. The city hired Reid Middleton to provide design and technical specifications for the new dock at the popular Lake Meridian Park, 14800 SE 272nd St.

The bids were lower than the estimate because of a very conservative estimate, a very good bid climate and a low bidder who had recently completed a similar job and had a good grasp of the costs, according to city documents.

“We believe they were very, very conservative on their bid pricing,” said Parks Director Julie Parascondola in a Jan. 3 report to the council. “We also had a good competitive bid process.”

The other bids were Massana Construction (Gig Harbor), $779,500; Redside Construction (Port Gamble), $780,000; Quigg Bros. Inc. (Aberdeen), $840,200; and Bellingham Marine, $907,200.

“We feel very confident the bid is not a lowball bid,” Parascondola said. “All of the bids were pretty similar within a range so it was not like one really high and taking this low, and we checked references and feel very confident about it.”

The state Recreation and Conservation Office awarded a grant of $1 million to the city last year to help pay for the dock replacement.

“This gives us the opportunity to explore some other options out there,” Parascondola said about the lower than expected costs. “We are going to be coming back through Parks Committee with a more formal update of what else we can do with this grant money.”

Crews will demolish and remove the existing floating dock as well as fabricate and install a new dock. Several floats on the dock are listing and some of the pilings anchoring the floats are loose, according to parks staff.

“We are keeping the same existing footprint,” Parascondola said. “It’s the exact same layout as the existing dock.”

The project will allow the city to replace the existing dock that was built in 1985 and provide 640 linear feet of water access to park users, according to state documents. The primary recreation opportunity provided by the project will be for swimming, fishing, non-motorized boating access and walking. King County built the dock before the city annexed the Lake Meridian area.