The giant sandbags along the Green River Trail in Kent won’t be removed quite as soon as expected because city officials decided to dump the initial bids and rebid the sandbag-removal project.

City officials still promise the removal of the 19,900 sandbags by late summer.

“We’re still on schedule to get it done this summer – probably later summer,” said Kelly Peterson, city environmental conservation supervisor, who oversees the bids.

Eleven contractors bid on the initial proposal advertised in May. City officials opened the bids May 29. But city officials rejected all bids after they decided based on the numbers submitted that they had made the initial proposal too complicated.

“It made it confusing for bidders,” Peterson said. “The city was trying to save money and broke the work into segments. Now we’ll award one contract.”

Companies were asked to bid on anywhere from one to six projects to remove sandbags along the trail. Several companies submitted bids for all six sandbag-removal projects while others bid on fewer projects.

“We looked at breaking the river section into six segments and we may have had different contractors,” Peterson said. “Now the bid will cover the entire project.”

The estimated cost to remove the sandbags is $1.1 to $1.6 million, Peterson said. The contractor must complete the work within 90 days, which Peterson doesn’t expect to be a problem.

“I think they will be able to do it,” he said.

The bags cover more than half of the path of the Green River Trail, a popular walking and bicycling destination prior to the placing of the sandbags.

Sandbags that are about 3-feet high have lined the trail for nearly three years for extra flood protection because of damage in 2009 to an abutment next to the Howard Hanson Dam on the upper Green River. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced last fall it can operate Hanson Dam at full capacity, which means the sandbags are no longer needed. No heavy rainstorms ever tested the sandbags.

The King County Flood Control District will pay 75 percent of the cost with the city covering the rest. The district and city will delay levee projects along the river in order to pay for the removal of sandbags. The district is funded through a county-wide property levy of 10 cents per $1,000 assessed value or about $40 per year on a $400,000 home. That brings in about $36 million a year for projects.

Each jurisdiction in the county also receives a small portion of the flood district property levy to pay for any flood control projects within each city. Kent can now use that money to help pay for sandbag removal rather than other projects for the next six years.

City officials will advertise the project June 11 and open bids on June 25. The City Council will then award the contract to the lowest bidder in July.

“We’re doing everything we can to save money on this project,” Peterson said.

That includes a provision in the contract to dump sand from bags near the city-owned Riverbend Golf Complex on levees that were previously repaired by the golf course. The sand will serve as a top dressing on the levees.

City officials also junked the idea of companies submitting bids to dump the sand on the city-owned property Naden property near Highway 167. Companies now must find their own spot to dump the sand.

“They must take it all off site,” Peterson said. “We decided it would be easier that way.”