Nassau County's Department of Public Works opened bids March 3 for the Aeration Blower Facility at the South Shore Water Reclamation Facility, contract S35121-06G, and Posillico Civil, Inc. of Farmingdale is the apparent low at $99,639,000.

The four bids: Posillico Civil, Inc. $99,639,000; R.J. Industries, Inc. $109,927,700; E & A Restoration Inc. $111,000,000; Adam's European Contracting Inc. $121,905,000. Each came with a bid bond for 10% of the bid amount.

Posillico is $10,288,700 under R.J. Industries, a 10.3% margin on a nine-figure job. The field spread 22.3% from low to high, and the median is $110,463,850. The county's tab lists no engineer's estimate and no alternates.

Interest was wider than the result. The county's plan-holder list from Feb. 17 named 11 firms, among them Bancker Construction, Forte Construction, Hinck Electrical, Infinity Contracting, Philip Ross Industries, T. Moriarty & Son, W.H.M. Plumbing and Welkin Mechanical. Four general contractors bid.

This contract sits under Capital Project 35121, the same number the county has used for years of work at the plant it used to call the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant. County tabs show Posillico was also low in 2015 on sludge dewatering facility improvements under that project at $41,516,000, and W.H.M. Plumbing was low on effluent screening and disinfection in 2018 at $8,250,000 and on raw sewage pumping improvements in 2019 at $13,500,000. The blower job's low is more than double any of those. Our board lists it as RFI-000781.

The county's own tab says it plainly: the list is what was read aloud, bids may still be withdrawn or disqualified, and it is not the department's determination of the lowest responsible bidder. An apparent low is not an award.

Why this matters. Aeration is the energy hog of a treatment plant, and a new blower building is a mechanical, electrical and process-equipment job wrapped in a concrete shell. A $100 million package on Long Island's south shore will pull on the same pool of process-mechanical, electrical and concrete subs that city and state water work depends on.

What to do next. Process mechanical, blower and valve suppliers, electrical and instrumentation, concrete, and HVAC subs should get their numbers to Posillico now. Watch for the county's award.