Hawaii Removal of Historic Sailing Ship RFP

After eight years of struggling to resolve the fate of the now 145-year-old famed sailing ship Falls of Clyde, the Hawai‘i Department of Transportation (HDOT) reported on July 25 it released its request for proposals (RFP) for the removal of the ship. The state has argued that the vessel is now severely compromised and a 2023 report on its condition warned there was a strong risk it would sink.

Scope of Work

The vessel is currently berthed at Pier 7 in Honolulu where it once served as a museum ship as part of the Hawaii Maritime Center.  The vessel is privately owned but was impounded in 2016 and remains in the custody of HDOT.

HDOT wants to redevelop the pier where the vessel lays. The government highlights that the pier has been dormant now for 14 years after the Bishop Museum closed the Maritime Center. With no viable plans for the vessel and its condition rapidly deteriorating they concluded that removal was the only option. The state has spent the past year completing the necessary environmental reviews. Curators have also been going through the vessel to catalog and document artifacts.

By around 1900, she had been downrigged to a bark and by the 1920s the yards, topmast, and royals were removed and she would spend years as floating oil storage and a “filling station” in Ketchikan, Alaska. Efforts at the preservation began in the 1960s after she was retired from her function in Alaska and it was feared she would be scrapped or sunk to form a breakwater. The vessel was rescued from obscurity and returned to Honolulu in the 1960s. Restored to her original form, she was opened to the public in the 1970s. 

HDOT evaluated removal by dismantling, ocean disposal, or third-party acquisition in its Final Environmental Assessment issued last month.  The report concludes the state of decay is irreversible. The selected contractor will determine the method of removal with bids due by September 25

View the full RFP on the State of Hawaii eProcurement.

Interested in Responding to this RFP?

Ready to reply to this RFP? The Bid Lab Team is ready to help! Schedule a free consultation with us today, and let The Bid Lab help you create your next RFP win!

This bid is on Bid Banana. For more opportunities like this one, check out Bid Banana or our Bid Finder service.