PORT TOWNSEND — Barraged with contractors’ interest in rebuilding Point Hudson Marina, Port of Port Townsend officials have postponed for a week the opening of bids on the estimated $3.4 million project.

“We received calls from six or seven of the major contractors who called for the delay,” said Larry Crockett, Port executive director.

Crockett said the Port complied with the request because its leadership wants the most competitive bidding process possible.

“It’s exciting,” Crockett said Tuesday of interest conveyed in the project.

“We’ve got people interested from Oklahoma and California.

“I think we sent out 37 sets of [project] drawings. We called everyone that requested bid packets.”

The plan was to open bids at 2 p.m. Tuesday.

As now scheduled, the Port will accept bids until 2 p.m. next Tuesday. Then, bids will be opened at Crockett’s office in the former hospital building at Point Hudson.

Each company submitting a bid will be named, along with the bid amount.

Crockett said he expect it will take up to two weeks before the Port commissioners will award a contract.

The Port’s lawyers must first determine is the bids are responsible and responsive to the Port’s needs — and at the lowest price.

“We can’t have somebody who’s never put in a dock before,” Crockett said.

Sept. 20 start targeted

Port officials have said they hope the project can start by Sept. 20.

That schedule allows hundreds of annual Wooden Boat Festival participants to use the old marina one last time before it closes until early spring for reconstruction. The festival runs Sept. 8-10.