Low bidder gets TIGER project
In a narrow vote, Whitefish City
Council agreed with city staff recommendations to award a contract
to the lowest bidder for the U.S. 93 and Second Street Improvement
Project.
Mayor Mike Jenson broke a 2-2 tie at
the Aug. 22 meeting in favor of giving the contract to LHC, Inc.
Phil Mitchell and Chris Hyatt were opposed. Bill Kahle and Ryan
Friel were not in attendance.
Councilors hit Public Works director
John Wilson with a barrage of questions about why LHC’s bid was so
much lower than the other two bids from Schellinger Construction
and Nelcon, Inc.
Typically a city or planner likes to
see project bids bunched close together. An extraordinary low
number could be a red flag that a bid is off, bringing costly
change orders later.
LHC’s bid was for $2.153 million, below
the engineer’s estimate of $3.157 million and lower still than
Nelcon’s bid of $2.878 million and Schellinger’s bid of $2.65
million.
Wilson told the council he and the
staff had pored over the numbers and that they were comfortable
with the bid. He guessed that in the down economy, LHC might be
willing to take a hit on their profits in order to keep their crews
busy through the fall.
“The majority of the bid made sense,”
Wilson said. “Contractors do take less to hang on to good
people.”
Both Mitchell and Hyatt were concerned
about taking a bid that falls so far below both the engineer
estimate and the other two bids.
“I question the disparity,” Hyatt
said.
Mitchell noted that LHC put down the
asphalt on a reconstructed block of Central Avenue that later
needed to be replaced.
“They stepped up to the plate and took
care of it,” Wilson said. “These are proud people at LHC. I don’t
expect they’ll let it happen again.”
LHC is currently doing the sewer work
around town.
Wilson envisions any change orders
being kept to less than 2 percent of the project cost.
The low bid will leave about $670,000
of uncommitted funds in the $3.499 million TIGER grant that is
financing the project. The city has committed $85,000 in Wastewater
Funds for additional sewer improvements.
Work on the improvement project is
slated to start Sept. 12. Wilson notes that detours and street
closures will impact traffic flow through the major
intersection.