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City project for V&M to be rebid — again
YOUNGSTOWN
It’s back to the drawing board for the third time for the city’s major improvement project needed for V&M Star’s expansion.
Despite the latest setback, city officials don’t expect the improvement work to hold up V&M’s expansion project.
The city’s board of control on Wednesday rejected all six proposals for the project that consists of building and relocating railroad lines and installing storm-sewer lines that would use $14.4 million from the federal stimulus fund.
The city had to reject four proposals for this project in June. The project’s original estimate was $13.56 million, but the proposals ranged from $18.18 million to $20.21 million.
After nearly four months of discussions with V&M, which is building a $650 million expansion off Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Youngstown, as well as with the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, the city changed the project’s scope and opened proposals for the work Oct. 19.
The city lowered the base proposal to $11.35 million and included eight add-ons for the project. The city was able to include five of the add-ons that would install about 25,000 feet of railroad tracks and not exceed its $14.4 million federal stimulus allotment. The base work installs 28,000 feet of tracks.
Four of the six proposals that included the base work and five add-ons were below the $14.4 million amount.
But the city will start over again for the third time.
Mayor Jay Williams, chairman of the board of control, said the proposals were rejected based on the advice of the city’s legal counsel and attorneys with the Ohio Department of Transportation, the Ohio Rail Development Commission and the state attorney general. Also, based on that advice, Williams declined to discuss the reasons for seeking proposals for a third time for this work.
But the attorney general’s office provided a letter Wednesday to The Vindicator from Matthew R. Dietrich, executive director of the rail-development commission, to the Federal Highway Administration that explains why all the proposals were rejected.
The city, ODOT and the rail commission determined that the apparent low proposal of $14,339,389.10 for the base work and the first five add-ons from Atlas Railroad Construction Co. of Eighty Four, Pa., was not valid.
An examination by The Vindicator of Atlas’ proposal shows the company failed to include a cost for two gate-crossing signals, estimated by the city at $27,000. The city’s breakdown of the proposal has the $0 amount in bold type.
“At least two of those bidders have indicated that they intend to take legal action to influence the award of the contract,” Dietrich wrote.
Because the city’s board of control can “reject any and all bids for any reason, staff is firmly convinced that rebidding is the optimal route to proceed,” he wrote. “Staff believes that a substantial delay could result if the current bids are not rejected because of the likelihood of protracted litigation, and that such a delay could jeopardize the [stimulus] funding and the project itself.”
Marucci and Gaffney of Youngstown had the next lowest proposed amount of $14,369,789.77, about $30,000 more than Atlas’ and still below the city’s estimated cost.
Under the original timetable, this project was to start this summer.
The project is supposed to take up to 300 days to complete with city officials saying it has to be done for V&M’s expansion plans to be fully implemented.
V&M expects its expansion project to be done sometime between October and December of 2011.
The city plans to seek proposals for this project and get the work started very soon, said Williams and Charles Shasho, deputy director of the city’s public works department.
Before proposals can be sought for a third time, Shasho said ODOT and FHA must approve the plans, which will include “minor changes.”
That took four months the last time. Because the changes to the proposal will be small, the turnaround time will be significantly quicker, Shasho said.
“We’re comfortable the project will be done in time,” he said.
So is V&M Star.
“V&M has no objection to rebidding because it will not have any adverse impact on the project’s schedule,” said Vince Bevacqua, the company’s spokesman.