47 state road projects attract few bids

The Arkansas Department of Transportation on Wednesday opened low bids worth $52.5 million on 47 projects that were marked by a paucity of bidders.

The most expensive project on the list at $11.3 million -- putting down a new surface on a 4.1-mile section of Interstate 540 in Sebastian and Crawford counties, including the bridge over the Arkansas River -- was one of 13 jobs that attracted bids from two contractors.

Fourteen other projects attracted only one bidder and two projects received no bids.

The bids won't be final until agency officials review them for accuracy and compare their amounts to engineering estimates. Bids won't be rejected automatically because of the lack of competition, but the department prefers more participation from contractors.

"More bids mean a more competitive process," said Danny Straessle, the department spokesman.

That said, it was too early for agency officials to determine why the projects didn't receive more bids, he said.

None of the projects involved new construction such as the $87.3 million project awarded last month to widen a section of Interstate 630 in Little Rock. Instead, they were resurfacing projects intended to extend the life of roadways before more in-depth reconstruction would be required.

The I-540 project generated interest from four contractors, according to department documents. But only two wound up submitting bids -- Gibson & Associates Inc. of Balch Springs, Texas, and American Contracting & Services Inc, of Jeffersonville, Ind.

Gibson, the low bidder, actually submitted the higher amount, $11.3 million, compared with American, which said it could do the work for $10.5 million. But Gibson said it could do the job in much less than time than American, 160 days versus 308 days.

The amount of time is an element of bids on projects on heavily traveled routes and calculated as a cost to motorists, in terms of delays, fuel consumption and wear and tear on vehicles. Gibson's bid for award consideration, as a result, was $16.4 million versus $20.3 million for American's bid.

About 49,000 vehicles travel the route daily, according to department traffic data.

The I-540 project was one of 19 state projects worth $43.6 million. Eight of those projects attracted only one bidder, most notably a 19.3-mile overlay project on Arkansas 365 from the Pulaski County line to Pine Bluff.

Cranford Construction Co. of North Little Rock submitted a bid of $5.6 million. Three other contractors expressed interest in the project, but didn't submit bids.

Another significant state project, by contrast, attracted four bidders. APAC-Tennessee Inc. of Memphis submitted the lowest bid, $8.3 million, on a project to resurface 12.6 miles of Interstate 555 from the Craighead County line to Arkansas 14 in Poinsett County.

The department also opened low bids worth $5.5 million on 17 city-aid projects, including a $563,707.58 project by Blackstone Construction LLC of Russellville to resurface selected sections of streets totaling nearly 3 miles in Charleston in Franklin County and Paris in Logan County.

Low bids worth $3.4 million were opened on 11 county-aid projects. They included a $847,986.30 project by Silco Construction Inc. of Waldron to level and reseal 4.55 miles of Scott County Road 9 from Arkansas 248 south.

Metro on 05/03/2018

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