By Jim Henderson
Special to the Turnagain Times
On March 7, the Anchorage Purchasing Protest Board unanimously found that the McKenna Bros Paving should be awarded the Girdwood Road Service Area maintenance contract. The Protest Board award recommendation will be presented to the Anchorage Assembly on March 25 for approval.
The 2006 road maintenance contract was a three-year contract at the awarded hourly rates. On Aug. 31, 2006, H.R. Redmond & Co. , our former road maintenance provider, submitted a bid for that contract that would have cost $418,052.00/ yr, or $1,254,156 over the three-year contract period. This was a 75.16% increase over the 2005 cost. The GBOS determined those costs were unreasonable and negotiated the cost structure down to $334,812.00/yr. In August 2007, H.R. Redmond & Co stipulated an across the board rate increase of $20/hr, increasing the cost for the same work to $376,685.00/yr. The GBOS did not accept the unilateral cost increase. With great reservation, the H.R. Redmond & Co.’s contract was terminated. The actual and potential loss in revenue to them over the term of the contract was $836,104.00
The city’s Purchasing Dept. put the Girdwood road maintenance up for rebid. The two low-bid contractors, McKenna Bros. Paving and Western Construction & Equipment came within about $180 of each other for the same amount of work as our now former contractor. The two low bidders bid approximately $249,314./yr. This is total cost of $747,942. over the three-year contract.
Had the renegotiated 2006 contract with the former contractor been continued for the full three years, our community would have paid $337,980 more than we’re paying to our new contractor, McKenna Bros Paving. Had the GBOS accepted the original 2006 bid as submitted by the former contractor and not contested it, our community would have had to pay $506,214.00 more for road maintenance over the three-year term. That is half the community’s cost of the library!
However you slice it, the GBOS has saved the community a very large amount of money. We have a good contractor, McKenna Bros Paving to do our road work. At the Anchorage Purchasing Protest Board hearing, there was testimony that about 85 percent of the community felt that the streets are better maintained than they have been in years. The McKenna Bros Paving contact is reasonably and competitively priced. They want to do the work. Pleasingly, they are doing the job with a very high level of approval.
In the end, the roads are being cared for nicely and more economically. All is well.
Jim Henderson is a member of the Girdwood Board of Supervisors and roads supervisor.