I’m at a loss on this one;
Last Thursday, Sioux Falls Public Work Officials eagerly awaited for bids to flood in for the first flagship project of the New Year. But to their surprise, not a single construction company submitted a bid for work on the 12th Street Bridge Replacement.
“It’s not normal,†said Mark Cotter, Director of Public Works. “Sioux Falls contractors have a lot of capacity. Their workforce is here. And we’re also a good agency to do projects with.”
Damn right it isn’t normal, but IÂ suspect this has to do with the Lien on the Events Center. Construction companies talk, and I have a feeling the bad blood flowing from the EC siding gone awry, by blaming a company that didn’t do the work put a sour taste in their mouths. Nobody wants to be the fall guy holding $500K in unpaid work from the city.
I could be completely wrong, but a (unsaid) boycott with the city construction projects may be in the works.
Agreed, the city has a bad reputation they fail to acknowledge. Still, you’d expect the insider contractor to bid. It’s a good opportunity to charge an exorbitant price. Another issue is there’s to much politics and to many incompetant levels to deal with at city hall. I’m reminded of a court case Daniels Construction vs City of Sioux Falls. Daniels was low bidder on the Falls Cafe project. They did the job but the city refused to pay. The city used Home Rule Charter citing they were exempt from recovery lawsuits. It worked but contractors learned you can win a city job but you’ll not be paid.
Dan hit it on the head, I don’t think anyone wants to get stuck with a default or termination of a contract from our wonderful city and horrible primes that the city will protect.
We heard Cotter remark that maybe the contractors are waiting on the cliff work. Not even the same game. Flat work is not bulding a bridge. At least a bridge if advertised properly could have had incentives and some assurance they wouldn’t screw them over if we have a wet and flooding spring and summer as we have had. The city should let the county or state take care of the contracting for this type of work. I don’t think the city bureaucrats can keep from creating change orders like they did with Mortenson at the EC. There is just no other explanation to screw a good contractor like MJ Dalsin.
People on this blog constantly criticise the Argus for their lack of investigative reporting, but this blog often isn’t any better. If anyone had done any investigating on this issue, you would find that most regional bridge contractors are busy this year with DOT work. There really aren’t that many “local” contractors that can handle bridge construction.
The city has recently constructed bridges on both 57th Street and 69th Street east of Cliff. These bridges are smaller than the one on 12th Street, but I’m not aware of any “issues” with those bridges.
When it comes to construction, it’s all about the bottom line. I doubt local contractors are willing to take a financial hit because of the siding on the grain bin.
Yeah, like there isn’t one single contractor in the region or US that wouldn’t bid on this. When the EC was built, ice storm cleanup, and hailstorm roof replacement, contractors came from all over the country. Someone, somewhere could have bid on this project.
Bridge building is a highly specialized business – can’t be done by just anyone – unlike re-roofing, or grinding up trees, or shoveling snow. The EC was built by NUMEROUS subcontractors. A bridge would be built by ONE – with perhaps the grading/excavation subbed out. Yours are nuts to dolphins comparisons.
There are occasions when contractors qualified to do a project are simply all too busy. Not often, but at times. I’ve seen it before. Another thing that can happen when everyone is busy, is they submit a bid that is intentionally waaayyyy too high, knowing they probably won’t get it.
Using rufusx logic we can guess no one is left in America who can build bridges. A Sioux Falls bridge is specialized no one is willing to bid or build it.
Great logic. It could not have anything to do with screwed up contracts, bidding irregularities, faux inspections, special deals, non payment of bills and more fun created by the city leaders.