The HRM procurement office today opened the bids for the Bridge Terminal project in Dartmouth, a lynch pin in Metro Transit’s expansion plans.
But while about a dozen firms expressed interest in the project, only two submitted bids, as follows:
Dexter 13,406.700.00
Pomerleau 13,386,650.00
These bids are 40 percent, and nearly $4 million, over the projected $9.5 million cost of the project.
I’ll have more on this tomorrow.
This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2010.
No surprise.
Maybe Darrell Dexter will chip in the difference.
Oh well, back to square one which means a terminal parallel to Nantucket for $5,000,000.
No need to move thousands of tons of pyritic slate, no need to treat runoff from exposed slate and a terminal in operation within 4-6 months on the original site.
People should be questioned. Either the people who make the tenders have no idea how to do their job/the cost of stuff or the construction companies are looking at milking the taxpayer (likely scenario) to line their pockets since we have endless money sources…
Before total outrage mode kicks in, I’d like to point out that a refurbishment of the Highfield Terminal is also included in that price. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t see that costing $4.3 million, but it is included in the price.
The prices quoted are HST included. I doubt the 9.5 million budgeted is including tax. You have to knock off over 1.7 million from the lowest bidder for the HST. So, now you’re talking being a little over 2 million over budget. Not as bad as it first seemed, does it?
Those bids are $20,050 apart, or using the average of the two, approximately 0.15 *percent*. That’s just frigging remarkable. I suppose it is just possible in some alternate universe that these two contractors would have done things so precisely the same that they end up with what is effectively the same price, but call me dubious.