WHT finally published an article in regards to Goodfellow Brothers Inc winning the bidding for the Queen Kaahumanu Highway Phase II widening project.
I got a lot of sticker shock after seeing how high the bids for Phase II came in. Goodfellow was the lowest bidder at 75 million. Hawaiian Dredging’s bid was 93 million with Kiewit Pacific Company bidding 97 million for this project.
Which leads me to Kiewit Pacific Company’s protest against this award to Goodfellow Brothers. Kiewit asserts that Goodfellow’s bid doesn’t comply with the HDOT’s RFP. Specifically the HDOT required that the existing lanes be reconstructed, not resurfaced. Kiewit alleges that Goodfellow’s bid proposal doesn’t include reconstructing the existing road, only to resurface it.
“Kiewit’s area manager, Craig Briggs, noted several specific complaints about the proposal award. From his company’s perspective, Goodfellow Brothers’ proposal would leave existing pavement on the mauka lanes, something the request for proposal said should be removed, according to Briggs’ letter.”
It should be interesting to see if Kiewit’s allegation is true.On the surface Kiewit’s allegations may have some validity. Especially taking into account the large monetary disparity in the overall bids. But who knows. Hopefully this snag won’t significantly delay this much needed roadway project.
In other local road news, Hawaii County successfully transferred the Coupe appeal of Judge Ibarra’s September 25, 2007 decision (which allowed the condemnation of Charles & Joan Coupe’s land for the Hokulia bypass to proceed) to the Hawaii Supreme Court. This turn of events was very unexpected. Nonetheless this is very good news. It should really expedite (hopefully) the final disposition of this case. So this much needed road can be completed.
