The Paseo Bridge replacement project is having some trouble this week.  Only one contractor submitted a bid for the design-build contract.  Since state law requires at least two bids, that’s a bit of a problem.  MoDOT says they are still holding to their 2011 goal, but it that date is looking a lot less likely with today’s news.

Posted on Tue, Mar. 13, 2007
Paseo project attracts single bid
Missouri law requires at least two, so officials are weighing their options.
By BRAD COOPER
The Kansas City Star

The Paseo Bridge project hit a snag last week when the Missouri highway department couldn’t get enough designers and contractors to bid on the $245 million job.

Only one team showed interest in the project, which calls for rehabbing or replacing the Paseo Bridge and widening four miles of Interstate 29/35 from North Kansas City into the downtown loop.

MoDOT officials were disappointed in the lack of interest. State law requires that at least two teams compete.

“We’re trying to regroup and look and see what we can do,” said Jennifer Benefield, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Transportation. “We haven’t determined what we’re going to do yet.”

The only team submitting qualifications was made up of Clarkson and Massman construction companies of Kansas City; Kiewit Western Co. of Omaha, Neb.; Parsons Transportation Group of Washington, D.C.; and TranSystems of Kansas City.

Benefield said the highway department was committed to completing the project by October 2011. It still hopes to award a contract by the fall with an eye toward starting construction next year.

The Paseo Bridge project will be handled in a way that is different from other highway projects in the state. Typically, a road is designed, sent out for bids and then constructed. The new process calls for designers and contractors to collaborate, working within broad parameters set by the state.

The “design-build” process was used in St. Louis, where a $535 million project to improve Interstate 64 is about to start. In that project, MoDOT got only two teams to join in the bidding.

The process is also being used for Missouri’s plan to repair or replace 800 bridges statewide by 2012. Four teams expressed interest in that project, but one dropped out.

It is unclear why there wasn’t more interest in the Paseo project. Benefield said the department would reach out to contractors to get a sense of what happened.

One guess is that many contractors are locked into highway construction elsewhere.

“Last year was a pretty good year for construction,” said Edward R. DeSoignie, executive director for the Heavy Constructors Association of the Greater Kansas City Area. “I don’t know if that’s having an effect on this thing. I’m just wondering if some of the people who would be looking at that are themselves kind of tied up on some other work.”