THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 16, 1995 TAG: 9505160321
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel Commission on Monday stuck to its original decision to award to the lowest bidder a contract to build a second bridge across the mouth of the Bay.
The commission will give the job to a joint venture led by Denver-based PCL Civil Constructors Inc., which bid $197.2 million to build the 18-mile span.
Tidewater Bridge and Tunnel Builders, a losing bidder by $3.8 million, protested the commission's decision May 5, claiming PCL's bid was invalid and would ultimately cost more than its own.
Tidewater Bridge and Tunnel, a joint venture of Norfolk-based Tidewater Construction Corp. and Kiewit Construction Corp. of Omaha, Neb., also argued thatawarding the contract to it rather than the PCL group would bring more economic benefits to Hampton Roads.
Tidewater built the original span and owns a concrete plant in Cape Charles that is one of the Eastern Shore's largest employers.
But the 11-member commission voted Monday to deny the protest on the advice of the engineering firm it hired to oversee the project, its lawyers and the staff of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel District, the owner/operator of the tunnel it oversees.
Neither attorneys for Tidewater Bridge and Tunnel nor Ed McLaughlin, president and chief executive of Tidewater Construction, would comment on the rejection. They left the meeting as soon as it adjourned.
Daniel Weckstein, one of Tidewater's attorneys, said at the commission's recent hearing that no matter what the commission decided Monday the matter might end up in the courts.
Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in June and be completed by 1999. by CNB