[StBernard] Some hurricane projects still being delayed by contractor protests, Corps of Engineers officials say

[Westley Annis]

Some hurricane projects still being delayed by contractor protests, Corps of
Engineers officials say
By Sheila Grissett, The Times -Picayune 
March 12, 2010, 4:31PM
Bid challenges continue to hamstring a major hurricane flood reduction
project in St. Bernard Parish, where a second formal protest was filed this
week by the joint venture that originally won a floodwall construction
contract there last fall, then lost it two weeks ago to a competitor who
filed the first protest. 
It's a flip-flop-flip that will further delay construction of the Chalmette
Loop levee system between Louisiana 46 in Verret west to Caernarvon near the
Mississippi River levee. And while it isn't the only protest delaying the
start of construction on projects required to provide the region with a
higher level of protection against storm-driven flooding, it's certainly the
most twisted. 

Originally, last November, the joint venture of Odebrecht Construction of
Florida and Baker Concrete of Houston won a floodwall construction contract
that could ultimately reach almost $240 million - only to loose it a few
days ago to Cajun Constructors of Baton Rouge, an unsuccessful bidder who
filed the first protest that alleged improprieties in the Army Corps of
Engineers' selection of Odebrecht-Baker. 

In response to Cajun's challenge, corps officials scrapped the original
award, made revisions, bid the job again and the second time around, on Feb.
27, gave Cajun the contract to build 8.5 miles of Chalmette floodwalls.

What may have looked settled to observers was not, and on Monday, Odebrecht
contested the corps' recent award to Cajun. 

The corps now has until April 8 to respond to this latest protest, said
Ralph White, an associate general counsel with the Government Accountability
Office, which provides administrative hearing officers to decide protests
when the parties to contested procurements are unable to resolve their
differences.

"This protest is so new that it hasn't even been assigned to an attorney,"
White said Wednesday.

Not so new, but still also unsettled, are two other protests of major corps
hurricane flood risk reduction projects in Jefferson Parish and New Orleans.


The largest of those was a $195 million contract awarded on Nov. 6 to Kiewit
Louisiana Co. to build floodwall-type structures called "fronting
protection" to help defend four parish-owned pump stations in Kenner and
Metairie from storm surges.

Cajun protested that award as well, and the corps again responded by
scratching the first award, making changes and allowing the original bidders
to submit revised proposals.

Those are being reviewed now, and corps representative said Wednesday that
he hopes to award the contract a second time by April 15. If that decision
isn't challenged, corps section chief Brett Herr said a contractor would
likely be on site by June.

Although the corps has refused to provide any details of the protests, the
agency's response to both Cajun protests was basically a do-over in which
the corps tossed out out original awards and went back to the mat to create
revised solicitations.

There has been a more measured response to third challenge, in which Granite
Construction Co. of California protested the corps' Oct. 30 decision to
award a Seabrook floodgate construction contract to Alberici Constructors of
Missouri, according to the limited information available.

Late this week, the corps confimed that the Seabrook protest has been
resolved and the time for additional protests has ended. That means Granite
Construction can now move forward with Phase One of the project, which is to
help with the design.

The project includes construction of a sector gate and two vertical lift
gates south of the Ted Hickey Bridge, a contract that could be worth some
$155 million.

In all three cases, the GAO dismissed the protests after the corps
volunteered to take "corrective action" instead of challenging them, White
said.

Both the Chalmette floodwall and Seabrook closure contracts are an unusual
type of "early involvement" agreement that lets the winner bidder get
involved in the design stage of a project and, if the initial work is
successful, go on to build the project.

Ironically, the early-involvement contracts are intended to speed up the
design-construction process to try and have a new level of protection in
place throughout the regional by June 1, 2011.

Corps representatives said this week that until all protests are settled and
final contracts awarded, it isn't possible to provide new completion
schedules for any of the projects.

Sheila Grissett can be reached at sgrissett at timespicayune.com or
504.883.7062