[StBernard] Bid protests delay hurricane protection in Kenner, Metairie, St. Bernard Parish

[Westley Annis]

Bid protests delay hurricane protection in Kenner, Metairie, St. Bernard
Parish
By Sheila Grissett, The Times -Picayune 
April 16, 2010, 11:45PM

It might take a dance card to track all the contract awards, protests,
cancellations and re-awards shadowing $400 million worth of Army Corps of
Engineers flood protection projects in East Jefferson and St. Bernard
Parish.

Odebrecht Construction Inc. of Coral Gables, Fla., and Cajun Constructors of
Baton Rouge are primary players in the federal government's seven-month
effort to award the two contracts, one to build floodwalls in Chalmette and
the other to construct fronting protection for drainage pump stations in
Kenner and Metairie.



Both projects are components of the corps' multibillion-dollar initiative to
improve flood protection in the New Orleans region by June 1, 2011, but work
hasn't begun on either because of protests that are causing the corps to
toss out the original awards, make changes and re-award the contracts. In
both cases, the process has resulted in awarding contracts to different
companies.

Most recently, the corps on Thursday gave Odebrecht a $174 million contract
to build floodwalls and some breakwaters to protect four East Jefferson pump
stations from storm surges and waves. That contract was originally won last
fall by Kiewit Louisiana for about $195 million, but it was tossed out after
Cajun, one of five losing bidders, protested to the Government
Accountability Office, the arbiter of federal complaints regarding purchases
and contracts.

Ironically, Odebrecht was half of the joint venture that won a $237 million
contract last September to build St. Bernard Parish floodwalls between
Verret and Caernarvon. The following month, Cajun protested that award, too,
and again, corps officials told the GAO that they would take "corrective
action" and repeat the bid process.

When that happened in late February, Cajun won the job. A few days later,
the joint venture of Odebrecht and Baker Concrete Construction protested.

Ralph White, chief of protests for the GAO, said Friday that the
Odebrecht-Baker protest is still active. Under federal law, it must be
resolved by June 16, White said.

Because the original protests were resolved by the corps, without GAO
orders, no administrative hearings were required and no record of specific
complaints was generated. For that reason, protest specifics aren't known.

The corps would not discuss the specifics Friday, issuing only a
one-sentence statement: "Corrective measures were coordinated with Corps
Headquarters and GAO determined to be an appropriate response to the
protest."

When asked why the rebidding process resulted in a $20.5 million savings on
the East Jefferson contract, the corps offered a second statement: "This was
a Best Value contract solicitation and Odebrecht's proposal was determined
to represent the best value to the government."

If the new East Jefferson award doesn't draw a protest of its own, corps
officials hope to see Odebrecht mobilize as soon as possible to start the
work at the Elmwood and Suburban pump stations in Metairie, followed by the
Duncan station in Kenner and the Bonnabel station in Metairie.



At all four sites, heavy-duty floodwalls will be built in front of the pump
stations. Discharge tubes will be extended through the walls, and valves and
gates will be installed to stop water from backflowing through the pumps, as
happened during Hurricane Katrina.

The work at Elmwood and Suburban stations also will include improving the
existing breakwaters. Once all that work is complete, something not
currently scheduled to happen until September 2011, the contractor will
shift to building the "fronting protection" floodwalls, extension discharge
tubes, valves and gates at Duncan and Bonnabel.

Under earlier contracts, new breakwaters are already under construction at
those stations and are scheduled to be complete before the peak of the 2010
hurricane season, according to the corps press release. Corps officials said
the new breakwaters will provide an interim level of protection until the
fronting structures are finished in 2013.