Bacon's Rebellion

Uncertainties and Risks in the Charlottesville Bypass Bid

by James A. Bacon

Uh, oh, it looks like the bidding process for the Charlottesville Bypass is running into complications. Prospective bidders for the construction phase of the controversial project, estimated to cost $244 million, have lots of questions… and the Virginia Department of Transportation doesn’t have all the answers.

A document obtained by Charlottesville Tomorrow under the Freedom of Information Act responds to 220 questions submitted by firms formulating bids. Questions revolve around fundamental points such as traffic projections, noise analysis and bridge design. On 15 occasions in the 33-page document, writes Sean Tubbs, VDOT provides the following response:

The Department does not represent or warrant that the information contained in the supplemental information package is reliable or accurate or suitable for designing this project.

When VDOT does provide concrete answers, bidders may not always like them:

The bidding process shows every sign of being rushed in order to meet a schedule imposed from above. Here’s what taxpayers have to worry about: Uncertainty will heighten the perception of risk among bidders. Bidders may feel compelled to pad their bids to offset those risks — better to lose the job than to win a money loser — and some may drop out of the bidding entirely.

I’m not sure what happens if the low bid exceeds the $197 million allocated by the Commonwealth Transportation Board to cover the balance of the project’s costs. Presumably, the administration will have to go back to the CTB and ask for a supplemental allocation. Given the way the administration hid the cost and design controversies raging inside VDOT at the time (see “In the Dark,”), the McDonnell team may have some explaining to do.

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