Staff recommends the City Council reject the only bid for WO 22-05, Small Concrete Project.

The Small Concrete Project addresses miscellaneous concrete work throughout the City that are too large for the sidewalk tripper repair program.   

The project was advertised on February 4, February 11, and February 18, 2022, in the Yellowstone County News and on the City's website.  Bids were opened on February 22, 2022, and one bid was received.  Knife River - Billings submitted the lowest, responsible bid. 

The bids were approximately 63% higher than the engineer's estimate, so staff is recommending that bids be rejected.  Awarding the project would result in significantly higher assessments to the property owners.  Staff believes bidding the project in a more favorable bid environment will result in lower bids.  In this case, a more favorable bid environment is one where contractors have the capacity to do the work.  There are a number of trippers on this project.  Separately, and after rejecting this bid, Engineering will be contracting to grind the trippers as a temporary repair during this construction season.  

City Council may:

• Reject all bids.  This will allow Engineering to re-evaluate the project and possibly split the project and bid at a more favorable time.  

The following bid was received:
 

Contractor	Bid Amount
Knife River - Billings	$190,425.00

The project was budgeted in FY22 using Gas Tax and Assessments.  The bid was higher because of an unfavorable bidding environment.