In Pittsburgh, the Port Authority of Allegheny County has rejected all the bids it received for the North Shore Connector project to bore twin tunnels under the Allegheny river after even the lowest bid came in at nearly 25% over its engineer’s estimate.
The Port Authority told T&TI that its engineer’s estimate for the tunnels was US$70M and the lowest bid received was US$87.8M from Kenny Construction. The contractor groups Traylor–Shea and North Shore Constructors also submitted bids of US$112.9M and US$119.8M respectively.
Working with its consultant DMJM+Harris and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the Port Authority is working towards a US$381M, 2.4km long extension of the 40km long light rail transit system together with four new stations. The rejected bids had been sought for the scope of works associated with the bored tunnels under the river. This comprised 732m of twin 6.7m diameter tunnel, with anticipated construction by means of slurry or EPB machine. Plans call for a precast concrete primary lining with a cast in-situ concrete to the final profile. In addition, cut and cover tunnelling is planned for some of the extension.
T&TI was told that following rejection of the bids, the Port Authority was “working with the FTA to repackage contracts in the project to attract more bidders”. Local press reports said officials believed more tunnelling work was the key as it would drive the tunnelling unit price down. Some even said that additional local contractors should be invited to bid as their oncosts would be cheaper, but whether this was meant for the tunnels themselves or other work in the scope was not clear.
T&TI‘s source said that at the present time, the scope and conditions of the new bid packages was being determined, but it was hoped the bids could be advertised in October when all previously prequalified bidders would be welcome to re-bid.
