Franklin’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen will be asked to decide whether to rebid the next phase of widening of Hillsboro Road from Independence Square to Mack Hatcher Parkway Tuesday due to errors by the low bidder in submitting its bid, according to documents on the City of Franklin’s Web site.
Bids on the project were opened in late January, with Civil Constructors LLC being the low bidder of three bidders. Civil’s bid came in at $11.7 million, while the second lowest bid of $11.9 million was submitted by Eutaw Construction Company, Inc. Civil Constructors was the firm which conducted the widening of Hillsboro Road from Highway 96 West to Independence Square.
“Because there are Federal and State funds attached to the project, Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) Local Programs had to concur with the City’s bid recommendation before the City could award the contract,” according to memo. “After a full review by TDOT staff, the low bidder (Civil Constructors, LLC) was deemed nonresponsive, as there were some errors in the submitted contract forms.”
TDOT would not concur with Civil’s bid, citing the errors, but did approve Eutaw’s bid, which while more than $270,000 higher than Civil’s bid, is still well below the engineer’s estimate of $13.4 million for the project.
Aldermen will consider two options, which are to award the bid to Eutaw or to rebid the project, officials said.
“There is a possibility that the City could receive better bid prices if re-bid, but that is not guaranteed. The rebid would delay the start of the project by at least three months,” according to the memo.